HE Digital Scotland / Scottish Web Folk conference

Sponsors

Our upcoming free conference would not be possible without the invaluable support of our esteemed sponsors. Their commitment to advancing digital excellence in higher education is truly commendable.

Our heartfelt gratitude goes to our top-tier sponsors, who made the conference food and refreshments a reality.

We extend our deepest thanks to all our sponsors for their unwavering support and dedication to advancing digital strategies in higher education. Their contributions ensure that the conference will be unforgettable, empowering attendees with knowledge and insights.

Our sponsors will also have stands where you can interact with them during the breaks.

University presentation titles and abstracts

10:00-10:30 - The University of Edinburgh

Waving the UX wand: Empowering colleagues and witch-finders to adopt UX methods in their website design process

The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft database is a fascinating resource for anyone who wants to learn about the history of witch trials in Scotland. But how usable is the website?

Our UX team were summoned to improve the website's user experience, but we wanted to leave the project team with more than just a wishlist of fixes and wireframes.

This case study will look at how we are coaching a small team to gather insights from their own user research sessions, and how we can enable other projects to embed user-centred design practices throughout a website's lifetime.

10:30-11:00 - The University of Stirling

The show must go on: Applying principles from cultural venues to a higher education events website

Creating and managing a system for displaying university events on the web can be challenging. Higher education institutions can have vast events programmes aimed at a huge range of different audiences. In this talk, we will outline how we applied the lessons learned from working in Edinburgh's cultural sector to redesign the University of Stirling's event web pages and make them more fit for purpose.

11:30-12:00 - The University of Edinburgh

How web archiving can support a healthier web estate

The University of Edinburgh's web estate consists of more than 1,300 websites, with content published using a variety of platforms to reach a range of diverse audiences. 

Information published on the University's websites provides a vital record of research, teaching, business operations, and governance of the University: valuable teaching resources, official communications to staff and students, community events, and all the diverse activities of the University are documented through its web estate.

To keep up with all this activity, old web technologies must be upgraded and replaced. In order to carry over all associated costs and avoid any risks associated with end-of-life technologies or the continued publication of outdated and inaccurate content, a core part of planning any website's lifecycle should be planning for its decommission. However, much of the University's web content needs to be retained so it can be accessed and referenced for years to come.

In this presentation, members of the University of Edinburgh's Website & Communication and Digital Preservation teams will provide an overview of the University's web archiving programme and discuss how web archiving supports a more sustainable, manageable and healthier web estate and enables the University to provide long-term access to valuable web resources even when technologies evolve.

12:00-12:30 - The University of Stirling

Web Sustainability: Make your website greener, happier, more productive

Every click, every scroll, every stored file, every email, and every download requires energy, energy that is often sourced from fossil fuels.

The internet currently produces approximately 3.8% of global carbon emissions, which are rising in line with our hunger to consume more data. Communications technology emits more carbon than most countries and is more polluting than aviation.

Making our websites sustainable is not just good for the planet - it's also good for our users and the health of our website. This presentation will look at the benefits of sustainability, the issues around data poverty and how a retention policy helps reduce web bloat.

It will explore how to achieve sustainable content - both from content and development points of view. We will also look at the challenges encountered by the University of Stirling's web team as they try to implement sustainability principles.

Supplier presentation titles and abstracts

13:30-14:00 - Storm ID

Addressing The Challenges of Data Collection and Analysis in Higher Education

Our engagement with the University of Edinburgh began with a dashboard project. The problem to solve was that the College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine wanted to get a clear end-to-end picture of how digital marketing channels impact student matriculation. 

While undertaking this project, it became clear that there were several issues with the data collected, notably in Google Analytics. Moreover, the deadline for migrating from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 was looming. 

The University asked for help to migrate to GA4, and additionally to help create a strategy and business case for further investment in analytics as an activity to help solve not only the problems that we had already uncovered, but any other analytics problems we could unearth through this engagement. 

The University's problems are symptomatic of a large distributed organisation and likely to be reflective of Higher Education as a sector.

13:30-14:00 - Little Forest

Navigating the Digital Jungle: Unveiling the Importance of Web Accessibility in University Domains

In a world where our digital footprint continually expands, have you ever considered the vastness of your digital estate? The revelations can be astounding, and the implications of overlooking it are not to be underestimated, ranging from legal ramifications to financial setbacks.

Meet Gavin Colborne, an industry veteran at Little Forest in the UK, who has spent nearly a decade unravelling this digital conundrum. His recent insights, unveiled in an exclusive member conference call, shed light on an issue that transcends industries.

"Existing domain management approaches fall short. In essence, it's a quest for safeguarding your brand," declares Gavin. But why is it vital to map every corner of your online presence? Gavin's investigation into higher education provides striking examples:

• The University of Copenhagen's staggering 8,500 domains
• Technische Universität München's sprawling 30,000 domains
• Oxford in the UK, on the brink of 100,000 domains
• Columbia in New York City, an astonishing 142,500 domains

Impressive as these numbers are, the quandary isn't unique to academia. It plagues large multinational corporations and nimble startups alike. Gavin underscores that beyond brand preservation, addressing this puzzle serves a slew of critical purposes:

• Ensuring Information Accuracy
• Fortifying Cybersecurity
• Navigating Regulatory Compliance
• Elevating Customer Experience
• Championing Accessibility
• Upholding Quality Standards
• Fostering Sustainability

Step back, and you'll realise these are challenges that resonate across all sectors. Murky domain ownership leads to shoddy customer experiences, undermined quality, and a disjointed online presence.

So, how does one embark on the journey of domain discovery and resolution?

Little Forest's toolkit employs cutting-edge sub-domain finding tools to guarantee all-encompassing coverage. Data streams in from diverse sources: DNS entries, SSL Certificate records, and even search engine results.

Don't miss this enlightening talk that unveils the complexity lurking beneath the digital surface. Little Forest's ingenious solution for domain discovery earned them the prestigious Small Feature Award in 2019, hailed by judges as an elegantly simple answer to an overwhelmingly intricate challenge.

Mark your calendars and prepare to explore the labyrinthine realm of web accessibility, digital ownership, and the pivotal role it plays in crafting an exceptional user experience. This talk is your compass to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of the digital age.

14:00-14:30 - Civic

Design and Established Principles

When working within a wider digital landscape of an institution website, the key to success is adhering to its established digital values and principles. The challenge is in achieving a creative, visually appealing user experience for the specific project, where the outcome still feels part of the main institution with a seamless journey between the two.

We’ll talk you through our work with the University of Edinburgh, covering both 'why' and 'how' we created school and project specific websites, that connected to the University's wider digital landscape – creating tailored visual approaches, building bespoke user experiences and retaining the core values and principles of the main institution website.

14:00-14:30 - TPXimpact

Learning and Life Experiences:  What is the role of universities in a digital-first world?

Universities were created with the intention of keeping information siloed - gatekeeping knowledge. In many departments, this mantra still exists - they rarely look outside themselves to consider what's going on elsewhere, leading to internal silos and a low appetite for risk. 
But the Pandemic has changed things. 
The world has woken up to hybrid ways of working. AI has advanced beyond anything imaginable. Data driven decision-making is commonplace. Technology is supporting offline and online cross-channel experiences more seamlessly than ever.

This talk will shine a light on some of the trends we're seeing in the market. And ask the question, "how might we deploy a model that enables rapid prototype and innovation development?"

15:00-15:30 - Acquia

The Pitfalls of Personalisation Projects

Personalisation is becoming a more common topic in Higher Education institutions as they look to better connect with prospective students and serve more relevant content to their users. 

Unfortunately, making personalisation projects a success is not always as straightforward as we'd like, and there are some considerations that should be taken before committing to this type of project. 

In this talk, we'll look at four common pitfalls we see customers encounter which extend the success of their projects. 

• Goals: What are you actually trying to achieve?
• Clear Strategy: Who is your target, and how are you going to engage them?
• Available Resources: Do you have the resources to create the content and manage the projects?
• Clear Process: This isn't set it and forget it. Have you defined a process to test, launch and learn?

15:00-15:30 - TPXimpact

Winning hearts and minds: Centralised digital services, content, and the attention economy

Humans are creating 328 million terabytes of information each day. How can we hope to compete and get our messages across? What is the magic mix of tech, strategy and content that you need? Some lessons and ideas from Further Ed and beyond.

15:30-16:00 - Siteimprove

Five easy(ish) SEO and analytics wins

Russell has over 20 years of experience in digital marketing, including seven years as part of the Web Team at Anglia Ruskin University. Since 2015, Russell has collaborated with digital marketing teams across Europe and North America to use the Siteimprove platform to measure better and improve the quality of their websites.

Drawing on his experience of both Higher Education and the wider public/private sector (in and outside of the UK), Russell will share SEO and analytics opportunities available to digital marketing teams. Often, small changes can improve the crawlability of content, aid in measuring the value of content, and drive conversations with internal stakeholders.

15:30-16:00 - cues.ai

Applying behavioural science to improving conversion rates

University websites are vast, visitors are anonymous, and tracking is an ongoing challenge. Find out how we built a tool to flip the browsing model from one that is purely self-directed to one where high-value visitors can be identified and nudged toward vastly improved engagement with key parts of the website. We'll discuss examples, the results, the thinking behind the audiences and journeys we've created and what comes next.

16:00-16:30 - Gecko

The AI Revolution: Redefining Efficiency in University Solutions with Chat Bots

Brief explanation of AI, how it fits in with HE, how we have utilised this tech, a demonstration + what this means moving forward.