The document outlines plans to deliver a unified web presence for Jisc by the end of 2014. It proposes making the Jisc website at jisc.ac.uk the default home for customer-facing content, while allowing some associate sites that would have a diminished user experience if integrated. By the end of 2014, 100% of sites will carry the Jisc banner, 80% of associate sites will use the Jisc domain, and key sites will be integrated or have common language/analytics. Involvement is sought from website managers and experts through meetings, secondments, and project teams.
3. Why is this a problem?
» For the customer
› User experience
» For Jisc
› Customers don’t find the products, services and advice they need
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4. Overarching principle
Default home for customer-facing content and services
is a unified Jisc website at www.jisc.ac.uk
There will be exceptions - associate sites
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5. Associate sites
» Principal criterion
› Significantly diminished user experience if brought in
» What does this apply to?
› All current sites
› Proposed new sites
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6. Unifying the associate sites
» By domain e.g. netsight.jisc.ac.uk
» By visual identity e.g.
» By user experience e.g. style guide, shared analytics
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7. Outcome
Jisc's web presence is …
» smaller
» cohesive
» understandable
» strategic
… with excellent customer experience at its heart
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8. Timescale
By the end of 2014:
» 100% of sites will carry the Jisc banner
» 80% of associate sites will be on the Jisc domain (e.g. jorum.jisc.ac.uk)
» 5-15 priority websites will be integrated into the unified site
» New R&D section implemented on Jisc website
» Common language at top levels of associate sites
» Shared analytics across web estate
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9. Talk to us if …
» ... you are about to develop, or are currently developing, your
existing site
» … you are planning or developing a new site
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10. Get involved
» Family web meeting in March – website managers
» Secondments in group web team – user experience lead, web
development manager, content editors
» Assessment panel – UX/IA experts
» Project teams – migrating sites onto main platform/developing
associate sites
» Register your interest: bit.ly/uwp-r
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11. Get in touch
» Register your interest: bit.ly/uwp-r
» Any questions?
Ben Whitehouse
b.whitehouse@jisc.ac.uk
Richard West
r.west@jisc.ac.uk
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Notas del editor
Hello, I’m Ben … … and I’m Rich…<BW> … and we’re from the group web team in the customer experience directorate. We were asked to come up with a proposal to unify Jisc’s web presence, something that the Strategic Framework identified as a ‘key enabler for the organisation’. Our approach was endorsed by the Jisc Leadership Team last week, and the next step was to share it with you.‘Delivering a unified web presence for Jisc’ is not something that we as a team can / or will do on our own. This is something for the whole organisation to deliver – and we’ll talk about how you can get involved later on …
<BW> But this is a problem. For the customer, the user experience of the Jisc web presence is fragmented, confusing and inconsistent. We make our customers work hard: they have to understand our organisational structure to find what they’re looking for – and navigate many sites that look, feel and talk differently.For the organisation, there is a risk that customersare not finding the products, services and advice they need – and so cannot access the full value of Jisc. Customers also may not know a valued service they use every day is part of Jisc’s portfolio. The impact of this is potentially high now that universities and colleges are paying for our products and services directly. </BW>
<RW>So our proposal is that the default home for customer-facing content and services / is a unified Jisc website at jisc.ac.ukThis means that some content and services that currently sit on separate websites will need to be incorporated into a new, unified websiteBy the way we’re talking about what customers see – the front end – not necessarily unifying the platforms that run our services behind the scenes.Now we have a large duty of care to our users: following this move the / long-term / customer experience must be preserved - or enhanced. We also have a responsibility to product / and website owners. We recognise the great work they’re doing and this change is about making their content - as accessible - as possible. Current teams will be closely involved in the creation and maintenance of content for the unified site. To emphasise, this is a site for the whole organisation – built and supported by the whole organisation.We recognise that neither the needs of the customer nor the organisation will be served by trying to squeeze everything on one huge website. As such, some websites will not come onto the unified site - these will become ‘associate sites’ …
<RW>The principal criterion for deciding whether a Jisc website becomesan associate site / is whether the user experience will be significantly diminished/ by bringing its content onto a unified site. We anticipate this is most likely to be the case with large and complex services, such as - Copac.However, there must – not - beautomatic exemptions. As an organisation, we must look at all current and proposed sites / and decide which should be integrated, and which should become associate sites. We to do this as a family-wide activity and we’re looking to build a panel of user experience experts from across the organisation to carry this out. More details in a minute.
<RW>Though separate, these associate sites / will need to be instantly identifiable as being part ofJisc. It’s also essential that they don’t sit in isolation, and that users can move easily between them.The first change will be Unifying associate sites by bringing them onto the jisc.ac.uk domain. It’s a common approach that should have a big impact / clearly showing to users that the site is part of the Jisc family.It’s easily hackable with users able to change the URL to get to the unified site. And for our smaller sites it should also improve their Google rankingWe will of course preserveold URLs and these will redirect to their new home.We will also be unifying these through Visual identity: long-term - how users interact with and navigate our sites should become more unified, but short-term all sites will begin to carry a global banner, as the BBC does.This will tie sites together while preserving their distinctiveness.We’ll also tie these together through user experience. There’ll be a single web governance framework – including a single style guide. Clearand accessible language across all our sites is important / and is one of the Board’s priorities. It’s especially important at the top levels of websites – where any of our customers should be able to understand what a service is and if it is for them.We do recognise that niche audiences often require specialist terms but that shouldn’t stop the language around them being clear, consise and accessible.Finally - to better understand our users, and to serve their needs, web analytics will be shared across all our sites.It’s worth adding here that Resources will be available to help associate site ownersmake these changes
<RW>So the outcome of this process should be that Jisc’s web presence becomes smaller, more cohesive, understandable and strategic, with excellent customer experience at its heart. This will provide our customers with the easiest possible route to our products and services.We’ll be hosting a meeting in March for website managers from across the family / where we will go into more detail about these proposals / and discuss how we can implement them. We’ll provide info later on as to how you can register your interest for this …</RW>
<BW>Before I talk through this slide, it’s important to state that this is a major programme of work. We have 62 websites, millions of content pages, complex services and millions of customers to keep happy. To fully transform this large and diverse web estate will take years.As an organisation, we do not have years to clearly show change.In 2014, we need to focus effort on visible, high-impact changes - while we work towards a long-term vision.All Jisc sites will change in 2014 – to carry the banner and a common language at the top level, plus to share their analytics.Sites identified as associate sites will come onto the Jisc domain.We will start integrating those websites identified by JLT as priority into the unified website.These targets are challenging and we won’t be able to achieve them without considerablesupport and participation from across the organisation.This plan is phase 1. Implementation will continue after 2014 as we bring more content and services into the unified site, fully develop the associate sites and create a web hosting and development platform for the future …
<BW>Given these upcoming changes, it’s important to talk to us now if you’re about to develop, or are currently developing, your existing site. All sites will need to change in 2014 and there is resource available to help do this - so this is an opportunity for us to work together and be efficient. As it’s been agreed that we need to unify the Jisc web estate and reduce the number of sites, this really isn’t the time to be launching new sites. If you’re planning or developing a new site, please talk to us as soon as possible …
<BW>We have said throughout that this is a unified web presence for the whole organisation. We recognise the considerable in-house expertise and experience we have in this area – and we want to make full use of this.Here are some of the ways that you can get involved.In March, we’ll hold a briefing for all website managers where we can discuss this proposal in more detail and how we can implement it together.We need to add full-time resource to our team, who are responsible for core delivery. There will be secondments available for an initial 1 year period for a user experience lead, a web development manager and content editors - and possibly other roles.We need to convene a panel of UX or IA experts to assess all our current websites and make recommendations to JLT as to which sites should come onto a unified site – and which should stay out.We will work closely and collaboratively with product owners to build the project teams required to migrate sites onto the main platform or develop associate sites.If you are interested in any of these options, please let us know by filling out the form linked from this slide …