Spring 2023 Content Manager Update

April 18, 2023

Hello IT Connect Content Managers,

Welcome to the Spring 2023 edition of the quarterly IT Connect Content Manager Update.

In This Issue 

WHAT’S NEW?

A holistic look at the Service Catalog and IT Connect

UW Information Technology has two websites 一 the UW-IT Service Catalog and IT Connect 一 that include information about technology tools, resources and services available to UW students, faculty and staff. While they are both sources of information for our customers, they are distinct in a number of ways, and complement each other to give our customers needed information and provide a cohesive customer experience of UW-IT services.

Distinct purposes

The purpose of each platform is distinct, and you can see the differences in the table below. But combined they help paint a holistic picture of a service to the UW Community, and each site helps serve different needs in the customer journey.

The Service Catalog Practice Team and the IT Connect Service Team presented at the April 4th SO/SM CoP and went into greater detail about each of these platforms. If you missed it, view the Slides from the presentation.

IT Connect Service Catalog
  • UW-IT’s Knowledge Base of customer-facing documentation
  • A place for service consumers of a service offering to learn how to use them
  • How to use various tools & services, detailed information about them, and marketing, news & service change information.
  • From a perspective of use
  • Operated and maintained by the SO/SMs and SMEs in conjunction with the UW-IT Communications team.
  • Official list of services available from UW-IT
  • A place for service consumers to browse information about obtaining service offerings and their service levels
  • Concise, high-level information about services
  • From a perspective of acquisition
  • Operated and maintained by SO/SMs with guidance from the Service Catalog Practice Team

How much of what UW-IT offers is reflected in the Service Catalog and on IT Connect?

The IT Connect team did an assessment of which services were represented on IT Connect, and found that just over half of services have documentation on IT Connect. The analysis also showed that only around 15% of topics linked to a corresponding service catalog entry.

Cross link the two sites in your content

Services should have content on both platforms, written for the purpose of each platform, and the entries on each platform should cross-link to each other so your end users can  easily navigate between them.

While not all content on IT Connect has a corresponding service catalog entry, if content does, it should cross-link to the service catalog entry on the landing page of the topic on IT Connect. Documentation on how to cross link content is available in the content manager documentation.

Technical Writer support for IT Connect content

Over the past several quarters, student technical writer interns have supported a few service teams and helped update dozens of pages of content for UW-IT services on IT Connect.

Would you like technical writer support for IT Connect content? The UW-IT Communications team can also help you with your IT Connect content through brainstorming, working sessions and editing support. If you need help with your content and/or need technical writing support, then please fill out this form to let us know.

Web content best practices: Break it up

Crafting meaningful web content that users will actually read can be challenging, but breaking your content into smaller chunks will help users scan content, understand what they are reading, and most importantly, actually find the information they seek.

Breaking content up into meaningful chunks with descriptive, semantic headers  is one of the best ways to improve the readability of content. That way, users won’t become overwhelmed by a wall of text, and can more easily scan the content to find specific information or just keep their place.

Don’t forget to make sure your pages are accessible to all users. So use proper heading structure. More information about how to do that from the UW-IT Accessibility team. On IT Connect, the page title is a heading level 1, so start with headline level 2 and work your way down as needed.

DOCUMENTATION, TRAINING & CONSULTATIONS

Do you need some help creating IT Connect content, another head to brainstorm content organization and layout, or want to learn how to use the features available in IT Connect? There are several ways to get help:

  • Content Manager Documentation: Extensive documentation, ranging from the basics of WordPress to advanced features for pages, is available on the IT Connect Content Manager Documentation.
  • Guide to writing documentation: Use the Getting started with documentation guide to help you start writing documentation. The guide breaks down the documentation process that will benefit your end users.
  • Training: One-on-one training for managing content on IT Connect is available from the IT Connect service manager, Nick Rohde, over Zoom or in person. Get tips on correctly formatting content using the tools in IT Connect or learn how to organize your content. To arrange training, fill out this intake form.
  • Consultation: Consultation sessions for individuals or teams are available from the IT Connect product manager, Nick Rohde. To schedule a consultation, fill out this intake form.