Make things open: it makes things better. We really like this design principle from gov.uk. We use it a lot, especially when it comes to iterating upon our beta Design System.

With the move to the new Web Publishing Platform and the advent of the new University Design System, we’re taking the opportunity to gather some feedback on our flagship Effective Digital Content course, to ensure we offer the best possible training for staff working with digital content. 

Multibranding – representing the University brand alongside partner brands to accurately reflect partnerships without compromising our own integrity  – is a design challenge shared across the University. The aesthetics aspect of multibranding is particularly important to get right. As part of the Design System project, we are planning a two-part community event aimed at developing […]

Representing brands of University partners to accurately reflect collaborations whilst ensuring integrity of the University brand is a complex, widespread issue. As part of the Design System project, I ran a session where University staff came together to work on the governance aspect of multibranding by collectively structuring a checklist. 

When talking about technology, achieving understanding without confusion can be difficult, but communicating about technical concepts and processes is crucial for the success of our services. To achieve our aim of a more unified and coherent approach to technical communication across the University, the UX service has begun a new project to map the use […]

We all want to believe that we have free will and make our own decisions. This may only be partly true. You may realize that the way options present themselves influences your decisions. You might not realize that a whole science is dedicated to engineering the way to present choices and guide your behavior.   Nudging […]

Have you ever shopped online and received a notification that there is only limited stock of an item available? If you are like most people, these alerts will nudge you over the edge to purchase the item now. There are only a few left, after all! This is an example of how marketers use behavioural […]

In June 2022, I attended the UCD Gathering conference, where inclusiveness was an outstanding theme.

The University of Edinburgh Inclusive Language Guide has now been published. The guide focuses on editorial guidance that avoids bias and conveys respect.

We created behavioural personas to help us understand staff needs at the University of Edinburgh. We recently used these to help inform content decisions about the developing Design System.