With such a distributed campus, it can be challenging for new website owners/editors to know all of the cool services that are available to them. If you’re looking for some help building your site, you’re in luck – we have some really great resources here at UW-Madison!
Here’s a taste of some great options available to all:
Accessibility
We’re fortunate to work for a university that cares deeply about inclusion. There are numerous resources available that help guide website editors towards accessible practices. Our KnowledgeBase document on accessibility is a great place to get started. We also encourage you to join the Digital Accessibility Community of Practice and check out DoIT’s Make it Accessible Guide.
Communities of practice
UW-Madison has tons of communities of practice and it can be a little challenging to know what exists. To help with this, we’ve put a list together of the groups we think relate to building and maintaining websites. Each group offers a great community of people who are willing to lend a hand. There are also helpers available in each area to assist with topics like accessibility, Google Analytics, content strategy, etc.
Content strategy
Looking for strategic guidance on how to lay out your site or meet your website goals? We can help. Our team here at WiscWeb is super familiar with the UW Theme and how to build websites. We offer Office Hours each week where users can get some one-on-one help. We encourage you to utilize this resource if you require some assistance with building your site. We also suggest checking out the UW Theme website for their Kitchen Sink of Elements page and Page Elements hub, which show some of the features of the theme.
In addition to these options, the Center for User Experience offers UX consultations. This is a charge-back option.
Photos + image icons
There are some lovely (and free!) photo/icon resources at UW-Madison. But, like everything else, they’re distributed all over campus. We’ve created an ever-evolving list of the ones we’re aware of. Check out our KnowledgeBase for list of available visual identity options.
Requesting new features
For those instances where WiscWeb and the UW Theme aren’t meeting your needs, we offer a feature request process. Requests are regularly assessed based on need and use case. We love hearing from our users about where we can improve!
Training
Are you looking to learn more about how to build content in the UW Theme? We offer a canvas training course that covers the basics. We also have a very extensive grouping of instructional documents in our KnowledgeBase space.
Written content
In WiscWeb, content is owned by group who maintains the website. It might be a good idea to keep your copywriting skills sharp. We have a number of communicator groups at UW-Madison who can help. Cultural Linguistic Services also offers an excellent training in Plain Language writing.
In addition to all of these amazing resources, our team offers numerous modes of support. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have questions or could use someone to bounce ideas off of.