Creating powerful and engaging research content for the University of Sheffield’s Faculty of Engineering
The challenge:
The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sheffield was tasked with improving their research section on the university website, grappling with various content strategy questions such as what information should be featured, where it should be located, the complexity of content, and how to inspire engagement with their research. They needed to align their approach with both faculty-specific and central university content strategies.
What we delivered:
When it comes to creating research sections on our university websites, there are so many different ways that we could present and structure this, and so many stories that we can tell, that it can all become a little overwhelming. Better understanding our audiences is always going to be the best starting point to unravel a new solution. And that’s where the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sheffield started working with us.
Our comprehensive research phase involved extensive stakeholder interviews, workshops across the faculty, and targeted audience research to address their core questions, like:
What do visitors expect from our research pages?
Where do they expect to find that information?
How should content be structured across different academic levels?
How should Faculty-owned content work with centrally managed research pages, research stories and content?
We also examined best practices from similar and diverse organisations.
The outcomes included a detailed research report and a strategic presentation to senior leaders, which set the stage for subsequent web enhancements.
Following this, we provided targeted training sessions to refine the faculty’s content development practices and governance models, ensuring their new strategy was sustainably integrated into their operations.
