Website Redevelopment Project

Our aim is to create a website that is easier to use, better represents the University and plays a more active role in helping our audiences achieve what they came to the website to do.

For prospective students in particular, we want to make it easier to discover relevant courses and information, explore the University, register an interest, make an enquiry and take the next step in their journey.

Over time, the new website will also help us better understand what our audiences are interested in so we can provide more relevant and useful information and communications.

No. Although the website will have a new look and feel, this is much more than a visual refresh.

We're reviewing the wider user experience, including how people navigate the website, how search works, how information is structured and how easily users can complete important tasks.

The project is ultimately about making the website work harder for both our users and the University.

Drop 1 will introduce three major changes across the website:

• A new header and navigation
• A completely redesigned search experience
• A new footer
• UniBuddy AI Assistant

These are some of the most widely used components of the website and provide the foundations for the broader changes coming in Drop 2.

Helping users find what they need quickly is fundamental to a good website experience.

Analysis of our existing website has shown that users can sometimes take too many steps to reach important information and that our existing search experience could do more to help people find what they need.

Improving navigation and search first means we can simplify these journeys now while establishing the foundations for the wider website redesign.

The new header and navigation have been designed to make it easier for users to understand where they are, discover relevant areas of the website and move quickly to important information.

Changes include:

• Improved navigation to help prospective undergraduate students find course information, entry requirements, fees and funding, accommodation, student life and how to apply.
• Clearer pathways from the homepage and key landing pages into undergraduate course discovery and exploration.
• A more streamlined mobile navigation experience, making it easier for prospective students to browse courses and take the next step on smaller screens.
• Improved access to key undergraduate recruitment actions, including searching for a course, registering interest, booking an event, contacting the University and starting an application.

We're introducing a new search experience designed to make it quicker and easier to find relevant information across the University website.

The new search will include revised search weighting, an improved presentation of results and additional filtering options. Drop 2 will also introduce the ability to favourite courses and add them to a shortlist.

This is an important part of our ambition to help users get to the right information with fewer unnecessary steps.

The footer is being redesigned to make important supporting information and links easier to find and to provide a clearer, more consistent experience across the website.

After Drop 1, you'll see the new header, navigation, search and footer, but most individual pages will continue to use their existing designs and templates.

This means there will be a temporary period where elements of the new website design appear alongside existing page designs.

This is expected and is part of our planned approach to delivering the upgrade in stages.

The primary focus of Drop 1 is the header, navigation, search and footer rather than the content of individual pages.

More substantial changes to how content is structured, designed and presented will come as part of Drop 2.

Content changes will also take place between Drops 1 and 2 to ensure that key landing pages and course information are accurate, up to date and improved before being migrated into the new design.

As part of this work, we will review the website structure and may retire or merge some content to create a clearer, more streamlined experience ahead of the wider content migration in Drop 2.

Drop 2 is currently planned for March 2027.

Further information about the changes included in Drop 2 and when users can expect to see them will be shared as the project progresses.

The longer-term ambition goes beyond improving individual pages.

We want to create a more connected digital experience where people can find relevant information quickly, express an interest or make an enquiry easily, and receive useful and relevant information from the University as their relationship with us develops.

For prospective students, this means creating a more joined-up journey from initial interest through to application and beyond.

Future development could also include greater personalisation, more connected digital journeys, migrating externally hosted University websites, and deeper integration between the website and other University systems.

The new components will build on the University's existing accessibility and inclusive design work and will be tested to ensure they provide an effective experience across different devices and for users with different access needs.

The new website components will continue to follow recognised accessibility standards and inclusive design principles. They will be tested across different devices and for users with different access needs, with ongoing monitoring through the Silktide index and other appropriate accessibility checks.

The new header, navigation, search and footer are being designed to work effectively across mobile, tablet and desktop devices. Improving the experience on smaller screens is an important part of making it easier for users to navigate and find information wherever they access the website.

Measures are expected to include areas such as:

• Search usage and effectiveness
• Navigation and journey efficiency
• Engagement with important content
• Completion of key calls to action
• Enquiries and expressions of interest
• Earlier and richer prospective student data capture
• Recruitment journey and conversion performance
• User experience and accessibility

This will allow us to understand what's working and identify further opportunities for improvement.

The launch of the redesigned website shouldn't be viewed as the end of improvement.

A key aim of the project is to create a stronger foundation for ongoing optimisation – using data, insight and user feedback to understand how people use the website and continually improve their experience.