As we are about to embark on our final round of software development, leading into a launch of the new service from March 2025, I thought this was a good point to look back on what we’ve achieved so far and what’s coming next.

In the behavioural economics book Nudge there’s a beautifully simple example illustrating the importance of feedback. It’s a great way to explain why it’s so important for content designers to actively engage in hypothesising, prototyping and testing with users. 

Join us on Wednesday 16 October 14.00-16.30 to watch school editors using the new degree programme editorial interface.

I had my first experience volunteering at an online conference at SDinGov Virtual in March 2024. Having volunteered at in-person conferences before this event gave me a chance to try something new and to get more involved in the delivery of sessions. It was also a good opportunity to grow my confidence.

I recently did some content improvement work with the Postgraduate Recruitment team that taught me a lot about the use of standout elements and how they influence user behaviour.

The annual web content-themed conference for higher education professionals is happening in Liverpool this year, from 8 to 9 October. Lauren and I are contributing sessions, and we’re looking forward to a couple of days of learning and networking with colleagues across the sector.

Is detailed programme information important to prospective students? Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes, and analytics and user research show us the marketing value of making this information accessible online.

Liaising with postgraduate marketing colleagues, I identified a need for an easy way for them to monitor data relating to demand for postgraduate degrees. I’ve built a prototype and am now working up a process to continue to improve this.

Following designing the new degree finder programme pages, we turned our attention to auditing the undergraduate study site. Our aim was to figure out what content should remain on the site given content changes we have made to undergraduate programme pages.

Yesterday I had the chance to provide an update about our project to deliver a new website for prospective students, at the University’s Web Publishers Community. Slides and video are available.