rebooting myed – making the portal relevant again

Rebooting MyEd Making the Portal Relevant Again

Dr Martin MorreyWeb Integration Manager

University of Edinburgh

With thanks to…• Web Integration Team

– Paul Johnson– Alain Forrester

• Development Services– Richard Good– Neil Hanlon– Ross Nichol– Gordon McKenna

• Projects Services– Maurice Franceschi

• Production Management– Stefan Kaempf– Ana Heyn

• Senior Management– Simon Marsden– Stuart MacFarlane

• Other colleagues– Anne-Marie Scott

…and many others

• Once upon a time…• What is a portal, why have we got one?• What do users do in the portal?• What do users want?• Re-inventing the portal • Desktop• Mobile• Reception and Usage• Happily Ever After?

ONCE UPON A TIME…

MyEd

U@Ed

MyEd U@Ed

MyEd• University of Edinburgh’s web portal

• Launched 2004

• Users: students, staff, applicants, alumni

•200 “channels” of content

•Up to 80K visits day-1

• Based on uPortal– OS portal framework

• Hard to upgrade - projects:– 2006 - 2008

– 2010 – 2012

– 2013 – 2014

U@Ed• Mobile app• iOS and Android• Featuring

– Maps– PC availability– “Friend Finder”– Library– Courses (Learn)– Pocket Guide

• Commercial solution– Web management

console

WHAT IS A PORTAL, WHY HAVE WE GOT ONE?

Gerry McGovernIntranet Masterclass 2008

“For years, I’ve been going around asking people what a portal is, and I still don’t really know. The best definition I’ve come up with is:

…except it takes five times longer to develop.”

A portal is like a website…

Questions• Does your institution have a “portal”?• Who is it for

– Students– Applicants– Staff– Alumni

• What does it contain– Links to other services– Live info from other services– Communications– Support material

Why do we have a portal?

1. One place you can go…– …to find everything you need– i.e. Personalised

2. Provide an “User Experience Platform” (UXP)– Integrated and consistent experience– Supporting user’s top tasks (80/20)

3. Be the preferred medium for personalised communications to students.

MyEd Objectives…in 20/20 Hindsight:

Maths

A listOf links

Increasing Personalisation

Student

Audience –specific

Staff

Alumni

Applic-ant

Org units

ECA

Law

PPL

1st

Final

Year of Study

Others

Once Place = List of Links?

UX Platform = Portlets?

Personalised Layouts

T1 T2 T3

C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6

Student LayoutC1

C3

C6

And…Customisation

T1 T2 T3

C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6

T1 T2 T3

C1 C4 C5 C6C3C7

Default Layout User’s Customised Layout

WHAT DO USERS DO IN THE PORTAL?

We Didn’t Know

• Server-side logging• We could find out:

– How many users logged-in– Some idea of roles (student, staff…)– What customisations are made

• Wanted something like Google Analytics

What we had…

BUT

• The default unit of site usage in Google Analytics is…?– …the page

• Page Views are little use:– In our portal, pages ≡ tabs

• We are most interested in channels– A tab contains multiple channels

Custom Solution: GA Events• Attach “event” to link / button

– Records user interactions, with channel name• BUT: Need to code ~200 channels

– built with various technologies • SOLUTION: Code events on the client

– Cover everything a user sees• “Custom dimensions” record role, org unit…

– Attributes made available in page source (<meta> )– Can also be used to personalise content on the client

Page Rendered

Events Added, +0.1s

Use of Staffmail channel - segmented

WHAT DO USERS WANT?

MyEd Satisfaction: IS Survey 2013

U@Ed Satisfaction: IS Survey 2013

Usage

What was going on?

• MyEd– 300,000 visits a week– 30,000 mobile visits a week

• U@Ed– 9,000+ downloads from app stores– < 1,000 visits per week

• Possible reasons– Fewer compelling features in U@Ed– Generic app inevitably compromised?– Lack of promotion?– Not kept up-to-date (hard to maintain both)

What Users Want

We believe what users want is:• One place to go• Works on all devices• See only what is relevant to them• To complete their key tasks quickly and easily

MyEd Task Survey

• Asked to choose 5 of 44 possible tasks– Opportunity to suggest “other” tasks

• Repeated for desktop and mobile• Results segmented by role

– Students (868 submissions)– Academic Staff (70)– Support Staff (181)

Student

GA: Top Channels - Students

REINVENTING THE PORTAL

MyEd

U@Ed

MyEd

U@Ed

Our Plan for 2013/14

• Desktop– Make key resources easier to find– Make key content more useful & usable

• Fewer, better channels

– More consistent-with the UWS• Mobile

– Retire U@Ed– Make MyEd mobile-friendly

• Mobile web is good-enough

– Can be supplemented with specialist apps• inc 3rd party solutions, e.g. Learn Mobile

NEW DESKTOP MYED

#1 Added a List of Links

MyEd “Dashboard”:•Links to top tasks•Audience-specific•Persistent •Collapsible

#2 Rationalised Layouts

Based on:• User Survey results• Google Analytics• Student suggestions and mock-ups• MyEd User Group and other consultation• Feedback on layout prototypes

Layout Prototype

#3 Refreshed Design

University Website MyEd

• In-line with University website• Within constraints of uPortal framework

#4 Some New Features

• Email preview• Calendar preview• Customise Drawer• “Subscribable” or Packaged tabs

MOBILE MYED

Prioritised Approach

• Rolled out in a series of phases• Supporting highest-priority tasks first

– Basic support first– Enhancements later, including.

• Location-aware channels• More live data – Library, Learn

• Phase 1 live in early August 2014• Soft launch• Ready for freshers week

RECEPTION AND USAGEDesktop Only

Usage 1: Tab Navigation

Usage2: Avg Session Duration

Usage 3: Bounce Rate

NB: Pattern consistent across desktop, tablet, mobile access

User Comments

Students• “Really like the new links at the side”• “These (links) are all the things I normally use”

Staff• “I don’t log in to MyEd very often, but when I

did, the link I needed was right there”

HAPPILY EVER AFTER?

Future Plans• More cycles of:

– Research– Prioritise– Improve

• Make it easier to upgrade– “Continuous Improvement” project in 2014/15

• Responsive framework in 2015– uPortal “Respondr” theme (Twitter Bootstrap)

• Closer integration with UWS in 2015/16• + Communications…

– Notifications system

Moral(s) of the tale…

• Don’t try to feed more than one pig (portal)

We also learned:• A (targeted) list of links takes you a long way• Students have a lot to contribute• Portals can be a rich source of usage info• You need a UI specialist• To do personalisation within a channel

– dynamically on the client– with the right info in the page (meta tags)

MyEd

U@Ed

MyEd

MyEd

Martin.Morrey@ed.ac.uk@martinmorrey

Web Integration ManagerLTW Division, Information Services, University of Edinburgh

+ 44 131 651 5233