2011 has been a busy year here in Web Services. We have had five colleagues leave, another one head off to have twins and four new people start. We have released sites, deleted applications, built all manner of awesome stuff and solved problems. Through it all, we have worked hard to demonstrate the value of engaging with the web properly and professionally.
This is the point where I am supposed to give some kind of retrospective about what has and what hasn’t worked. We tried Scrum as a project management setup, for instance. That didn’t work for us but we learned a lot from our experiences and many aspects are still present in our day to day working practices. We tried a specific mobile site for out last Open Day. The statistics and feedback show that this was a success, and one we could better in the future.
It is difficult to single out a single event as the definitive expression of the team’s work during the year however I’m going to give it a go. For me, the pinnacle was the launch of the new homepage. It marked the point where the central university site changed from being old and blue with a few new-style pages into a proper new site with some old and blue pages yet to be replaced. It really was a turning point and I think the way the site is changing into a professionally designed and written cohesive environment is a great monument to the hard work of everyone in Web Services.
Lots of other things have happened, of course. It would be lovely to have everyone here select high points from the last year however since almost everyone else has already retired for the year for a well-earned rest, I’m going to abandon that idea. All that remains is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from everyone here at Web Services!
Posted in: team
I’ve now been a Web Content Editor here for 10 months and thought it might be a good time to review what has been an action-packed introduction to the University.
I’m happy to have been involved with some great projects so far including:
Getting out meeting prospective students and conducting focus groups and user testing has been really rewarding. As a content editor it’s so important to know your audience. Luckily that is a priority here, alongside building relationships within the University.
With a background in higher education I was familiar with how things work at a university – however, I wasn’t used to working in a team with web developers. Our team here is mixed; developers, content and design. One of the first challenges I faced was learning how to speak developer. I’d now estimate I understand at least 80% of what they say!
Coming to work with such a varied team has been really beneficial, my own technical knowledge has improved vastly – and I’ve also learnt lots of clever things, like shortcuts to make tedious jobs much quicker. We also share websites we find interesting, articles we love and discuss what’s happening in web and education.
Very early on I was happy to see that I would be supported in getting out to conferences and keeping up to date with new ideas. I attended the CASE Conference 2010 and will be going to the Content Strategy Forum in September.
We’ve experimented with different project management processes to see what works best for such a multi-skilled team. There were times at first that I found some of these methodologies hard to get my head around. It was difficult trying to demonstrate how developing strong marketing content has different requirements to creating a new web application.
Whilst a challenge, I believe that going through that time of change has given us all a greater appreciation of each other’s roles.
There is currently a new role for a content editor within the team. I’m looking forward to having someone else to share tips with, including my key tip so far: developers love cake…
Posted in: communication, team
April21
By: Alison Kerwin
We are looking for a talented web writer who is as comfortable writing and editing content as they are delving into the source code. If you can distil complex information from a range of sources into compelling audience-focused content, then we’d like to hear from you.
The Web Content Editor will primarily focus on developing research and business content for the University website. You will work closely with our Corporate Communications, Research Development and Support and Bath Ventures departments to develop engaging, informative and clear information for a range of audiences.
The role will require you to make sure your facts are correct, hunt down appealing imagery, and work with a variety of people within the University and beyond. You’ll need knowledge of effective marketing and communications, an ability to edit html to perfect your page layout and an appreciation for the changing nature of the web.
We are a dynamic and lively web team with interests ranging from developing mobile web applications to creating the best environment for all our users.
Take a look at the Job Description and Person Specification. If you’re interested in this post can apply online via our jobs page.
In the meantime meet the team you’d be working with and read our newest recruits thoughts on her Content Editor role. You can also call Alison Kerwin, Head of Web Services, on 01225 385381 for an informal discussion about the role.
Update: This vacancy is now closed.
Posted in: communication, team
September23
By: Andy Savin
After the recent Scrum training (delivered by Paul Goddard, Agilify), Web Services held a retrospective on what we had learnt and what changes we wanted to make to the way we work with Scrum. Keen to see the process work, the team committed to a number of new working practices.
Full time product owner
Historically, the Web Services Manager, as primary product owner, was understandably not always available for questions etc. during sprints which wasn’t ideal. To mitigate this, one of the team was allocated the role of proxy product owner, enabling someone with product owner knowledge to be available at all times.
From observations in this first sprint it appears this resource has been largely under-utilised. Often deciding that more work was needed without actually checking with the product owner if they thought it done. This is more than likely due to the fact that historically, talking to the product owner has not been an option.
Continue Reading
Posted in: project management
July23
By: Jennifer Taylor
So here it is, eagerly anticipated I’m sure, my first entry on the team blog. Just in time to still call myself the ‘new girl’. We have another new team member starting on Monday so I’m taking full advantage whilst I still can!
I’m just coming to the end of my second week here and have finally managed to pull myself away from the dizzying myriad of information that I’ve been trying to digest and write a little something about myself.
First, an introduction, “hi, my name is Jenni, and I’m a web content editor”. I’ve been working within higher education web teams for about three years now, previously working at Cardiff and Glamorgan universities respectively.
For those who might not be sure what exactly a web editor does, then a brief explanation would be that I create or refine content to make it work on the web. It’s my role to make sure that pages are engaging and attractive to the user and work within certain style and tone guidelines.
There is a favoured saying when building websites that, ‘Content is King’. I would have to agree, however much our users might love our design, if the information they need isn’t there (or they can’t find it) then we aren’t doing our job properly.
A current favourite website of mine is William and Mary University in Virginia. The tone of voice they use is quite American and perhaps wouldn’t work in the UK but they’ve done a great job in keeping the same quirky tone across the whole site. It’s a challenge for any institute of size to demonstrate the same standard of images and writing across a site that, in many cases, can be sprawling and unwieldy.
This will be the challenge here, to begin to develop a better understanding of our tone of voice and pull together the main areas of the site to make it feel joined up and logical. I’m enjoying getting started!
Oh, and the title of this post? In keeping with the fact that I live in Wales I thought I’d give you a little Welsh lesson. It means “Good morning! How are things?”- feel free to say hello and let me know how you are!
Posted in: communication, newweb, team
We are looking for a Web Content Editor to join our Faculty of Engineering & Design. This new post will be based within the Faculty but will work closely with the central Web Services team (that’s us!).
Full details can be found on our website or you can call me for an informal chat on 01225 385381.
Posted in: communication, team
