Content in University staff profiles plays a dual role in highlighting the achievements and important work of University employees and showcasing the institution as a centre of excellence. A profiles project sought to learn what staff needed from their online profiles. This post collates insights into profile content requirements, based on what staff shared in […]

Research for the Role of Profiles project found that many University staff profiles were out-of-date. Interviewing staff about their current processes for creating, updating and deleting profiles identified the work required to keep profiles current, and surfaced areas of good practice as well as opportunities for improvement.

Interviewing 40 academic and professional services staff about profiles not only revealed insights from staff about their own profiles, but also viewpoints from staff involved in coordinating and utilising profile content. This blog post recounts the process to synthesis and analyse staff interview data to surface these different perspectives and understand associated needs and requirements.

The Role of Profiles project aims to identify recommendations for an improved online profile provision, based on the needs of University staff. Interviewing individual staff members was our primary research method. This post outlines how we set up and conducted staff interviews – to hear what staff had to say, and to gather data on […]

As part of the Role of Profiles project, the UX team learned from the work of Safa Alsalman, who investigated using AI to produce biographical content for academic staff while working for Edinburgh Innovations.

About me  I am Christina (Xinyi) Xu, currently a final-year student majoring in Sociology and Social Anthropology. I joined the portal services team from September 2024 as a user research intern. My main responsibility is to investigate staff’s and students’ experiences using MyEd Portal – a key web portal where many staff and students would […]

As a user researcher at the University, I plan and conduct research activities to help colleagues improve the content in their websites and services. Recently, I have been learning how to use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to see what information it can provide about University websites and content. 

The UX Service has helped more colleagues to conduct usability tests on their website and prioritise web content improvements. 

As part of the Role of Profiles research project, the UX Service circulated a survey to staff across the University to gather data about how they use online profiles and what they think of them. 262 staff responded, providing valuable insights.

As part of a day of AI experimentation with Drupal specialists, we learned how to use automated technology to evaluate content against the University’s guidance on house writing style.