Time: April 9, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Speakers: Jillian Kuhn
Redesigning a one-off website for every unit is costly, time-intensive, and inconsistent. Instead, shifting to a “build once, serve many” approach delivers sites that are sustainable and affordable – making your leadership, web team, site owners, and end users happy! We’ll share the story of how Duke University is embracing centralized web solutions, the challenges we’ve faced, and the lessons learned that you can take back to your institution.
Time: April 10, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Speakers: Mikael Arvola
Our new standards and guidelines for developing web applications at the Graduate College. We’ll talk about system-level architecture as well as design choices for individual parts, and the reasoning behind each. The whole stack from server to user interface will be covered. While most of the presentation is not specific to individual technologies, examples are from our applications using SQL Server, .NET Core C#, and Vue.js.
Time: April 4, 2:45 pm – 3:45 pm
Speaker: Cory Rylan
How can we achieve lightning-fast websites without sacrificing rich interactivity? In this session, discover cutting-edge techniques that combine the best of server-side rendering (SSR) and client-side interaction for modern web experiences. We’ll explore how to leverage Custom Elements (Web Components) to build server-rendered UI components that work without JavaScript for the initial load, seamlessly transitioning to a fully interactive UI. Learn about powerful Web APIs like Declarative Shadow DOM to integrate your UI with popular frameworks and tools to distribute your UI across all platforms, from CMS-driven sites to single-page applications.
Time: April 4, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Speakers: Rashmi Tenneti, Maggie Evenson, Stacy Billman
Is your university website truly serving your students, prospective applicants, and other key stakeholders? This management-focused session provides a strategic roadmap for overseeing and directing a successful website redesign project using proven UX methodologies and data-driven decision making.
Duration: 60 minutes | Format: Strategy Workshop with Interactive Components
We’ll walk through the complete redesign process from strategy development to implementation planning, using our Work in Progress project, Illinois.edu as a case study. You’ll discover how to:
- Interpret analytics data to make informed strategic decisions
- Leverage search pattern analysis for content prioritization
- Establish effective benchmarking processes against peer institutions
- Organize and oversee user research initiatives like card sorting
- Develop and implement SEO strategies specific to higher education
- Build and manage cross-functional project teams for optimal results
Participants will receive a comprehensive project management worksheet template to guide their own redesign initiatives. Whether you’re planning a complete website overhaul or targeted improvements, you’ll leave with practical tools to lead a more engaging, accessible, and effective digital experience for your university community.
Ideal for: marketing managers, content strategists, marketing directors, and digital communications teams in higher education looking to lead website redesign projects. No technical web development knowledge required.
Time: April 4, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Speaker: Bill Reynen
The University of Illinois Foundation wanted to build a donor portal that could scale to handle the large number of donors to the University of Illinois System. It had to be scalable, secure and allow for new features to be added over time. Hear about our journey to select Azure with Microsoft Entra as our platform, React for our front end, and C# for our REST API.
Time: April 4, 9:45 am – 10:45 am
Speakers: Edward Delaporte, Michelle Pitcel
A brisk tour of risk mitigation resources for Illinois Developers and Web Admins.
Time: April 3, 2:45 am – 3:45 pm
Speaker: Johnathan Grant
Hey, web wizards! Ready to uncover the secrets behind a seamless web review process? Join us for an in-depth case study on how a dynamic University of Kansas team revolutionized their web review system by optimizing workflows and forging strong partnerships with their customers. This session will highlight the innovative techniques and collaborative strategies that drove efficiency and excellence. Discover how the team streamlined operations, leveraged cutting-edge tools, and worked hand-in-hand with customers to ensure a smooth, effective review process. Whether you’re a web development pro or just getting started, you’ll gain valuable insights into creating a more efficient and customer-centric web environment. Let’s elevate our web game together!
Time: April 3, 2:45 am – 3:45 pm
Speaker: Cordelia Geiken
This session will walk folks through the different kinds of questions you should have answers to before you sign with a vendor. We will cover topics like: Design, Accessibility, Search Engine Optimization, Content Imports and Exports, Which CMS to use, Security, Backups and Storage. Come with your own questions and we will endeavor to answer those as well.
Time: April 3, 1:30 am – 2:30 pm
Speaker: Jason Rambeck
If you are an information worker, you’ve been using AI for a bit now and been slowly discovering all that is possible with this new-found power. In this session we will cover AI strategies, techniques, and tools website managers and authors can use to dramatically increase the productivity and quality of their work. We are all used to using AI to do things like: generate titles, outlines, content, or content ideas? But what if we could deeply integrate tools into our CMS to generate alt text, identify redundant content, and refine our information architecture. Then, taking advantage of the real power of AI, training models to guide things like content governance, tone of voice, and doing usability testing. We will explore these possibilities together using real-world examples to demonstrate how to unlock the power of AI for your website management.
Time: April 3, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Speaker: Chris Axtman-Barker
University Housing worked to analyze resident opinion data to refine communications encouraging residents to live on campus for a second (or third, or fourth!) year. Data backed key messages then ran through communications and marketing materials for a digital-first returner campaign with startling success. The presentation will include follow up survey data.