As of January 2020, four new training courses have been recently made available for the McGill community:
Note: Information about required courses and course descriptions was updated on January 23, 2025.
- Writing for the web at McGill – WS-100*
- McGill’s digital standards – WS-101*
- Designing great digital experiences - WS-102*
- UX at McGill – WX-103
These courses go over the essentials of best practices for content creation, maintaining brand consistency, and UX design, and also outlines the mandatory and legal obligations pertaining to McGill’s Digital Standards.
*Three of these courses, WS-100, WS-101 and WS-102 are mandatory for:
- WMS Site Managers
- WMS Site Editors
- VHost Site Owners/Administrators
- Faculty-Hosted Site Owners/Administrators
For more information about which course to take for your specific position, here’s a table of course requirements.
To register for these courses, please visit the Training Request Form on Minerva (McGill username and password required).
Here is a list of upcoming sessions to fit the courses in your schedule.
General Overview of Course Material:
Writing for the web at McGill – WS-100
Best practices and techniques for creating better content and to optimize it for the web:
- Constructing a clear portrait of your users
- Structuring your text for the web
- Optimizing of your content for search engines
- Separating meaning and presentation
- Writing URLs and other HTML tags
McGill’s digital standards – WS-101
Overview of the criteria for creating and managing McGill websites and online services including:
- Best practices
- Mandatory and legal obligations
- Industry standards regarding web production and other digital properties
Designing great digital experiences - WS-102
An introduction to the principles of usability and aesthetic design. This course is ideal for anyone interested in improving the aesthetic and overall experience of their website. It will be especially useful to those without formal design training, or those with non-web design backgrounds.
This course covers:
- An introduction to user research and wireframing
- Key principles of usability and aesthetics
- How to apply those principles to sites on any platform (with particular emphasis on the WMS)
- Many examples and hands-on discussion
UX at McGill – WX-103
This hands-on workshop is for members of the McGill community who own and manage McGill websites, especially those planning to conduct user experience research for website projects:
- UX research techniques
- McGill-supported tools and resources for conducting UX research and design
- Tips for ensuring you meet your goals when conducting UX research
