Whose Website is it Anyway?
UAD8 Usability, Accessibility and Design
Location: Ballroom C
TUESDAY, 9:30 - 10:15 a.m.
Learn how two University at Buffalo (UB) communications professionals reached across departmental lines in a decentralized graduate admissions environment to collaborate on an integrated and engaging website redesign. The focus of this presentation will be to discuss how we developed a messaging strategy tailored to students rather than internal faculty and staff, and utilized existing resources to improve operations and the overall web user experience at UB. We will also discuss the political and organizational barriers that communications professionals often face while collaborating on university-wide projects and how to overcome them. This session would benefit those who are part of an admissions, marketing, recruitment or student services team who are looking to improve internal and external communication through their website. Learning Outcomes/Objectives: • Identify your primary and secondary website audiences • Auditing existing content based on audience needs • Identifying and reducing internal lingo and industry jargon • Improve user experience through collaboration
Presenters
Jessica Kane
Assistant Director for Communications - International Education, University at Buffalo
Jessica Kane is the Assistant Director for Communications in International Education at the University at Buffalo. She has worked in many capacities in her years at UB including as an Admissions Counselor and an admissions Operations Manager. Kane uses her unique background in Cultural Anthropology and Immigration Law to inform her current work in higher ed communications.
Holly Acito
Coordinator of Enrollment Communications, University at Buffalo
Holly Acito is the Coordinator of Enrollment Communications in the University at Buffalo’s office of Graduate Enrollment Management. Acito has her master’s degree in Strategic Marketing and has worked in higher education for over three years. In addition to higher education, she has a background in legal marketing and creative services. Her professional passions center on internal and external communication, customer relationship management and marketing analytics.