An Everlasting Gobstopper of Education: We Interview Attendee Apart Catherine Kerley

At the beginning of the year, we established An Attendee Apart to recognize folks who keep coming back to AEA, again and again. Catherine Kerley may have done that more than anyone else; she first attended An Event Apart Chicago 2006—back when it was a one-day event—and has returned just about every year since. We chatted with Catherine about getting started on the web, working in the humanities, and the things she just can't live without.

How did you get your start in design, web or otherwise?

My original experience with design started when I was in a ballet company in my twenties. At that time, I designed costumes for productions. Later, I shifted to belly dance costuming. Then, in the Fall of 1998, I was asked to be a graduate teaching assistant for the OU College of Liberal Studies (CLS). The college had just launched its first fully online courses, and I was brought on board to work with the students in the Humanities courses. My undergraduate degree is in English and Classical Culture, so Humanities was the perfect fit. During the summer session, the course websites needed updating, so my journey into web design began.

A few years later, CLS shifted to 100% online for all courses, and there was a giant push to get 200 courses and their websites created. I was primarily in charge of the design of all the courses, and worked on the team that built all the sites. About 10 years after first joining CLS, I shifted roles from designing and developing the sites to being the administrator of the public-facing websites for the college.

Do you feel like your liberal arts degree has helped you in the web field?

Absolutely! I view almost everything in mythological terms—that damn Rock of Sisyphus is everywhere! Having a foundational understanding of how myths teach life lessons is valuable when tackling any project our office has—from working with other departments, to meeting with vendors, to meeting with deans.

From a design perspective, Humanities really teaches us to think critically, to reason and ask the hard questions. Being able to look at my own work critically helps a lot, and of course looking at the web design work of others through the lens of critical thinking gives me a better understanding of why they did certain things. It also comes in handy when the University's Web Communication office wants to change how we list our navigation, and says something like, “Our research shows that students don't put themselves into categories. That only happens when people are shopping for clothing.”

My Humanities background instantly makes me not only dig deeper into their claim, but also pushes me to think about how that affects prospective and current students at CLS. And of course a Humanities background also comes in very handy with having a working knowledge of my college's history—CLS was founded on interdisciplinary liberal arts.

Tell us a little bit about what you do day-to-day.

Day-to-day, I have the amazing opportunity to find balance between the creative side of things, and the intellectual and academic side of things. Even though I no longer work on the college's courses, the marketing and PR team pulls from the courses to help keep the public site active. Within the public site, I'm constantly working on information architecture and content strategy to improve the site as much as possible. I also work to adjust forms from Hobson's Radius [an information management product for higher education. –Ed.] to function within our CMS, Adobe's CQ5. I also work with the rest of the marketing team on our social media efforts and keep the site, blog, and social media interconnected.

What are some tools and resources you just can't live without?

JSBin, Asana, lynda.com, Aquent Gymnasium, Photoshop, and nine years of AEA notes!

Well, thank you! What makes AEA notes so valuable to you?

I have always viewed AEA like an Everlasting Gobstopper—always changing colors and flavors, building on itself, never getting smaller. Every year I learn things that build on previous years. I see some of these things daily in my office; others are on the wish list. The stack of resources I have because of AEA seems endless, yet not at all overwhelming. Whatever issue I'm facing with our website, there is always a resource from AEA to find a solution or workaround.

What's a favorite AEA moment or experience that comes to mind?

I'd have to say my favorite moment over the years is Mike Monteiro's “How Designers Destroyed the World” in San Francisco 2014. This talk is one I could hear again and again. The ending moment when Mike dropped the mic on the stage and the room erupted in applause is one I'll never forget.

Thanks, Catherine!