Appendix B

What happens to university + agency partnerships when there’s a change in leadership? 

What role should storytelling play on higher education websites? 

Kristin and Joel enthusiastically discuss the use of icons in web design and highlight the potential pitfalls of using them in generic and inconsistent ways. While icons can be useful for wayfinding and simple actions, they should NOT be used as cheap replacements for rich illustrations or photographs, because this can lead to confusion and miscommunication. It’s also important to consider the cultural and semiotic implications of icons and folks should think about using them judiciously to enhance user experience and avoid undermining the intended message.

Kristin Van Dorn discusses the presentation she recently gave at PSEWEB on transitioning from order-taking to strategy in Higher Ed digital roles. She shares her experiences dealing with disconnected leadership and offers insights on overcoming challenges, and introduces organizational frames by Bolman and Deal, which include structural, political, human resource, and symbolic.

Carl and Joel chat about the emergence of Threads, and what its potential impact on higher education marketing might be. Should institutions embrace it? And if so, for which audience?

Why should university websites use negative space and be simple in their design?

What is the relationship between white space, quality, and user trust in web design? In Part Two of our series on UX Principles, Kristin and Joel chat about the relationship between all three.

What role does white space play in web design?

It’s cruel (cruel) cruel Summer (Melt).

And a really low-hanging fruit sort of way to address it is by taking a look at the role of friction in the acceptance-to-enrollment journey for students.

Joel talks about the importance of identifying friction points within the process and shares tips on how to mitigate them from a user experience and service design perspective. 

And Kristin, drawing from her UX background, stresses the significance of giving students control over the onboarding process. 

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How can Higher Ed marketers deal more effectively with summer melt? It starts by maintaining some continuity in content strategy during the summer months. Marketing materials that incoming students are receiving should be similar in tone to what they’ve been used to. If we treat the new student experience as “onboarding,” we can create a strong foundation for the incoming class.