Search by author: stephen evans
Redesign of University maps
The University maps page has been in existence since 2008. It uses code from Google to display locations on a map of St Andrews. The map has now been redesigned so that it uses the latest Google code and the digital pattern library to provide a better user experience on desktop and mobile devices.
28 March 2019Design
The new University search system
During the week beginning 17 December 2018, the University search system will be replaced. The current search system, Google Search Appliance (GSA), will no longer work after 31 December 2018 as Google no longer provide support for this. Instead, we will launch a new system called Funnelback provided by a company called Squiz. The Funnelback…
6 December 2018Technology
News and media centre website
The new website for news and media was launched on 7 June 2018. The new website provides a number of enhancements over the old site. For example: news can be categorised and tagged so it’s easier to find news can be shared on social media users can make comments on news news can be viewed…
21 August 2018External website redevelopments
Migrating to WP Engine
On 22 March 2018 we migrated the University WordPress multisite installation from St Andrews to WP Engine. One month on, what has our experience been of WP Engine and what lessons have we learnt from the migration process?
19 April 2018WordPress
Migrating WordPress multisite to WP Engine
The University hosts a multisite WordPress installation (wp.st-andrews.ac.uk) that provides websites and blogs for over 200 research groups and other University organisations. WordPress enables University staff and students to quickly create a website or blog and configure and administer it without needing specialist programming knowledge. However, looking after WordPress takes time to ensure it is…
20 March 2018WordPress
T44U – Glasgow 2018
The T44U user group meeting in Glasgow on the 6 February was a great opportunity to meet up with others who are using the T4 content managements system and to find out the latest developments from TerminalFour. There were about 30 attendees from the Universities of Stirling, Strathclyde, Glasgow, Highlands and Islands, St Andrews, Newcastle,…
5 March 2018T44U
Scottish Web Folk meeting
Scottish Web Folk is an informal group for anyone who works in digital in higher education in Scotland. The group meets three or four times a year at one of the universities in Scotland. It’s a great opportunity to meet up to share best practice and to learn from each other. Over the years, the…
23 December 2017Scottish Web Folk
Understanding how users interact with the alumni and donors website
The new alumni and donors website was launched in June 2017. The new site is a lot slicker and hopefully easier to use than the previous website. A number of blog posts have been written explaining how Google Tag Manager (GTM) can be used to understand visitor behaviour better. For example, finding out whether users…
16 November 2017Usability
Content modelling – is it the future?
One of the main lessons from IWMW 2017 was the need to focus on content not websites. It is no longer sufficient to expect users to find information just via the University website as content is being accessed by an ever increasing variety of digital devices and methods. The following is a summary of how…
22 September 2017Content
IWMW 2017 – top five developer ideas
This year’s Institutional Web Management Workshop (IWMW) took place at the University of Kent in Canterbury between 11 and 13 July. It was a great opportunity to meet with others who are involved in higher education web management to learn from case studies and share ideas. The following is a summary of the top five lessons…
28 August 2017IWMW