In March 2024, the annual UCISA leadership conference came to Edinburgh. I pitched a talk about UX and change management which was accepted, giving me the opportunity to attend the three-day event. UCISA is a professional body supporting digital professionals in the education sector. Since most UK universities are members, UCISA events offer a valuable […]
Read moreWhat is the Notifications Service? The Notifications Service is a solution which delivers personalised notifications and emergency notifications. As explained in our recent blog post, we have been rewriting the Notifications Backbone primarily to ensure that it is safe and secure, however we have used this as an opportunity to introduce some improvements both for […]
Read moreBetween September and November 2023, we heard from web publishers around the University about their news and events content. This post summarises some of the themes that came out of this research. Why we did this research There’s a huge amount of news and events content on University of Edinburgh websites. With the ongoing development […]
Read moreSince presenting at DrupalCon in 2022 I have been contributing to Drupal’s marketing and usability initiatives. Returning to speak at DrupalCon 2023, I wanted to share what I’d learned, do some hands-on activities and encourage the community to apply UX principles to all things Drupal. Coming back to DrupalCon with some experience contributing I was […]
Read moreWe used prototypes based on two different EdWeb sites to test the usability of a navigation scheme comprising a top menu combined with a left-hand menu. In previous rounds of testing, we established that a top menu drop-down populated with menu items from the top three levels of a site presented usability issues to people […]
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The Portal Services Continuous Improvement project is working to improve MyEd and Notifications, and make them easier to use. Recently, we made some changes to make it easier to see when you have Notifications to check and make it easier to access your Favourites, particularly when using a mobile device. Why was this change needed? […]
Read moreIt’s my last week at the University of Edinburgh, a quiet time to reflect. Over the last couple of years, we have published the University Design System, the Inclusive Language Guide, and the Editorial Style Guide. These have brought us closer to inclusive design standards. We need to keep developing these resources, and not take […]
Read moreWe’ve spent the last year listening to our community of practice to help us to make much needed changes to the Effective Digital Content training. The Effective Digital Content training course is a series of videos and quizzes that sits on the virtual learning environment Learn. It is a mandatory course for any staff who […]
Read moreWhen I began learning how to test websites and apps for accessibility, it was to lend support to my unit, which needed products to have accessibility reports and statements. I was also intrigued as a user experience practitioner; if I could understand what it’s like to use assistive software to navigate a digital environment, this […]
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The aim of personae is to help designers think about how people will interact with what they are creating. Personae […]
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