establishing a digital presence - a primer for students

Establishing Your Digital Presence: A Primer for Students

Amy Santee, User Experience and Design Research Consultant Presented to the University of Memphis

Dept. of Anthropology November 19th, 2015

Agenda1. A bit about me 2. What is a digital presence? 3. Elements of a D.P. 4. Examples

@amysantee

A bit about me…

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MA Applied Anthropology2009-2011

Consumer Researcher2011-2012

UX Researcher / Consultant2013-2014

Lead UX Researcher 2014-2015

2004-2008 BA Anthropology

UX & Design Research Consultant (freelance)

July 2015 to present

Amy Santee

My job: User experience & design research

UX & Design Research

Research that informs the design of products, services and systems through understanding how people interact with them, and which impacts their experiences with them.

- User research - Design research - Usability testing

It helps businesses and organizations stay competitive and create things that people find useful, relevant and valuable.

What is a digital presence?

What is a digital presence?

Enabling others to find, evaluate, and contact you online

Focused on the professional, with a thread of the personal

A cohesive and holistic ecosystem of interconnected places

Why is this important?

Because globalization and the information age

This is a way to take advantage of our interconnectedness for professional exposure

Social capital

As a digital extension of your professional identity, it’s a way to:

Be findable when you’re a professional Help people get to know you before they contact you Expand your connections Tell your professional story Have a voice, share your opinions Be a part of the global conversation Support others in your discipline or field of work Practice putting yourself out there

The best time to start is when you’re a student.

You don’t need to have everything - just the basics.

Elements of a digital presence

Where should you “be” online?

Wherever it makes sense. Wherever you want to reach people.

Consider your audience. Provide relevant, interesting, updated content

Website: resume, professional statement, experience

Blog: interesting, relevant posts and opinions

Social media: interesting, relevant posts and activity

LinkedIn: filled out with up-to-date info on experience, creds

No need to constantly update

provide the information people don’t know they’re looking for

Your digital presence should be well-designed

To design means to put thought & intention into decisions.

Amazon 1999 Amazon 2015

It can also refer to the act of creating of websites, documents, etc.There’s a a reason lots of websites care about design.

Designing Your

Website

Use best practices from User-Centered Design

Mobile friendly: Can’t just work on a laptop or desktop

Readability: layout, font, colors

Readability Scanability: people don’t read on the internet

Information architecture: content is organized and categorized in ways that make sense to people

Calls to action: give people something to do (“contact me” or “learn more”)

Content: help people find people what they’re looking for quickly and easily, without frustration

When designing your entire digital presence, how can user-centered design best practices apply?

My digital presence: a few examples

Applied anthropologist sites/blogs

Anthropology student sites

amylaurensantee@gmail.com

@amysantee

www.amysantee.com.com

Thank you!