“we were basically emailing them direct links to pages on our website”
card sorts!
students’: mental model, priorities, language
(wow, I think we’re actually doing really well with this!)
4 steps to make the shift
- get management support & sponsorship
overcoming challenges — “show, don’t tell”: she mentions running a usability test
producing tangible results, involving stakeholders throughout.
card sorts!
need to read The Content Strategy Toolkit, which we already have at work.
2. building the right team
she’s really into student workers as part of the team.
“our users are all around us”
key skills: visual design, ux, content, analyst
foster their skills
she takes them to local conferences, have them present with her at events. (oh, maybe at the user group meeting, or even have them lead speed-dating content workshops)
3. involve users early in the design process
[what about getting the students involved in user research?]
“simplify people’s lives” (as our ultimate goal)
check rough prototypes early, so you can have your failures early.
nice clip of usability testing
use social media & email to create pool of participants (I wonder if that would work for prospective students) — for us, with students, the internal web message board works strikingly well.
“aim to make things better, not perfect”
ROCKET SURGERY MADE EASY.
4. measure & communicate results
nice report that they created to share improvement. (or is that a thing on tumblr? yeah, it’s a site that they update periodically: maybe once a month?)
“when fixing problems, try to do the least you can do” – Steve Krug
TBH, the MOST interesting thing about this session is how she uses and trains student works.