October 18-21 online and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!

Naming things is hard: Why words become technical debt, a design+dev alignment guide

Mike Tullo, Yale University
Jim Vomero, Four Kitchens

Accessible wayfinding: It’s not uncharted territory

Aaron Knight, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

• Great examples
• Test: try describing a map to someone with their eyes closed
  • After, ask essential questioins (like emergancy exits)

From SEO to AEO: 10 practical ways higher ed websites can show up in AI and search

Chad Capellman, Sandstorm
Syd Hunsinger, Sandstorm

• 1/2 of HS students use AI search and many cross off a school without ever visting your site
• 58% fewer clicks, 120% uptick in citations
• LLM.txt no longer a thing
• AEO Answer Engine Organization
  • Should still focus on SEO fundimentals
  • But also build for AI ingesdtion
• AI reads the web similar to assistive tech!
• Steps
  1. Make sure AI can reach you (bot blockers may hide iyour site)
  2. Prompt testing – go in and ask questions. Look for missing/bad data. Use personas (I’m a first generation student, etc)
  3. Clarify your positioning – keep facts consistant and fresh. Retire old calendar years!
  4. Lead with the answer – open key pages with a 1-2 sentance summary
  5. Design for search navigation (not starting at your homepage). even on oyr sote users can prefer an AI enhanced search.
  6. Put questions near decisions (are faqs back?) Anticipate thier needs.
  7. Add in-context calls to action. Try something other than “apply now”
  8. Built topic hubs – people search by issues, not org structure
  9. … and we’re out of time :(

Know the tropes. Spot the slop. Make it human.

Taylor King, Ologie
Dakota Story, Ologie

• AI exhaustion is a real thing
• Takes all of our worst, baseline ideas and throws it back at us
• Slop – garbage in garbage out
• Higher ed marketing is the “sea of sameness”
• No portraits ever!
• Humans made slop way befor AI… think buzzwords and cliches