UCL Accommodation manages approximately 6000 beds across 26 halls ranging in size, facilities and location. The website listed the UCL Halls available and the facilities they provided. However, feedback from the students suggested that the website wasn’t answering the questions they were asking well enough. Many students turned to social media to get answers which were time consuming to respond to.
Ken Matthews, UCL Student Experience Manager commissioned That Web Person to re-build the website. Initially, the brief was to move the site as part of UCL’s digital transformation programme from an old Silva content management system to their new Drupal template. They asked for a like-for-like site to comply with deadlines for the new platform roll out before a more comprehensive site could be built taking more of the students need into consideration.
However, once the project started, it was clear that we could enhance the content by re-structuring the site and by pulling out important key bits of information from pdf documents such as the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ and ‘Student Accommodation Guidance document’ to help the students find the information they needed more easily.
The new site was launched on the day we said it would be. It’s is easier to navigate and gives more options to find the information based on the users need rather than how UCL categorise the information. Moreover, there is more detailed information on more aspects of accommodation at UCL like the food available in catered halls and information you may need to know before moving in giving the students a better picture of their stay as a student at UCL.
Key achievements
site was built and live in one month.
the content can easily be updated by the Accommodation team.
use of landing pages to help guide the user.
increase the use of image galleries and video content to showcase the UCL student experience.
separate analytics tracking for reporting and future PPC campaigns.
“We engaged Reena to work on the update of the UCL Accommodation website to a new Drupal template. The brief was to transfer the pages from one system to another. Not only did Reena do this to a great standard, but she went above and beyond the initial brief. I am pleased to say that Reena delivered an excellent job to a tight deadline of 6 weeks, hitting all milestones and managing the project well.
Throughout the assignment, Reena was reliable, flexible to work with, brought valid recommendations to the table, and constantly surprised us with her high level of customer service and expertise.”
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