Site Admin Users Guide

Website strategy

To create a service-oriented front door to the WashU global ecosystem that successfully connects users to resources for global work

Site Goals

  1. Increase awareness of WashU’s global partnerships and resources
  2. Connect WashU faculty, staff, and students to resources for global work
  3. Demonstrate WashU’s work at a global scale

Key Audiences

Primary

The primary audience for the site is internal faculty, staff, and students, with the intention of connecting them to the resources they need to work, research, and learn abroad.

Secondary

For the following secondary audiences, the site sends a clear message regarding WashU’s commitment to building a global community and fostering a global exchange of ideas.

  • WashU international alumni
  • Current and prospective international students
  • Current and prospective international scholars

Key messages

Our content should inspire our main audiences to think and feel at least one of the following:

  1. WashU’s research and community spans the globe.
  2. I know what I need to do to successfully study/ research abroad.
  3. WashU is welcoming to international students/ scholars like me.
  4. WashU has connections, policies, and procedures in place to support me. 

Key actions

We want to inspire our audiences to:

  1. Plan trips according to university procedures.
  2. Explore regions/ partnerships/ resources.
  3. Come to WashU/ join in a partnership with our faculty.
  4. Donate

Results of content audit

From former global.edu

After an audit of the content from the former global site revealed the following:

  • The site content was mostly made up of news articles and people entries.
  • A review of the analytics revealed that site users come to the site for resources, not news.

From peer sites

The team identified several elements from peer sites to include:

  • We evaluated how maps can be used: for navigation, to convey information, or for aesthetic purposes.
  • We saw peers breaking travel tools out from more general resources to streamline the user experience/ make things easier to find. Sometimes this meant a separate site.

Content Strategy

Through the site’s content structure and taxonomy, we aim to accomplish the following:

Make our key selling points transparent with the main navigation

  • In St. Louis
  • Regions
  • Global Partnerships
  • Resources
  • Travel Tools

Use the home page content to establish our global narrative, featuring:

  • highlights from global research and learning and our global exchanges happening on campus
  • stats highlighting global’s impact
  • a callout featuring and entry points to learn more about our work in other countries
  • a callout featuring and entry points to learn more about campus and St. Louis
  • a callout on global partnerships
  • a featured video
  • a section of helpful resources