Enhancing targeted areas of EdWeb CMS content structures and website output will:
Speed up the most common editorial processes, and remove opportunities for editors to inadvertently introduce content with accessibility issues.
Provide new opportunities for re-use of golden copy news and events, making it significantly easier to aggregrate content. For example, college-level promotion of research news across schools.
We will not take advantage of the opportunity to save considerable sums in terms of staff time. Given the number of CMS users and the frequency of web publishing activity, conservative savings estimates are in the region of £50,000 per year.
Promotion of university activity via the website will be significantly restricted by the limited availability editorial time. The opportunity afforded by automatic redistribution of news/events content via taxonomies is missed.
CMS editorial functions – enhancements for design and compliance
Usability testing and a heuristic accessibility review have highlighted that while the new CMS editorial interfaces are significantly more flexible and intuitive than the Polopoly CMS equivalent, the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editorial interface contains a number of elements that cause major problems for editors when trying to reorganise their content, and can result in the publication of content that does not adhere to basic website accessibility standards.
Addressing these issues will:
Ensure the basic levels of content accessibility required in a public sector website
Speed up the editorial experience, saving staff time and encouraging better working practices
Improve the overall presentation and layout of content on webpages
Structured news and events content
The initial EdWeb development project delivered a content type to present events in a structured format, and demonstrate the opportunities for re-use arising from this approach. Extending this to introduce a structured news content type and means to dynamically present key elements of this content in multiple locations will:
Streamline the news content creation process, so improving content quality while reducing CMS editor time
Enable news content to be promoted in more locations across the website, increasing the ROI in news generation
Facilitate smart views of news and events content from across the institution for publication on the central site, and at College level
Make fuller use of the power of a Drupal-driven CMS such as EdWeb, acting as a case study for further similar projects that support University strategy (e.g. profiles of staff, facilities and research units, structured self-help materials)
University Website Programme – evolving processes, guidance and training to support their management of the service
Communications & Marketing stakeholders will need to be involved in the planning and implementation of changes to the website design – an ongoing relationship in the this regard has been in place for 9+ years and relevant staff are aware of this proposal
Users of EdWeb Central and the EdWeb Distribution will be supported through the evolution of CMS processes and functionality.
Engagement with the CMS user group, and observation of working practices during usability testing sessions highlight the frustrations experienced and the resulting poor quality/inaccessible content arising from use of some areas of the CMS WYSIWYG interface. Benefits of addressing include saving staff time and reducing instances of inaccessible content on the website.
Structured news content taking advantage of EdWeb’s potential for taxononomies will produce higher quality content on a range of devices, and will enable content to be re-used with minimal editorial time and expertise.
Enhanced mobile experience through informed evolution of the design, removing the need for significant investment in design in future years. Iterative improvement of design delivers a significantly better ROI, compared to less frequent, large scale design overhauls.
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Enablers - People
Themes – Outstanding student experience
Themes – Equality & widening participation
Contributing to staff efficiency, and enhancing staff digital literacy.
Enhanced website output and accessibility contribute to the online experience of our students.
People in socio-economic groups targeted by widening participation are significantly more likely to access the internet exclusively via mobile devices and cellular networks, so enhancements to design and delivery efficiency support engagement in this area.
IS Strategic Vision
Student experience - Enhancing the student experience and the unique Edinburgh offer
Service Excellence - process improvement, efficiency, quality and best practice
Also this project will also feedback to the Open Source community