Higher ed websites are shaped not only by best practices but also by personalities and history. When faculty, administrators, and marketing teams can’t align, students pay the price with confusing navigation, conflicting information, and an overall frustrating experience.
These issues don’t just appear out of nowhere; they’re the result of organizational challenges turning into UX problems. A slow approval process, territorial departments, and unclear ownership can drag out updates, create inconsistency, and weaken a site’s overall impact. To truly bureaucracy-proof your higher ed website, institutions need streamlined governance, clear roles, and efficient workflows that keep the focus on users.
At Digital Collegium 2025, we’re taking a hard look at how to break that cycle.
In the session When Campus Politics Crash the User Experience, you’ll learn:
- How to deeply integrate the campus community into the site’s governance without letting politics dictate UX.
- Processes that put students first and minimize internal bottlenecks.
- Methods for insulating your design from bureaucratic chaos so it can stand the test of time.
Quick Strategies to Bureaucracy-Proof Your Site
While the session will cover the big picture, here are some tactical moves you can start with now to bureaucracy-proof your higher ed website:
- Clear Governance Model. Assign specific ownership for content, design, and infrastructure, and document escalation paths to keep projects moving.
- Modular, Reusable Design. Use a component-based content system so different departments can update without breaking the site’s structure.
- Pre-Approved Emergency Templates. For urgent updates like closures or safety alerts, bypass the full approval chain with pre-approved, brand-compliant templates.
- Analytics-Driven Improvement. Track where updates stall and make targeted changes to streamline approvals.
When you design a site that anticipates and protects against the realities of campus politics, you’re not just improving operations. You’re creating a better, clearer, and more student-friendly digital experience.
Learn more and join the conversation at Digital Collegium 2025 on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, from 4:00–4:45 PM EDT with Noah Kramer of KWALL and Benjamin Demers of Mission College on When Campus Politics Crash the User Experience and how Mission College bureaucracy proofed its website.
