A User-Focused Process for Building University Websites

The two items that most define our websites as useful and usable in a moment of need are the content — what people can act on — and the navigation — how easily we get people to that content. Spending time on these items at the beginning of your website rebuild process will help you develop a website that is focused on and better answers the needs of our users.

This document is meant to guide you through a user-focused process by prompting you with questions that will help focus your organization on user needs as opposed to organizational requirements.

Step #1: Document User Needs

The first step when rebuilding our websites is to understand what people need.

Key Questions

Keep the following questions in mind as you work on your Discovery Worksheet and think about rebuilding your digital presence.

1. What are your goals e.g. "boost attendance for my event" or "reduce customer service requests to my office."?
2. Who are your primary users?
3. Why does the user want or need your service(s)/resources?
4. What primary tasks are the users trying to accomplish? Prioritize these tasks.
5. What are some steps to meet each user need? For example, if one of your goals is to reduce the number of calls to your office for a particular question, one step may be to create a page that answers this question, then have a prominent callout on your Home page for users to find.
6. If you have Analytics data, check to see if you missed any user needs. Are some of the pages that are currently buried on your site getting more traffic? If so, do they need to be featured more prominently on your site?

Tips

• Share your findings with stakeholders to ensure that everyone is on the same page about the goals for the website.

Resources

• Discovery Worksheet

Step #2: Perform a Content Inventory and Audit

To properly judge if your content is meeting the needs of your users, you need to roll up your sleeves, look at every page on your website and grade each one. Be critical. If a page doesn’t fit a goal and you don’t know why it’s on the site, then don’t be afraid to mark it for removal.

By completing the Content Inventory and Audit of your current site, you can also identify if you are missing content that would help address user needs. Review your goals and double-check that each is addressed. If certain goals are either missing or not well represented, make sure to note the gap in the “Content Gaps” tab of the worksheet so that the content can be created.

Key Questions

Keep the following questions in mind as you work on your content inventory and audit.

1. How does this page help a user? Note the user need and action the page supports.
2. What is the quality of this content on a scale of high, medium and low?
3. If this page has a quality of medium or low what is the cause? Consider using consistent adjectives like lacks accuracy, lacks completeness, outdated, redundant, trivial, voice/style, lacks usefulness or verbose.
4. What should we do with this page? Consider using consistent actions like combine, delete, expand, keep or revise.
5. If this page is not being deleted, would a new URL help organize this content better or make search engine results more meaningful?
6. Are any goals or actions from your Discovery Worksheet missing from the Content Inventory and Audit? If so, then add them as a content gap.

Resources

• Content Audit Worksheet

Step #3: Develop the Information Architecture

The "Content Inventory" and "Content Gap" tabs provide a hint of a final organizational structure for our website, but it’s important to see the new structure before committing to it. Create an outline of your website listing all pages and the content that should go on each page.

Tips

• Create an outline of your site's pages.
• Label your navigation links based on tasks (e.g., "Apply to WVU", "Donate", etc.) or topic (e.g., "Research", "Programs", etc.). Tasks are often found in your Discovery Worksheet when defining user needs (e.g., "As a high school student deciding where to attend college, I need to know how to apply to WVU...").

Resources

• Information Architecture Worksheet
• See our example site navigations below.

Step #4: Write Your Content

• Determine which content best fits your user needs and the site's goals (e.g., step-by-step registration instructions, testimonials from past attendees, lodging options).
• Check out this handy guide: Writing for the Web.
• Use the WVU Style Guide to maintain consistency across University websites.

Step #5: Build Your Site

• Once you have identified your user needs, conducted a content inventory and audit, outlined your website architecture, and produced your content, it’s time to request a site.
• Provide us with your Information Architecture worksheet. We’ll configure your site (or connect you with your organization’s Prof. Tech.) and provide you with access to your site so you can begin populating your content.
• Be sure to check out our content publishing how-to guide and our Design System content editing docs.
• Once you’re finished, get your site approved. UR - Digital will review your website for branding and accessibility.

Site Navigation Examples

Prospective Student Audience

List relevant programs (link to "Programs" or "Academics"), provide info on scholarships, highlight research, profile students and faculty, and display news stories. Also consider placing links to "Apply," "Visit," and/or "Request Info" in your site’s masthead.

Example:

Alumni, Friends, and Prospective Donor Audience

Highlight resources, publications, alumni stories, and relevant news stories.

Example:

Prospective Faculty and Staff Audience

Tell the audience About WVU, highlight research, provide resources, and display relevant news stories.

Example:

Current Students, Faculty and Staff Audiences

Instead of consulting a uniform template, consider the following questions when developing content for their sites:

1. What is/are the key reason(s) for someone to visit your site?
2. What content, functions and other resources best help them achieve their goals?
3. How can you provide the most streamlined, clear path to that core content for users?
4. How can you learn from your audience and refine content according to their needs?