Our Editorial Style Guide contains many conventions and we know from research that publishers struggle to remember to apply them. Could automation help? We experimented embedding style guide rules into a Drupal module that checked content against the rules in the editorial interface and suggested corrections when the rules weren’t followed. As part of a […]
Read moreAI development keeps evolving as do the ways people seek to use AI. Traditional software development runs the risk of trying to perfect AI features people won’t use. Revisiting our previous AI research helped me tease out new opportunity spaces for AI features to help with content design tasks. Last summer, Mostafa Ebid joined the […]
Read moreRiding on the success of our internal Effective Digital Content course, we set out to expand by building an external version for the short courses platform, taking a product thinking approach. Three months on, experimenting with a proof-of-concept course has convinced to pause this work – to avoid falling into a build trap. The success […]
Read moreAs we approach the first anniversary of the launch of the new Effective Digital Content course it was timely to review our approach to marking the content design exercises completed by learners to look for ways to simplify and potentially automate aspects of the process. In May 2025 the UX Service launched a new version […]
Read moreAI tools to support content tasks are becoming more and more widespread. As part of my contributions to open-source Drupal I’ve been researching how to prepare and package content design and style rules that these tools can use effectively. Using AI to help with content design tasks (and indeed, any other type of tasks) is […]
Read moreProgressive thinking about inclusive content combined with a review of our content design tools prompted us to look at the effectiveness of our Inclusive Language Guide. Before we could think about improving the guide, however, we needed to ensure staff knew it existed. Since the relaunch of our Effective Digital Content course last year, and […]
Read moreLast month I was honoured to receive a national award for Outstanding Leadership from industry body UCISA, recognising my work driving positive change through UX. This achievement prompted me to reflect on my experiences leading UX in different realms over the past few years, and to think about what UX leadership means to me. At […]
Read moreThe Role of Profiles project produced 10 recommendations for an improved University profile provision. To start actioning these, I assembled a working group of specialists and drew on UX design principles – implementing practical prioritisation while seeking innovative solutions that addressed the research findings. Recognising the widespread value and strategic importance of communicating the work, […]
Read moreFollowing a successful launch of Effective Digital Content, our internal course that staff complete to learn and practice fundamental content design skills, the UX Service saw an opportunity to make the course more widely available, on the University’s Short Courses platform. In May 2025, after months of user research-informed development work, my UX Service team […]
Read moreAs AI-generated content becomes increasingly prevalent, questions of trust emerge, prompting a growing need for transparency about the creation of digital content. As part of an academic study, I designed and prototyped ways to display provenance data for synthetic content made by an AI searchbot on a University website. Working in UX, I’m always eager […]
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