As part of the ongoing project to rebuild academic department web pages, we’ve been working to enhance departmental content about equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).
A collaborative approach
Through collaborating with several departments over the past couple of years, as well as the Equality and Diversity Office, we’ve made significant strides in improving how departmental EDI content is presented.
It’s not always been easy to find a solution that meets everyone’s needs, but through persistence and collaboration we believe we’ve found a neat approach which solves a few pieces of the EDI puzzle.
Content audit and insights
As part of our discovery work, we did a content audit to assess what we have now. Our audit revealed several challenges:
- Duplication of central support: Many departmental EDI pages replicate central support information, leading to duplication, scattered content and confusing user journeys.
- Low engagement: Numerous EDI pages across departments have low traffic and engagement, with opportunities to merge and streamline content for better visibility and usability.
- Content quality variability: EDI content often focuses on commitment statements rather than concrete department examples, lacking strong imagery, quotes, or case studies which “show” rather than “tell.”
- Balancing the needs of internal and external audiences: Content mixes messaging for internal and external audiences, causing a lack of clear focus.
The impact of these issues means that it is more difficult to highlight unique departmental contributions. Plus we are creating a lot of extra work and confusing search results by duplicating content that already exists elsewhere.
Improving central pages
To start addressing these issues, we focused on improving central EDI pages for staff and students. Our aim was to develop a pair of comprehensive central resources for staff and students that departments can consistently signpost to, reducing duplication across departmental pages.
The improved pages have a clear and comprehensive overview of the EDI-related support across the University. They help to ensure that users can easily find essential EDI resources in one central location.
This means departments can direct users to the most up-to-date information without duplicating content.
A flexible framework
Building on these improvements, we’ve developed a flexible content framework for departmental EDI pages. This framework, shaped by our principles of “less is more” and “show, don’t tell,” allows departments to highlight specific examples of their EDI activity with relevant imagery and quotes from staff and students.
It provides structure but can be tailored to fit the department’s unique examples and needs. For example, departments can showcase EDI committees, student-led initiatives, and curriculum or research examples.
A great example of this framework in action is the Department of History EDI page.
There is also the option to create additional subpages if a department would like to expand on an area in more detail, for example women in STEM.
Our new approach not only benefits end users by providing clearer, more accessible information but also enhances efficiency for those working on the content, reducing duplication of effort and making it easier to manage EDI resources more holistically across the website.
Audiences
The audiences for departmental EDI content encompass both external and internal stakeholders. While we typically aim to tailor content for distinct audiences, in this case, the two groups are intertwined. Targeting a dual audience fosters transparency and engagement.
- External audiences may be considering working or studying here, looking for insight into the university’s commitment to EDI.
- Internal audiences may want to stay informed about departmental activities, enabling them to participate or seek support.
A great example of this is information about a departmental EDI committee. While this content primarily targets an internal audience, making it publicly available demonstrates the department’s commitment to addressing EDI issues and enhances trust with external audiences, such as prospective staff or students.
Next steps
This framework is set up as a template page (staff access only) in our department template site ready for us to start working with departments to populate content.
Upcoming web rebuilds
For the next round of academic department web rebuilds, we’re reintroducing departmental EDI sections back into scope of these projects.
Rather than simply migrating existing content, we’ll collaborate with departments to redevelop their EDI content and messaging and streamline subpages using the flexible framework as a foundation.
Already worked with us on a rebuild?
For departments who we’ve already worked with on rebuild projects, we’ll collaborate over time to rebuild your EDI pages using the framework. If you’re interested in beginning this process, contact us via our web request form and we’ll schedule a suitable time.
Want to know more?
Take a look at our EDI framework for department web content (internal only).