Why we don’t use Word document forms
Word document forms are unable to meet our legal accessibility requirements.
Category Content
User testing the PhD webpages
One of our current projects is to create a smoother and more streamlined user journey for prospective students who are researching, deciding on, and applying for, PhD opportunities. Ultimately, this should contribute to an increase in high quality PhD applications…
Auditing and improving guide content
Over the last month, Jonathan from the Web Services team has carried out an audit of guide pages on the University website. It’s been an incredibly useful exercise, not least because it’s made me reflect on why we created guides…
The importance of headings when writing for the web
In this post I want to focus on something seemingly unremarkable but important when writing concise web content. Headings. The benefits of using headings Headings are used to break up the different parts of your page content to give it…
Help! We’re addicted to PDFs!
Frequently during the web migration project we have felt as though we’ve been drowning in a sea of PDFs, particularly during work on policy-heavy sites. The team has made a tremendous effort to drastically reduce the number of PDFs we…
Why we don’t have FAQs on the website
Somewhat ironically, given its title, this blog post is in response to a question we are asked on a regular basis: why don’t we allow FAQs on the website? As part of our web migration project, we’ve been working with…
Writing for the web, make it simple
People are constantly bombarded with information from all directions. Whether it’s social media, news outlets, or advertising, the sheer volume of content can be overwhelming. It’s important to cut through the noise and deliver content that is clear, purposeful, and…
The evolution of staff pages on the University website
One of the first things many of us do these days when we come into contact with someone new is to google them. In a professional context, this might involve checking out someone’s LinkedIn, or finding their profile on their…
Content migration – what lurks beneath?
For the last 5 years in Web Services, we’ve been consumed by the mammoth task of migrating content from the old website (which uses t4 content management system) to the new (which uses Drupal). Literally tens of thousands of pages…
Small changes, big improvements: how we’ve improved the University’s pay scales pages
We often talk about larger projects on our blog, but sometimes small changes, and what seem like minor tweaks, can significantly improve user experience. One of our main aims with the new website is to make it easier for people…
Hemingway app – a free tool to improve your writing
Do you want to improve your writing for the web and make your copy as bold and clear as possible? Then try running your text through Hemingway Editor. This online app highlights common errors and suggests ways to tighten up…
Why we stopped using ‘please note’
Writing for the web isn’t the same as writing for a brochure or leaflet. When someone lands on your website, the majority of the time they are not sitting down for a leisurely read – they are scanning. They’re picking…