The annual web content-themed conference for higher education professionals is happening in Manchester this year, from 16 to 17 October. Lauren and I are contributing sessions, and the team are looking forward to acouple of days of learning and networking with colleagues across the sector.

Last month I attended a one-day UK EduCamp unconference at the University of Sheffield. The relaxed format provided lots of opportunity to discuss and learn about burning topics for digital teams in the sector, and to connect with colleagues old and new.

We’ll use an extended slot at this week’s Web Publishers Community to update on our progress so far this year, covering: timelines, content design and collaboration, user research and usability testing.

We’re running an online event on Thursday 1 December to share our latest work, give you the chance to feedback and register interest in collaborating on a preview beta release early in 2023. If you’re a contributor to the current online degree finders, or just interested in the prospective student experience, book a place.

We’ve had a fabulous couple of days at this year’s Content Ed conference, with three members of the team contributing sessions and our user-centred approach winning top prize in this category.

It was great to be able to attend the 2022 SDinGov conference recently. I’ve picked out a few of my highlights from the sessions I attended over the three days and reflected on how they help me understand the work I do.

We’ve spent the early part of 2022 working on a plan to replace the central University provision for prospective students. A big part of this offering is the degree finders. Join us for a talk about this planning work and what we envisage the next 3 years will bring.

Lauren and I have had our session proposal accepted for this year’s ContentEd conference in November. We’re really looking forward to sharing our experiences at the international higher education conference for content professionals, and we’ve got a discount code to share with Edinburgh colleagues.

We recently embarked on a series of collaborative design sprints. We host open research playbacks so colleagues can watch videos of students interacting with our work-in-progress. This is a load of extra work, a nice-to-have luxury, right? Actually I think it’s essential, and here’s why.

Join us on Thursday 29 April at 10am to watch prospective postgraduates try out a design to customise their information for a future degree finder programme page.