The University of Edinburgh is currently re-imagining its student and staff portal. Using user surveys and custom analytics we have found out who wants and uses what, and on which devices. Now we are applying that intelligence, creating a new desktop and mobile portal, designed to meet the needs of the 2015 user, and to play a strong connecting role in the whole online student experience.

1. Rebooting MyEd
Making the Portal Relevant Again
Dr Martin Morrey
Web Integration Manager
University of Edinburgh

2. With thanks to…
• Web Integration Team
– Paul Johnson
– Alain Forrester
• Development Services
– Richard Good
– Neil Hanlon
– Ross Nichol
– Gordon McKenna
• Projects Services
– Maurice Franceschi
• Production Management
– Stefan Kaempf
– Ana Heyn
• Senior Management
– Simon Marsden
– Stuart MacFarlane
• Other colleagues
– Anne-Marie Scott
…and many others

3. • Once upon a time…
• What is a portal, why have we got one?
• What do users do in the portal?
• What do users want?
• Re-inventing the portal
• Desktop
• Mobile
• Reception and Usage
• Happily Ever After?

4. ONCE UPON A TIME…

7. MyEd U@Ed

8. MyEd
• University of Edinburgh’s web portal
• Launched 2004
• Users: students, staff, applicants, alumni
• 200 “channels” of content
• Up to 80K visits day-1
• Based on uPortal
– OS portal framework
• Hard to upgrade - projects:
– 2006 - 2008
– 2010 – 2012
– 2013 – 2014

11. U@Ed
• Mobile app
• iOS and Android
• Featuring
– Maps
– PC availability
– “Friend Finder”
– Library
– Courses (Learn)
– Pocket Guide
• Commercial solution
– Web management
console

12. WHAT IS A PORTAL, WHY HAVE WE
GOT ONE?

13. Gerry McGovern
Intranet Masterclass 2008
“For years, I’ve been going around asking
people what a portal is, and I still don’t
really know. The best definition I’ve come
up with is:
…except it takes five times longer
to develop.”
A portal is like a website…

14. Questions
• Does your institution have a “portal”?
• Who is it for
– Students
– Applicants
– Staff
– Alumni
• What does it contain
– Links to other services
– Live info from other services
– Communications
– Support material

15. Why do we have a portal?
1. One place you can go…
– …to find everything you need
– i.e. Personalised
2. Provide an “User Experience Platform” (UXP)
– Integrated and consistent experience
– Supporting user’s top tasks (80/20)
3. Be the preferred medium for personalised
communications to students.
MyEd Objectives…in 20/20 Hindsight:

16. Maths
A list
Of links
Increasing Personalisation
Student
Audience –
specific
Staff
Alumni
Applic-
ant
Org
units
ECA
Law
PPL
1st
Final
Year of
Study
Others
Once Place = List of Links?

17. UX Platform = Portlets?

18. Personalised Layouts
T1 T2 T3
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6
Student Layout
C1
C3
C6

19. And…Customisation
T1 T2 T3
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6
T1 T2 T3
C1 C4 C5 C6C3C7
Default Layout User’s Customised Layout

20. WHAT DO USERS DO IN THE
PORTAL?

21. We Didn’t Know

22. • Server-side logging
• We could find out:
– How many users logged-in
– Some idea of roles (student, staff…)
– What customisations are made
• Wanted something like Google Analytics
What we had…

23. BUT
• The default unit of site usage in Google
Analytics is…?
– …the page
• Page Views are little use:
– In our portal, pages ≡ tabs
• We are most interested in channels
– A tab contains multiple channels

24. Custom Solution: GA Events
• Attach “event” to link / button
– Records user interactions, with channel name
• BUT: Need to code ~200 channels
– built with various technologies
• SOLUTION: Code events on the client
– Cover everything a user sees
• “Custom dimensions” record role, org unit…
– Attributes made available in page source (<meta> )
– Can also be used to personalise content on the client

25. Page Rendered

26. Events Added, +0.1s

27. Use of Staffmail channel - segmented

28. WHAT DO USERS WANT?

29. MyEd Satisfaction: IS Survey 2013

30. U@Ed Satisfaction: IS Survey 2013

31. Usage

32. What was going on?
• MyEd
– 300,000 visits a week
– 30,000 mobile visits a week
• U@Ed
– 9,000+ downloads from app stores
– < 1,000 visits per week
• Possible reasons
– Fewer compelling features in U@Ed
– Generic app inevitably compromised?
– Lack of promotion?
– Not kept up-to-date (hard to maintain both)

33. What Users Want
We believe what users want is:
• One place to go
• Works on all devices
• See only what is relevant to them
• To complete their key tasks quickly and easily

34. MyEd Task Survey
• Asked to choose 5 of 44 possible tasks
– Opportunity to suggest “other” tasks
• Repeated for desktop and mobile
• Results segmented by role
– Students (868 submissions)
– Academic Staff (70)
– Support Staff (181)

35. Student

36. GA: Top Channels - Students

37. REINVENTING THE PORTAL

40. Our Plan for 2013/14
• Desktop
– Make key resources easier to find
– Make key content more useful & usable
• Fewer, better channels
– More consistent-with the UWS
• Mobile
– Retire U@Ed
– Make MyEd mobile-friendly
• Mobile web is good-enough
– Can be supplemented with specialist apps
• inc 3rd party solutions, e.g. Learn Mobile

41. NEW DESKTOP MYED

42. #1 Added a List of Links
MyEd “Dashboard”:
•Links to top tasks
•Audience-specific
•Persistent
•Collapsible

43. #2 Rationalised Layouts
Based on:
• User Survey results
• Google Analytics
• Student suggestions and mock-ups
• MyEd User Group and other consultation
• Feedback on layout prototypes

44. Layout Prototype

45. #3 Refreshed Design
University Website MyEd
• In-line with University website
• Within constraints of uPortal framework

47. #4 Some New Features
• Email preview
• Calendar preview
• Customise Drawer
• “Subscribable” or Packaged tabs

48. MOBILE MYED

49. Prioritised Approach
• Rolled out in a series of phases
• Supporting highest-priority tasks first
– Basic support first
– Enhancements later, including.
• Location-aware channels
• More live data – Library, Learn
• Phase 1 live in early August 2014
• Soft launch
• Ready for freshers week

55. RECEPTION AND USAGE
Desktop Only

56. Usage 1: Tab Navigation

57. Usage2: Avg Session Duration

58. Usage 3: Bounce Rate
NB: Pattern consistent across desktop, tablet, mobile access

59. User Comments
Students
• “Really like the new links at the side”
• “These (links) are all the things I normally use”
Staff
• “I don’t log in to MyEd very often, but when I
did, the link I needed was right there”

60. HAPPILY EVER AFTER?

61. Future Plans
• More cycles of:
– Research
– Prioritise
– Improve
• Make it easier to upgrade
– “Continuous Improvement” project in 2014/15
• Responsive framework in 2015
– uPortal “Respondr” theme (Twitter Bootstrap)
• Closer integration with UWS in 2015/16
• + Communications…
– Notifications system

62. Moral(s) of the tale…
• Don’t try to feed more than one pig (portal)
We also learned:
• A (targeted) list of links takes you a long way
• Students have a lot to contribute
• Portals can be a rich source of usage info
• You need a UI specialist
• To do personalisation within a channel
– dynamically on the client
– with the right info in the page (meta tags)

66. Martin.Morrey@ed.ac.uk
@martinmorrey
Web Integration Manager
LTW Division, Information Services, University of Edinburgh
+ 44 131 651 5233