Closure Report
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Project Summary
The Role of Profiles project, conducted by the University's UX Service from January to July 2025, investigated staff needs and requirements for an online profile provision. The project was initiated in recognition of the importance of the content within staff profiles and the opportunity to improve the way it is presented on the University website afforded by the move to a new web publishing platform, EdWeb 2.
Acknowledging that successful profiles are underpinned by the actions of University people – including those who own profiles but also those who maintain and manage them, the project focused on looking for opportunities to improve the University’s profile provision from a thorough analysis of the current state of profiles in EdWeb and by hearing from a diverse spread of University staff in a range of roles.
Through comprehensive research including analysis of 7,425 existing profiles, a survey completed by 262 staff, 40 individual interviews with staff, competitor analysis, and ideation activities including collaborative workshops, the project surfaced information about the existing University's staff profile provision and identified various ways to improve it.
The research revealed that while 74% of staff had University profiles, many were underused due to restrictive design, complex updating processes, and suboptimal content management practices. Professional services staff, younger staff, and those from the College of Science and Engineering were particularly underrepresented in their use of profiles. Analysis showed 19% of existing profiles belonged to staff with inactive accounts, further indicating the need to improve approaches to profile lifecycle management.
The key findings from the research:
- Affirmed the need for a specific web-based profile provision
- Highlighted the need for flexible profile structures that accommodate diverse and descriptive content to better meet the needs of academic staff with varied portfolios as well as the diverse profile needs of professional service staff
- Highlighted a requirement for simplified updating processes, and for better data-sharing between external repositories like PURE and ORCID as well as synchronisation with content from staff systems
The project produced 10 strategic recommendations, including:
- Implementing flexible profile templates with minimal pre-labelled fields presented openly, without the use of accordions
- Providing the option to group profiles by use of tags
- Investigating middleware solutions for content integration
- Publishing profiles in individual sites rather than in a standalone profile section
- Establishing an ‘opt-in’ approach to profile creation.
- Staff training to facilitate audience-focused profile content creation
- Exploring AI applications to assist with profile content processes and management.
These evidence-based recommendations provide a roadmap for creating a more attractive, staff-centred profile provision that better serves the University's diverse staff community while showcasing institutional expertise to global audiences.
Objectives and Deliverables Achieved
|
Ref |
Objectives and Deliverables |
Priority |
Owner |
Achieved (Yes, No, Not Required, Partial) |
|
O1 |
Project planning: Plan the deliverables and timings of the UX research project, and assign roles and responsibilities to each project team member |
Must |
Project Manager |
Completed |
|
D1.1 |
Set up project kick-off meeting with the project team |
Must |
Project Manager |
Yes |
|
D1.2 |
Identify research milestones and associated deadlines and assign work activities to members of the project team |
Must |
Project Manager |
Yes |
|
D1.3 |
Establish a project stakeholder, external to ISG, to provide governance on the project |
Should |
Project Manager |
Yes – group of stakeholders formed |
|
O2 |
Plan one-to-one interviews with staff Create a plan detailing the staff to target, the associated schedule and a discussion guide to use for one-to-one interviews |
Must |
Project Manager |
Completed |
|
D2.1 |
Circulate survey to gather quantitative and qualitative data about existing use of staff profiles across the University web estate, and to recruit staff to interview |
Must |
Project Manager |
Yes |
|
D2.2 |
Engage staff groups, such as Learning Technologists in the Learn User Group as a means to identify and approach staff members to interview, therefore ensuring a representative sample |
Should |
Project Manager and Project Team |
Yes |
|
D2.3 |
Identify Professional Services and Academic staff actively updating staff profiles in EdWeb 1 with a view to requesting interviews with these staff |
Should |
Project Team |
Yes |
|
D2.4 |
Design a topic/discussion guide to direct interviews with staff |
Must |
Project Team |
Yes |
|
O3 |
Perform desk research Analyse profile content on other university websites, as well as on the range of non-EdWeb websites within the University web estate to identify trends and patterns of profile content display and presentation |
Must |
Project Team |
Completed |
|
O4 |
Perform one-to-one interviews Gather qualitative data through interviews with identified staff representative of academic and professional services |
Must |
Project Team |
Completed |
|
O5 |
Consolidate learnings and recommendations Synthesise findings from interviews and desk research to identify themes and recommendations for the design of a provision to display and present staff profile data and present it to the project team |
Must |
Project Team |
Completed |
|
O6 |
Consolidate learnings and recommendations Synthesise findings from interviews and desk research to identify themes and recommendations for the design of a provision to display and present staff profile data and present to the project team |
Must |
Project Team |
Completed |
|
D6.1 |
Present research outcomes and recommendations to the governance group |
Must |
Project Manager and Project Team |
Yes |
|
D6.2 |
Implement feedback from the governance group and provide a second or final version of the report |
Must |
Project Manager and Project Team |
Yes |
|
D6.3 |
Confirm recommendation (s) to take forward, pending decisions of the governance group. |
Must |
Project Manager and Project Sponsor |
Yes – recommendations shared on 29 July and accepted by the governance group |
Analysis of Resource Usage:
Staff Usage Estimate: 356 days
Staff Usage Actual: 352 days
Other Resource Estimate: £0
Other Resource Actual: £0
Other Resource Variance: N/A
Explanation for Variance
John Wilson, a member of the UX Service working on the project, left the UX team at the end of a short-term contract in June 2025.
Outcome
Acceptance of the project recommendations was the key outcome of this project.
Key Learning Points
A further project is required to take forward the recommendations arising from this research project
Outstanding Issues
There are no outstanding issues from the delivery of WPS010 and recommendations have been provided as an output of the project.