Web Communications » General Web

Ten rules for web content

bakerda — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:07:02 +0000

From our presentation at the Drupal Bootcamp earlier this week, here are ten tips for better web content. Follow these and your page will automatically be ahead of most of the others out there.

Use brief introductory copy on every major page: three lines max, aimed at new users
Avoid dense blocks of text
Make page scan-able by using ordered and unordered lists
Make page scannable by employing headings at least down to
Write titles and headings so that a user could read them alone and have a strong understanding of the whole page
Use bold/italics sparingly
Never use all caps
Never underline text for emphasis unless it’s an actual link
Instead of “click here” make descriptive text into a link
Follow AP Style

- David

Welcome Callie!

bakerda — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 21:56:29 +0000

Web Comm team is thrilled to have Callie Zilk on board as our new writer/editor. We’re excited about her webby predilections and her journalism background. With a degree in journalism from Mizzou’s storied program, and stints at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Southern Poverty Law Center, she bring great experience to our group. She’s relocated to the Northwest to make sure our stories keep flowing and our prose passes AP muster. It’s a pleasure to welcome her to our team.

- David

Month in review.

dayo — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:23:52 +0000

Gratuitous Animated Beaver Gifs Post

ucedas — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:55:01 +0000

We’ve been having some fun with Benny lately, he’s shown up in some of our recent projects. He made his animated gif debut in a project for the Office of Admissions, appeared on a holiday card and recently came out the beaver den to wish everyone psychedelic Valentine’s day wishes.

What is a User Experience Specialist?

Kegan — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:16:13 +0000

So whenever I am in a meeting and we do the typical lets all introduce ourselves spiel. I inevitably get asked what I actually do or get the typical confused/intrigued facial expressions. I guess I should preface this by saying my official title is User Experience Specialist. Most of the time I give a fairly generic and rehearsed explanation, but I feel like the absolute best explanation can only be reached via YouTube. (I have been on a big Office Space kick these days)

This might seem silly, but it really is pretty accurate as I see it. My job is to balance the needs of our users (students, staff, faculty, alumni, etc..) and the needs of our leadership. We are in fact a marketing and communications division. We wouldn’t exist if there was no strategic mission our university was trying to accomplish. So I try to listen to our audiences, gather information, test, practice, etc.. Then combine that with the insight I have into higher education, our specific university and the strategic goals as handed down from our President, Provost and VP. So in essence I am the web middle man.

Kegan-

Teenagers and Web Usability

Kegan — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:39:09 +0000

I was recently sent an interesting article. It was a study done by the Nielsen Norman Group on Teenagers and how they use the web. It contrasts this study with others done on different age groups. If you are interested in the subject I encourage you to read the full article. I will be honest it doesn’t paint teenagers in a positive light, but lets be honest they probably deserve it. I think the chart below pretty much sums up all of their general findings. Like any usability research we shouldn’t jump to conclusions (unless you have a jump to conclusions mat) and make drastic or sweeping changes to how we do things. However, having an ever increasing understanding of the audiences we try to serve will only make our work better.

Kegan-

State-focused recruiting pages

bakerda — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:16:51 +0000

We recently partnered with the Admissions Office at OSU to update some Web materials for state-by-state recruiting efforts. By building a custom experience for prospective students from individual states, we hope to personalize the digital admissions process, showing what it’s like to come to campus and give them state-specific information.

The sites are simple, small and feature a responsive layout. They also feature an updated video tour of campus, as well as a new photo tour experience.

If we can make the transition process a little more smooth to those new to Oregon, then I’d say that’s a success. Now it’s time to watch how it works, gather feedback, test, refine and repeat.

Here are a few of the state-specific sites:

- David

Demo Reel

bakerda — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:55:55 +0000

The Web Communications Office now has a demo reel of recent video, multimedia and motion graphics work. Thanks to our team of phenomenal interns for putting it together (and for doing much of the featured work).

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

HD motion content is now a primary facet of communicating on the web, and our goal is to make sure OSU stays on the leading edge, and to provide services to units across campus who want to reach audiences in this medium.

HighEdWeb Presentation ’10

bakerda — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:10:26 +0000

YouTube breakout

bakerda — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 16:08:25 +0000

One of our amazing and talented interns organized a “flash mob” dance to bring awareness to diversity issues on campus. To date we’ve had well over 50,000 views and counting since the beginning of the month.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]