In preparation for the retirement of the Virtual Visit platform in October 2025, the team ran a project to understand how prospective students orientate themselves with Edinburgh and the campus. I share key findings and how updating programme profiles with Google Maps content can help with orientation.

We’ve distilled our understanding of prospective students into user journey maps so that we can share our insights with the University community. Over the past 3 years, we’ve conducted a great deal of research into the prospective student experience through the work to transform the degree finder and explore the future of open days.

Our prospective undergraduate student journey map is shaped by three high-level phases we identified in the user research we did in the process of designing and delivering the new University degree finders. It’s an at-a-glance summary for student recruitment and marketing colleagues.

The process of user research with prospective PhD students challenged our early assumptions of the applicant journey. We evolved our initial thinking, leading to two new and distinct user journey maps.

The user journey for students applying for a self-directed PhD is distinct from those looking for a project-based PhD, so we’ve mapped each separately with an accompanying commentary on what we learned from our user research.

The Postgraduate Entry 2026 website that launched on 7 October introduced new approaches to how we present degree programmes. Contributions from colleagues in schools, colleges and support units have been critical to our transformation of online provision.

Back in the summer, I surveyed the student recruitment and marketing community about the website and digital service improvements that would have greatest value for their work. The results of this survey have helped our steering group set priorities for the coming year.

In 2021 I created a diagram of the people, processes and systems surrounding the Degree Finders to help inform our technical planning and communication to stakeholders. I’ve just updated the diagram for 2025 to reflect our new service. Comparing old with new really highlights how much our technology landscape has evolved and simplified.

Our work this year to deliver a new website for prospective students has reduced the number of pages we publish by over 50%. This is better for the student experience, better for the environment and better for our content management overhead.

As I mark nearly one year with the Prospective Student Web team, I’m excited to reflect on my experience as a Web Content Support Assistant, imparting some of my highlights and key learnings from the last 10 months.