UCL’s Faculty of Population Health Sciences was preparing to migrate to Drupal 10, but first, they needed to untangle years of fragmented websites and duplicate content. 

The Faculty included nine separate sites, each managed by different teams with their own structures, navigation and priorities. 

Working with the faculty communications team, I led a scoping and discovery phase to review the existing content landscape and design a clearer information architecture for a new faculty supersite.

The work provided a roadmap for consolidating the sites into a single platform, prioritising external audiences and establishing governance to keep the site manageable long after launch.

Project objectives

• Consolidate nine independently managed faculty websites into a single Drupal 10 supersite in line with UCL’s digital estate strategy.

• Make the website easier for external audiences to navigate, prioritising prospective students, researchers, partners and collaborators.

• Separate internal and external content, moving operational information to SharePoint intranet spaces.

• Reduce duplication and outdated content across more than 4,000 pages accumulated over many years.

• Create a clear information architecture that would support the migration to Drupal 10.

• Provide governance and practical guidance to help the communications team maintain a clear, manageable site structure over time.

The challenge

Over time, the faculty’s digital presence had expanded across nine separate websites, each developed and managed independently by different institutes and departments.

At the same time, UCL’s central Digital team introduced a new Drupal template, requiring all faculties to migrate their sites. As part of this programme, faculties were asked to consolidate their web estates into a single Drupal site to reduce maintenance overheads, simplify governance and lower the technical footprint of managing multiple sites across the university.

This created an opportunity for the Faculty Communications team to rethink how their web estate was structured and how it could be managed more effectively.

However, the existing sites presented a number of challenges:

• duplicated information across multiple sites.

• inconsistent navigation and user journeys.

• internal information mixed with external-facing content.

• unclear ownership of pages.

• large volumes of outdated or low-value content.

Rather than simply transferring thousands of pages into a new system, the communications team wanted to use the migration as an opportunity to make sense of the content landscape and create a structure that would work for both users and the teams responsible for maintaining it.

Understanding the digital estate

The first phase of the project focused on understanding the scale and structure of the faculty’s existing web presence.

Across the nine websites, we reviewed thousands of pages of content, analysing how information was organised, how users were navigating the sites, and where duplication had developed over time.

This discovery work combined:

• analytics and search behaviour

• stakeholder insights

• content audits

• structural analysis of the existing sites

The findings revealed significant overlap between sites, with multiple pages across different institutes serving the same user journeys.

In many cases, visitors were arriving directly on deep pages via search engines, without clear pathways to related content.

These insights formed the evidence base for designing a new structure for the faculty website.

Designing the faculty supersite

Using the discovery findings, I developed a proposed information architecture for a new faculty supersite.

The aim was to bring together the faculty’s digital presence into a single usable structure while still supporting the different institutes' needs and research areas.

Key principles included:

• structuring the site around external audiences and tasks.

• consolidating duplicated pages and journeys.

• separating external content from internal operational information.

• ensuring the structure would support the upcoming Drupal 10 migration.

The new structure provided a clear framework for bringing the nine websites together while simplifying the structure for both users and editors.

Helping teams navigate change

Because each of the nine sites had previously been managed independently, the project involved working closely with multiple teams across the faculty. 

Workshops and individual meetings helped the stakeholders understand: 

• How their content fit into the wider faculty site. 

• Where duplication existed across sites. 

• How pages could be consolidated into shared journeys. 

This collaborative process helped build agreement around the new structure and ensured the supersite would work for the faculty as a whole. 

Building governance for the future 

Alongside the structural recommendations, i developed a website content strategy and governance framework to support the communications team after launch. 

This included practical tools to help the team manage the site longer term. It included: 

• Guidance on content ownership and responsibilities. 

• Decision frameworks for creating new pages. 

• Editorial standards and publishing workflows. 

• Recommended content review cycles. 

Together, these tools help prevent the site from gradually becoming fragmented again as new content is added. 

Key achievements

• Made a complex estate manageable: Reviewed thousands of pages across nine independently managed websites and shaped a clear plan for bringing the faculty’s web estate into a single Drupal 10 supersite.

• Shifted the site towards external audiences: Refocused the web estate around prospective students, researchers, partners and collaborators, while helping move internal content to SharePoint intranet spaces.

• Simplified journeys and reduced duplication: Identified where content overlapped across sites and recommended where multiple pages and pathways could be consolidated into one clearer experience.

• Bringing teams with us: Led focused team sessions that helped multiple institutes and stakeholders align around a shared structure, supporting both decision-making and wider culture change across the faculty.

• Governance for the long term: Developed a Web Content Strategy and governance framework to support content ownership, review cycles and better decision-making long after launch.

Conclusion

The project helped the faculty move from a fragmented collection of websites to a clear, structured plan for a single faculty supersite. By focusing on user needs, consolidating duplicated content and introducing governance for future updates, the work created a foundation for a website that can continue to evolve without returning to the complexity of the past.

More website development projects