Hey – want to know a secret from your friends in the Usability, Accessibility & Design track? YOU, my friend, are an experience designer. Really, we’re serious. Think about it for a minute: whether you are a manager, programmer, content person, social media specialist, every day you make choices that impact how people experience your institution.
Pretty cool, isn’t it? With this power comes great responsibility. We can all help make sure in our work that our digital doors are open for all abilities. We can all help our institutions use data and user research better than we currently do. We can all help lead our campuses to embrace better user experience. But don’t fall into the trap that you have to do all the things – every small change can be a huge leap forward.
Every year, we’re excited to hear from our peers to see how they’ve brought change to the digital world. This year is no exception. How about these sessions:
- “Can You Do It In The Dark?” – Chris D’Orso and Justin Romack will help us look at our social media content through the eyes of someone who can’t see.
- “Hat of Many Hats: Becoming the Web Product Owner” – Dave Cameron will show developers, designers, content specialists, digital strategists—anyone with a passion for understanding what it takes to deliver a great user experience how to rock the Product Owner hat and make it fit.
- “Performance Still Matters” – Erik Runyon will show how to make the web as performant as possible and faster than ever. Google will thank you.
- “Making a Case for Personalization” – Martin Sickafoose will share how to use data to build personalized experiences to let visitors customize their experience.
- “Beautifully Accessible” – Levi McGranahan will show that accessible web applications and beautiful interface design are not mutually exclusive.
You want more? Come visit us in the UAD track and hear these sessions, plus look at the case for content audits, breaking down barriers to accessibility, creating information for prospective students that work, and so many more golden nuggets. Once again, it’s an all-star lineup of higher ed web pros.
At the end of the day, it comes down to this – whatever your role, whatever your title, YOU can play a part in making your site work for everybody. We’ll show you the way.
See you in Sacramento!
Michelle Tarby & Matt Ryan
UAD Track Co-Chairs
