Even when the institutional website "belonged" to one person who was responsible for everything, the college website has always involved many parties from across campus. Then and now, few relationships have been more critical than the relationship between marketing and IT departments. This presentation will examine the keys to successful project management from both IT and marketing perspectives to help you leverage these tactics in your own organization.
From big brands to college admissions offices, understanding the user is something that all sites struggle with. We as designers, developers, and content curators often attempt to make a site for everyone when, in fact, if we target a specific user, the experience could be tailored just for them. Higher ed institutions have many constituents. In this presentation we will target the prospective student user, the lifeblood of any tuition-driven college or university. Ashley Hennigan will present what you need to know about the prospective student of today, the state of college admissions, national enrollment trends, and her experience as a college admissions professional. Emily Okey, a UX designer, will cover design and development trends based on her experience with big brands as well as share new ideas for prospective student UX. Proposal Track: content, responsive design/mobile, marketing
In higher ed, we're no strangers to doing more with less. We have less manpower, but higher expectations. We have fewer resources, but more responsibilities. We need new ways to curate content, to shine while presenting information and to make things interesting for our users. But it doesn't have to be mission impossible. You, too, can be a renegade element. Let's talk technology and how you can use it to win friends and influence people. Need ways to curate information in an interesting format? We've got apps for that. Want a way to collaborate with coworkers that doesn't share internal information to outsiders? We've got ways to do that, too. How about growing your community? We're way ahead of you. In this session, we will explore emerging technologies to embed in your sites, add to the conversation, and add to your repertoire of looking good and being awesome. And really, who can't use an inside track to awesome?
UX today has mastered the art of sprawl. Interactions with our institutions, our brands, and our marketing and communication take place on myriad devices, anywhere in the world, and at any time. The sum of these interactions forms an interpersonal identity, telling the larger story of what we stand for and why we matter. In a culture where there is no longer a battle – and increasingly less distinction – between the web and the real-world, this presentation explores how the experiential expectations of our constituents has turned fluid and why an integrated approach to your college or university's marketing and communication can impact and enhance overall user experience.
As talented web professionals, we know best practices for how content should be created and how digital products should be designed and delivered. But we often have to convince our colleagues in other departments or disciplines of this. As change agents, it's our job to innovate and lead, despite the financial or cultural obstacles we face in our institutions. Follow the yearlong efforts of the marketing staff at American University's Kogod School of Business, as they worked to improve the usability of their digital communications for prospective and current students. They held focus groups, usability studies, and surveys; presented ideas to administrators, staff and faculty; and slowly implemented changes to the business school's website, email newsletters, and admissions processes. Learn what worked and what didn't; how to convince colleagues to get on board; and what good work ultimately went to waste. Analytics and outcomes will be shared, along with persuasive tactics. Strategies were (in part) inspired by Web Conference 2012 sessions.
Having a great website is more important now than ever. But how do you know if your website is working well and meeting goals and objectives? (You have goals and objectives, right?) In order to optimize your website, ongoing, comprehensive evaluation of both your website and your web operations are needed. This presentation will explore a wide range of evaluation methodologies including web analytics, heuristic evaluation, usability testing, focus groups, surveys, and more. Mark will examine the strengths and weaknesses of each to help you create a comprehensive web evaluation framework.
For the first time in over a decade, Penn State will launch a full website redesign in February 2013. As part of the planning and development process for this large-scale effort, a team assembled from various departments across the university has been working to incorporate a wide range of research, user feedback, and usability testing into the redesign. This presentation will step through the way research has informed each phase of this process, including early benchmarking, usability testing on the current site, card sorting during information architecture, testing and analysis of the various elements of the feature “slider” area in order to optimize the level of user engagement, clicktracking tests on wireframes and design comps, and “live wireframe” testing (at the time of this writing, the site is currently in development, and we anticipate further testing after launch). This presentation will share the unexpected and anticipated results, along with follow-up actions, throughout the development period. We’ll share testing goals, methods, and analysis, with an eye toward what attendees may want to bring back to their own work. Attendees will gain a greater understanding usability testing and the manner in which results can be applied throughout the process of website development, as well as a feel for the range of affordable usability testing resources that are available.
Facebook is not a good marketing tool for your department, group, major or college. It might not even be a good marketing tool for your school, buit I won't talk you out of that one. Your music department Facebook page, with posts about the next concert, is being ignored by the minuscule percentage of people who even see the post. There's a better way, and it involves thinking about Facebook differently. Instead of building communities from scratch, leverage the student communities to spread your department news.
The brand of an institution isn’t just defined by what the institution says. In fact, the community surrounding an institution generally has better stories to tell, and sometimes better methods of telling them. Because of this, brands don’t want to drive entire conversations, but merely create the stage for these conversations to take place. Through collective efforts, you, too, can authentically share your institution’s story. In this session, we’ll explore * listening on social channels, * curating authentic voices, * methods and strategies for recruiting and sharing community content, * measuring and gauging your “returns” -- on your community and on engagement, experience, and emotion -- and * showcase examples of taking curated content to the next level.
Through colorful, been-there-done-that examples that worked successfully for Elizabethtown College, Donna Talarico will show you ways to increase audience engagement on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. From building a student social media street team and welcoming students back to campus with a 30-day Instagram photo challenge to an interactive grassroots “Tag! You’re It!” campaign during the 2012 Homecoming and Family Weekend and many things in between, you will learn how to use your audience to get inspiration, create conversations and grow your following and engagement. She will also share tools and tidbits she uses to help streamline process with other elements, including web, print and in-person.
