Web Governance Standards, Policies and Guidelines

Key points:

  • Our website can only be as clear, intentional, and effective as the organization behind it
  • Good governance is helping visitors accomplish the tasks they need to complete with no “insider knowledge” of how we work.
  • Owners and reviewers will always match our internal structure (no one will be asked to review content for an area that they are not familiar with)
  • The site is not organized by our organizational chart - it’s structured to present information to our primary audience based on their behavior and browsing habits
  • Create culture of accountability, trust, and pride

Governance Roles:

  • Campus Community: Submit content changes/updates and functionality requests by submitting the web request form
  • Digital Engagement Team: Prioritize, review, and handle requests. If additional questions or discussion is needed, the request will be shared with the area content owner.

Challenges We Want to Solve:

  • How to keep the site on message and fresh by building a culture of critically thinking about creating content that is focused on meeting the needs of our key audiences.
  • How to reduce the strain on under-resourced offices by lifting the burden from those who want to show a great face to students and the world by having a partner to work with them 
  • How to reign in content editing without any checks by shifting to a system of managed content where requests are prioritized and complete information is ensured by new processes.
  • How to shift to a model of ongoing content review by our designated Area Content Owners
  • How to encourage Area Content Owners to act as “beat reporters” to connect with their area and bring us the stories that need to be shared on our digital platforms. 
  • How to systematically eliminate content debt (the hidden cost of not managing the creation, maintenance, utility, and usability of digital content) 

New Processes to Support Campus:

  • To help us prioritize requests and ensure we’re staying focused on our audience, we’ll be using a new form and process similar to the MarCom Request. Faculty can use the form to request updates to existing profiles (Deans & Chairs can also use the form to request new faculty members be added to the site) 
  • If the request is something that requires additional conversations (such as adding new sections to the site), we'll meet with the requestor to make sure it's needed, there's a plan to keep it updated, and it achieves a clearly defined goal.