We always like having visitors on campus and this week was no exception. The team from Keele University came over to meet with the Web Team and have a long morning of swapping ideas, experiences, knowledge and plans all in the name of improving our online presences for all of our users.
Some may see this as giving away ‘trade secrets’ or letting the competition know too much about what we are doing, but we have always seen this as a great way of learning from others and improving internal processes and procedures as much as our websites.
The web is still relatively new in terms of a communications and information channel and so there is always much to learn. We do this in a variety of ways, including:
- Reading books
- Following expert blog and social media posts
- Attending conferences and workshops
- Visiting and chatting to peers and colleague
- Giving things a go!
- Undertaking and taking part in research into the subject
Getting out and about and meeting peers from other institutions helps us see things from a different perspective and we always come away with new ideas to implement. This year, as we embark on some major website redevelopments, we are looking to learn from our peers in the sector, but also organisations outside of HE who are at the cutting edge of online developments and have the very best user experience possible.
So, a massive thank you to the Keele team for inviting themselves. We met several members of their Web Strategy Group (a great idea that we may well steal!):
- Mike Vaughan – Professor of Music and Chair of the Web Strategy Group.
- John White – Deputy Director of Finance and IT (effectively head of IT).
- Chris Beard – Web Developer
- Alistair Beech – Digital Manager
- Galina Smith – Web Assistant
We would like to invite ourselves over to Keele in the near future, to see the squirrels if nothing else!
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