Our new website: The next phase of our evolution
We believe that our new site represents a significant step forward.
Today at HESA we are unveiling a new website. We believe that our new site represents a significant step forward in making our services easier to access and use, making data and analysis on the UK higher education sector easier to find, and improving understanding of how HESA benefits all organisations with an interest in UK higher education.
Our old website was long overdue an upgrade. Feedback suggested that it was complex to navigate and that users couldn’t access information and critical services quickly. Nor did we think it reflected the explosive growth in interest in data and information on higher education that has taken place over recent years.
The new website addresses all pillars of our strategy, and more besides.
HESA’s new five-year strategy is built on a number of pillars. These include: improving accessibility and openness to data; enhancing insight; increasing the usefulness of the data we provide; and operating efficiently. The new website addresses all pillars of our strategy, and more besides.
Our new site will allow:
- Higher education providers to return their data to us efficiently and swiftly
- Stakeholders to easily access the services we provide
- The wider public to get hold of accurate, authoritative and up-to-date information and analysis on higher education
- Us to communicate changes in collections and policy effectively and clearly, and gain feedback.
We will be taking an incremental, iterative approach to developing and improving the site.
In true agile fashion, the new website is not yet the finished article. While we are sure it represents a major improvement on the old site, we know that the work is not yet complete. We will be taking an incremental, iterative approach to developing and improving the site, making sure it can meet the aims we have for it, and that it is serving the needs both of HESA and of the sector effectively and efficiently.
In order to achieve this, we will be inviting colleagues from the sector to come and test the site out for us over the next few months. We have of course tested it thoroughly ourselves prior to launch, but there is no substitute for detailed and extensive testing from those we hope will be using it on a regular basis, so we can ensure it is meeting user needs. We are conscious that a broad range of staff (both within higher education providers, and in other organisations) use our services in one way or another, and we want to make sure we are tailoring our services to these diverse groups.
We want to make sure we are tailoring our services to the diverse groups who use our website.
In addition to this structured user engagement, we would of course welcome any direct feedback on the new site, positive or negative. We will use this to introduce adjustments and enhancements on a regular basis, and will ensure we communicate when these have been done.
So do please take some time to explore the new site, and let us know what you think. Any thoughts, views, feedback can be sent to our communications team. Please also let us know if you would like to volunteer to take part in our onsite user testing programme.
We hope you agree that our new website marks a positive step in the next phase of our evolution.
Our new website marks a positive step in the next phase of our evolution
