Think First, Edit Later

User experience is EVERYTHING! Even more so because we operate in the public education sector, we are required to account for all levels of learning abilities (508 Compliance.) User experience is important because it tries to fulfill all user’s needs. It aims to provide positive experiences that keep a user loyal to the PGCPS brand. Additionally, a meaningful user experience allows you to define customer journeys that are most conducive to success.

What makes a great user experience?

User experience is different for everyone. The most important thing to keep in mind when editing is that though you are designing the website, you might not be a potential user who might be viewing the website. Hence we cannot assume what a user wants or how they need to access information.

So how do you define a great experience?

Get close to your users, talk to them, watch them use your website, get inside their heads and question yourself about the decisions they make. How does their experience change the way you present information? Collaborate with other schools and offices, reach out to Web Services and review our Best Practice.

What should I do?

Ask yourself a few questions before creating content:

1. Who has the problem?
1. Is it parents, students, staff?  Who is your target audience? Does the principal or supervisor have an issue? Are they aware of your target audience?
2. Knowing who has the problem can provide clarity when looking for a solution. Too often the opinion or view of supervisors and/or principals do not align with user experience and our best practices. Please reach out to Web Services and we’ll assist in providing clarification to the ins and outs one should know with presenting information to the web.
2. What is the problem?
1. This is a biggie within PGCPS. We haven’t done a good enough job of identifying issues with the web. There was a time where the solution to everything was to “put it on the web.” Time has shown that is not the case. Editors must be aware of out-dated practices, disorganization and using the available tools effectively and efficiently. Review the Common Mistakes you should avoid.
3. Are you the owner of the content you’re posting?
1. Only post content that you have the rights to post
2. If someone tells you to post something that you (your office or school) did not create, then you should link to the source; do not upload it to Optimizely or Google docs, etc. 
3. Find or ask for the source and insert a hyperlink to the content
4. Warning: uploading commercial content that you did not create or have permission to upload is a violation of copyright law. This costs PGCPS $$$!
4. What process have I learned that can solve this problem?
   1. Use our Shared resources (Supportive Pages, Playground) where available, take a look at our example sites, view other school and office sites to see how they group together similar information and link to the source instead of copying and pasting.
   2. Think how you can accurately and easily manage updating of your processes. Use scheduling and archiving to your advantage, especially when content has an end date and time. You should set the item to expire as a part of your update or creating process.
   3. Think about how you can re-use assets instead of creating new ones each time. Why create a new page each year when a title and block update is all that’s needed?
      1. Supply List, Uniforms, Back to School, Welcome Letters, Programs, etc. These are common pages that happen each and every year. Do not recreate these for each new school year, revive the published pages and blocks with updated information. Use Page titles and Meta titles to showcase the year.
      2. If using documents do not drag & drop in new versions (new documents named differently,) instead replace the asset with an updated version.
   4. Create “buckets” of grouped information. See our Newsletter example. (Live Site, Editor View) (login required)

Review

• Checklist: Before You Publish
• Common Mistakes
• Best Practice

Need Assistance?