Helping UCL bring research guidance together in one place.
The UCL Research and Innovation Portal was created to make it easier for researchers to find the information, tools and guidance they need in one central, easy-to-navigate space.
The project involved working as part of the wider UCL Transformation team - business analysts, project managers and stakeholders from across UCL. It was a collaborative process with a shared effort and clear focus.
The challenge
UCL’s research guidance was scattered across multiple department websites, intranets and documents. Researchers struggled to know where to look or which version was up-to-date. The goal was to bring everything together, remove duplication and create a cohorent structure that reflected how researchers actually search for information.
What we did
We started by mapping all research-related content across the digital estate - from central teams to individual research support services. Through interviews and workshops with researchers and professional services staff, we identified core user needs and common themes.
From there, we developed a clear information architecture, streamlined the language and produced a content framework that could evolve as UCL’s research landscape changed. The team received detailed guidance on maintaining and governing the site to keep it relevant and consistent. We kept up regular communication with key stakeholders, including site demonstration meetings with department leads.
Key achievement
UCL launched the UCL Research and Innovation Portal as a central resource for the university’s research community - a single, well-organised entry point for research guidance.
The site also identified a need to simplify UCL research processes and a review of source content. Much of the content could be simplified to improve the user experience.
Over time, however, despite comprehensive handover documentation, without consistent ownership and maintenance, and no change to the research induction process, the content became outdated. The site has since been retired, with internal information moved to a SharePoint environment in line with UCL’s wider strategy to separate internal and external content.
However, the project was an important step in UCL’s digital transformation. It demonstrated the value of designing a product and service around user needs as well as ongoing resources to maintain it.
“Reena joined our transformation team to support a series of high-profile digital projects, including the development and launch of a new Research and Innovation portal, bringing the information researchers need through the lifecycle of their project into one place and structuring information to suit a much-improved user experience. The portal provides important guidance and support to thousands of UCL staff and was very well received, providing an excellent basis for further service improvement and improved engagement across the programme.
The site is easy to use, accessible and presents information in a format that suits UCL’s research and innovation community.
Reena is great to work with, bringing a proactive, thoughtful and future-focused approach. She delivers great quality outcomes on-time and has the awareness to make connections to other relevant activity.
I would recommend her to anyone looking for support with their digital projects.”
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