My role: Lead Content Strategist & Project Manager
Outcome:
Managed content update project for the International Services Office website
Organized new site architecture and created new sitemap
Gathered, audited, and analyzed existing content.
Organized the content on each page for better readability
Improved voice and tone and also suggested edits based on federal plain language guidelines.
My Role
I jumped into managing this content update project that had been “in progress” for the past 4 years.
The International Services Office (ISO) website has been in need of major content strategy and user experience improvements for a long time. It currently exists in an unsupported template while the rest of the University of Rochester is built using a standard WordPress theme.
I was brought on to scope, manage and carry out the work on this UX Strategy and Content Design project where there was no leadership. The department didn’t know how to get it from the audit work that had already been completed to final prepared files for an updated website.
This is the “before” version — the current outdated website with a mouseover navigation visible.
When my new navigation and content has been built into the university’s WordPress template by their Digital Services team I will add the “after” version.
My Impact
I coordinated and collaborated with each Subject Matter Expert about their specialized content to establish needs and set expectations. Then I created a project schedule and held a kickoff meeting with the full group. The Subject Matter Experts had kept the site information updated but feedback continually told them it was too difficult to find and the wording was too formal (it contains a lot of legal and government information). I modified each page with layout components and edited the content to be more human sounding and helpful (based on federal plain language guidelines).
During this project I completed the following:
Identified information gaps and needs: data, team, users.
Performed content audits: quantify pain points and identified how we’ll measure success.
Made recommendations and approach / tradeoffs - review with key stakeholders for signoff.
Addressed contingencies: availability of team, launch window, templates to be used.
Created project schedule and kickoff meeting with full group to set expectations.
Improved the User Experience by organizing content and navigation.
Creating instructions for digital services team to add content into WordPress components.
Recognized user personas and their needs to ensure proper messaging.
Using site analytics and user interviews I organized a new navigation strategy, creating a new Information Architecture / sitemap.
Next Steps
I successfully handed it off all of my files for this project to the university’s Digital Services team in April 2024. They will now build it into the standard university WordPress theme and the live site will be available soon. I’m excited for their team to finally have their new website go live.