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Program Pages
Last week, I talked about one of the biggest parts of my job for the past two years: writing spotlights.
The other part that competed with that for the top spot is the program pages.
These are pages giving lots of information about each program (mostly) offered by the University. We had to coordinate with the departments across campus for most of the information. We also had to contact numerous students and alumni from each program to provide quotes and full interviews.
Information provided was then plugged into a template and voila!
There were a few things that we had to adjust to accommodate subtle unique qualities for some programs, but mostly it was plug and play after we wrote up the content from the information we gathered.
These pages don’t have by-lines because they’re a different type of content. The spotlights are supposed to be more personal, so having an author named helps create that feeling.
The program pages on the other hand are meant to more uniform and technical – though still very approachable. That was something the old site lacked – approachability. I think we succeeded in bringing that in.
The other thing about these program pages is that they are owned by the Office of Communication and Marketing as opposed to the individual departments on campus. This is because they are meant to be more marketing-based.
Draw them in and then send them off to the departmental sites – which are then meant to give more in-depth information.
This has been one of the toughest things to communicate to the department heads across campus. They all want to put forward every bit of information they possibly can, but that’s not what these pages are for. There was very little prioritization of information. It was a little hard to sell since we weren’t able to do the whole Louisiana.edu family of sites in one go (that’s just not how a site redesign works for universities).
But we made it!
And on we go.
Spotlights
So, on the new website, we wrote tons of feature stories on students and alumni. We call them spotlights and you’ll see them featured throughout the site if you look. The reason we did all this work for the site relaunch was to showcase the student experience at the University.
I mean, don’t you read reviews before you buy something significant?
The biggest places these spotlights were showcased was on the program pages. At the top of 90% of them, you’ll find a student spotlight. There’s also alumni spotlights farther down on the page. Some pages even have quite a few alumni spotlights.
In all honesty, some programs didn’t have super cooperative students or alumni, though. So, some are missing these spotlights. I don’t believe that’s a reflection on the programs or anything, more so the things being taught in these programs as well as the strengths of the students.
You’ll find that the Strategic Communication program has quite a few alumni. We communication majors like to talk, surprise! Whereas a lot of the STEM students and alumni were a little more reserved even when we did get the chance to interview them. That’s not to say they didn’t enjoy the program as much as communication students enjoyed theirs.
Rather, liberal arts students – and even art students – are taught to communicate, and they showcased that well. I’m sure the STEM students would do well showcasing the things their programs are teaching them (think more like science fair over book report).
Anyway, I went off on a little tangent there. I could delete it, but I just don’t really want to. 🙃
So, let’s get back to where I was going – this is a professional website, after all.
So, we (the web team) wrote all these spotlights, but that’s just the result of the entire process. A long process that tangles in with the process of building the program pages (I’ll probably do a separate blog post about those later).
First and foremost, we split up the list of programs among each member of the web team and we all went about things in slightly varied ways.
This is essentially what I did:
During the program page process, I coordinated a lot with the faculty and leadership in said programs. I poked them and prodded them and got lists of students and alumni that they thought would be good to showcase.
I sent a lot of emails.
Some people got back to me.
And then I interviewed a lot of people.
And I turned these interviews into full write-ups.
There were so many of these that this was the main focus of my job for quite a while. Here are some of my favorites:
Public relations alum Myleeza Mingo learned to navigate two worlds as a student
She was really fun to talk to and her experiences were really cool to write about.
Meet social media professional and public relations alum Kristyn Shay
I actually used to work with her at my internship! It was super cool to see how she’s been doing (she’s really a superstar).
Meet reporter and documentarian Eman Boyd '19
This one was really cool to see such a local impact.
Amy Oliver is using her communication degree at the Smithsonian Institution
I just realized that all of these have been communication alumni so far… 😬 I told you, communication majors like to talk! And they’re always super fun. I guess it’s just really cool for me to see all the ways a communication major can turn out.
French major Camille Harrington's advice for new students
I structured this one differently and had a lot of fun writing it.
Adam Ortego plans to make a difference with his architecture major
This one was a really fun interview. This student is also really involved all over campus, so you’ll see pictures of him frequently on the website.
It’s heeeere!
Okay so… It’s been a long time coming…
TLDR: I’ve spent two years (the entire time I’ve been at my job) working on this website redesign… and it just launched!!
The longer version: So, I got hired in March 2020 – literally right as the panini was starting up – to work on this website redesign. For reference, the old website looked a little like this:
I hate it. I’ve hated it the entire time I’ve known about it… and I went to college here (2012-2019). I’m glad it’s gone. I actually brought it up in my interview how much I hated this stupid website. It’s so outdated and it was really kind of misused. Essentially, the website acted as a giant digital filing cabinet for everyone on campus.
Not really what a university website is supposed to be. The new one is so much better. I’m so happy I got to be a part of it.
There’s a couple of things I want to say on it:
If you think of universities as an industry, the common structure of university websites is much different from those outside of the industry. What I mean by this is that we have one main site: Louisiana.edu and several (hundreds) of subsites: liberalarts.louisiana.edu, civil.louisiana.edu, it.louisiana.edu, etc.
The main site is pretty massive and alone it took two years to build (more to plan & organize & fund). All of the subsites are still on the old design and some of them are going to be a while until they get updated. They are in the works, though. It’s just a process.The new site isn’t just about updating the design. Don’t get me wrong, the new design is huge. But we went through the whole thing and updated all of the content with a new goal in mind. The new site is much more marketing-centered. We have a deliberately defined target audience that has determined the content of the site as well as user experience. It’s super exciting seeing such an upgrade and being part of it.
For a long time, my role while working on the website was Web Content Writer. I have since been promoted to Web Content Strategist and taken on a lot more than just writing. But for a long time, I was mostly just writing for the site.
I had a large focus on the program pages. For these, there was a lot of coordinating between our office and the many departments and colleges across campus. We wrote and built a one-page marketing pitch for each academic program offered at our university based on what incoming students wanted to know about them.
Not only is it a much better experience overall, but it’s super easy to see all of the programs and compare them if the student is undecided.
It was so much work. We have almost 100 pages dedicated to the undergraduate programs.One of the things that our target audience wanted was more student input. Not surprising. This is the equivalent to customers wanting more reviews and whatnot. Don’t just tell them “We’re awesome and this is why” but showcase what the actual people say who have been through it. It’s a sound strategy and not too different from other industries.
But it was a lot of work. 🥵 We interviewed so many people and wrote spotlights on a good chunk of them. I actually got my first by-line published because of one of these spotlights being pushed before the website redesign launch … 2 years before – almost to the day. We wrote so many spotlights on students and alumni from every program we offer.We actually have over 240 programs offered at the University, but we really focused in on the undergraduate programs, which cuts that number down significantly. Grad school is one of the first subsites that we’re going to focus on switching over to the new design. Talk about job security. 😜
Well, that’s about all I can think to say about it for now. Take a look at the site if you’re curious what I’ve been doing with my life the past two years…. Other than having a baby. 😂
Coding Project
I started working on the projects in this video. From it, I finished this project for my portfolio. It took me a few days to make adjustments so I could post it in a code block on Squarespace, but I figured it out and boy, oh boy, is that a good feeling when you can finally say:
Anyway, it’s just a simple little memory game, but figuring out things like how to work with fontawesome properly and selecting the child of the element you clicked… well, it took me some Googling and searching on Stack Overflow. I’ve been informed that this is the mark of a true developer, so I’m on the right path. ;)
Just a small little update, but one I’m embarrassingly proud of. Seriously, that feeling when you finally get everything to click is just
New
I’m not gonna lie, I had high hopes for my last website. Well, RIP. Welcome to the new one. I probably still won’t tend to the blog very often, it’s just not my thing. Other people do “how-tos” and “tips & tricks” to fill their blogs, but really, it’s all already out there. You just gotta know how to Google.
Instead, I’ll keep the updates here. They’ll probably be few and far between, but I like to keep the option open for myself. I’ll let you know if I’ve added any projects over on my coding page or my writing page or whatever page I might be adding to. I’ll let you know here when the project I’m working on at work goes live and I’ll probably link some of my pieces from that.
For now, the update is this: I’ve redone my portfolio website. The design is better, there are more pages to explore and honestly more of my work to view at your pleasure. I did just about everything myself with the help of Squarespace from the photography to the writing. It could still probably be better. But that’s okay. I think it does the job in showing what it’s supposed to: me.
NaNoWriMo
So, if you don’t know, NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit organization that focuses on cultivating writers. It is also short for National Novel Writing Month. While they have multiple events throughout the year, November is by far the biggest. The NaNoWriMo challenge in November is to write 50,000 words in a month.
A month! And not even a 31-day month. We only get 30 days to write 50,000 words in between Thanksgiving and holiday shopping (and this year, election drama on top of pandemic stress). In the past, I’ve always had finals at this time, too. So, I’ve never won.
I still like participating though. I like knowing that there are so many people out there who enjoy writing.
It’s over a week into NaNo2020 and I only just started writing today. I even started procrastinating today by writing this blog post. 😁
Anyone else participating?
Meet the Writer
Hiya, my name is Ashley and I’m a writer. I write my own stuff with the goal of becoming a published author, but right now I also write for other people. I have a pretty strong foundation of writing for local businesses. I interned at an ad agency that put together and managed the EatLafayette and ShopLafayette campaigns. These campaigns really sparked my passion for small and local businesses. They also really showed me how much these businesses can benefit from some professional social media management.
I have my bachelor’s degree in advertising with a minor in psychology. I focused a lot on strategies and advertising plans while working on my undergraduate degree. I studied graphic design and creative writing for a while before going back to school to earn my graduate degree. An opportunity arose that I could not refuse and I earned my MBA while working as a student manager. I lost a few years of experience in my field of study, but I took as many extra classes on marketing and social media as I could. Since graduating, I’ve made sure to spend a good portion of my free time continuing the learning process. I have some great reference books and I have bought access to some courses on Udemy.com, but my favorite way to learn is through free resources I can find in places like YouTube.
Now, I know this is a portfolio website, but this wouldn’t be a very good introduction if you didn’t get a good sense of who I am. So, if you’re really not interested, go ahead and skip the rest of this.
I self-identify as a huge nerd. I play D&D, I read a lot (20 books so far this year), and tons of other nerdiness. Putting How I Met Your Mother or Friends on in the background is extremely comforting for me (it regularly puts me to sleep). I love food and I believe in finding a balance between the healthy greens and the rich, chocolaty cakes.
I might live in Louisiana, but my ideal weather is cold and snowy. I actually lived in Alaska for a while before moving to Louisiana. I have a real passion for small and local businesses, but I also love traveling and I even lived in Germany for a while before moving to Alaska. I’m a military brat, so moving around is second nature to me. It’s actually been a while since I moved and I’m getting a little antsy.
You can find out a little more about me on my Instagram and through this post.
There’s a lot more, but you’re just going to have to stick around to learn more. See you around. (:
Welcome
Hi there! I decided it was time I actually put a portfolio website together. So, welcome to my portfolio! I am a writer and that’s what I’ll (mostly) be showcasing here. I currently work in web content writing, but I have experience with social media and email newsletters. Unfortunately I don’t have enough to really put together pages for all of the projects I’ve worked on since it took me a few years to discover my own personal organizational system.
If you think we would be a good match and want to see my work with social media, please contact me and I can send you what I have. In the meantime, check out my Instagram that I set up to go with my portfolio.