As the Coordinator of Orientation – Operations at UW-Madison, much of my role is to communicate clear information about the university’s orientation (SOAR) program to the more-than 16,000 annual incoming students and guests.

Print Content

As the Subject-Matter Expert on SOAR logistics, I was also the content creator for communications that students and guests received. Below are examples of the content I wrote for confirmation packets (received via US mail) and SOAR program schedules (received at the program). In addition to these printed materials, I also created timely content for emails distributed by our SOAR reservation system. Participants received these e-mails upon making a reservation, plus two weeks out, one week out, and one day ahead of their SOAR program date.

Freshmen Students

• Freshmen Confirmation Packet 2018
• Freshman Program Schedule 2017

Transfer Students

• Transfer-Confirmation-2018
• Transfer Program Schedule 2017

Late August and International Students

• Late August Confirmation Packet
• Late-August One-Day Program Schedule
• Late-August Two-Day Program Schedule

Website Streamline

Earlier versions of the site included 30+ individual pages, hard-to-navigate menus, and extraneous information that was likely to lead users to other websites (student activities, disability support, housing, etc.) before completing their SOAR reservation. Through several iterations of the website, we worked to streamline the information into three main categories: SOAR checklist (to-do steps of how to make a SOAR reservation and prepare for the program), an overview of the program, and the “contact us” page.

For this project, I worked closely with the Coordinator of Communication to streamline information, develop a logical organizational structure, and write content while she transitioned the site over to our new WordPress platform.