In this episode, we’ll talk about how you can create your personal academic website in 3 steps, which are
- Draft your personal academic website outline.
- Develop your personal academic website content.
- Design your personal academic website.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode four of the Beyond Your Science Podcast. Today, we’re going to dive straight into it because there’s a lot to cover when it comes to creating your personal academic website in three steps. In episode one we talked about the first thing you should do when creating your personal academic website, which is creating a website strategy. If you haven’t heard that episode yet, I would highly recommend going back to listen to it before listening to this one.
So now that you’ve listened to that episode, you might be wondering, now that I have a strategy, how do I use it? How do I know what type of content I need to put on my website with my website strategy. So that’s what we’ll talk about today. In today’s episode, we’ll talk about how you can create your personal academic website in three steps, which are number one, drafting your website outline, number two, developing your website content, and number three, designing your website.
How the Website Setup Workshop Can Help You
Before we start I wanted to share about the Website Setup Workshop. The Website Setup Workshop is designed to help academic researchers, science communicators and other STEM leaders like you create their first personal academic website, so they can leverage their experience and expertise to get the paid opportunities that that they want like making a new career move or increasing their income through their writing, speaking and other specialized services. This is for you have you’ve been struggling to figure out what to put on your website so that you can show your efforts towards the causes you care about to potential colleagues, collaborators and employers. And you could also use a little help on the web design part as well, because you want your website to follow the best practices or standards that is also simple enough for you to personalize and update on your own as your life and career grows and changes.
With the Website Setup Workshop, you will draft a website outline based on your goals for your website, develop your website content, including the text and images for each page. And then designing your website with a premade framework on Squarespace so that you can add your website content and make it easy to update on your own. So if you’re interested in this, for more information, you can check out my website, brittanytrinh.com/wsw.
Step 1. Draft Your Personal Academic Website Outline
So let’s get started with the first step, which is drafting your personal academic website outline. After you create your website strategy, you can brainstorm website content. And it’s really important to brainstorm website content first, because it will guide the design of the website. If you start creating your website without doing this beforehand, you’re going to spend a lot more time staring at a blank screen than you need to.
Before you can get started with playing around in your website builder, you’ll want to draft your website outline, which is also called a sitemap. It’s important to drop your website outline first so that you can organize your content and use that to direct the design of the website. What this usually looks like is the top level or the navigation that you see in the menu for most people’s websites.
An Example with My Website
So for example, on my website, I have my homepage, I have an about page podcast resources, work with me and a website setup workshop button. And so to break it all down on my homepage, I have a short bio about what I do and who I help. And I used to have testimonials, and a feature about my free download called the website starter kit. And recently, I went through a little redesign of my website. And so now on the homepage, instead, I feature recent posts and podcast episodes for the time being, because I really want people to see that first instead of the download.
And then of course, we also have the about page. Currently, this is also a work in progress on my website. But I hope that in the future, I’m going to have more information about places I’ve spoken at more about my story, maybe feature like the podcast episode where I talk more about myself, really just to give a sense of who I am and what my values are to people who may not know about me and of course, what I do next.
I also have a work with me page, which has info about the website setup workshop that I mentioned earlier, as well as my website redesign service for people who have had websites before. And so for each of these, there’s a brief summary. So people can easily browse through the page, and then click on the link page for more info. And on that more info page. People can see who it’s for what’s included, how it works, how to book the pricing, any FAQs. And eventually I’ll also add relevant case studies to my portfolio and so for a lot of these things, the recurring theme is a work in progress. Because you know the saying the shoemakers kids, like don’t have shoes or the shoemaker has the worst shoes. This is also the same case, because, you know, this is just parts of my websites I have not gotten around to working on, because I’m just too busy helping other people. And so it’s always like, I’m gonna get around to it.
But anyways, back to the sitemap. I also have a blog, which is disguised as resources and podcasts. And so resources are just blog posts that I wrote before I started the podcasts that I want to keep up. And then of course, the podcasts will be the podcast episodes with the full transcript. And in my blog, I also used to have like a PhD journey, where I would blog about my PhD journey, but I’ve archived up in favor of the podcasts and the resources because I really just want to kind of keep it very narrow.
How to Create Your Own Website Outline
To create your own website outline, there are three ways that you can approach this. Number one is that you can brainstorm anything that comes to your mind and then organize it later. Number two is you can think about the different big pages that you want, and then start filling in the content under each page. Or number three is that you can just go one page at a time and then fill in the contents for each page before moving on.
In my experience, for myself, and for my clients, I find that approach number two works the best, however, everyone is different. So just choose a method and move on. And don’t worry about getting it perfect, because you can always go back and add to it. And like you saw with my own website, it’s also just a work in progress. And this whole thing is iterative. So don’t get too hung up on the progress on the process. So you can do this on paper or pencil, type it into Google doc, whatever to help you visualize your website outline. And then once you have your outline, think about the items that would be relevant to add under each page. And so at this point, you are still brainstorming so just a few items under each page will do.
Always remember your website strategy, keeping your purpose, your users, and your goals of your website in your mind as you brainstorm possible website content. In my case, my website’s purpose is to share about my services. So I want to have information that will help potential clients decide if I’m a good fit for their needs. For example, that portfolio that I really need to put up, including the corresponding testimonials, in fact, embedded better than just a portfolio a case study would be better because it could show how I thought through the project and saw my clients problems. So if you go on my website right now, it will probably be hard to find this because like I mentioned, this is something I’ve been meaning to do. I have them somewhere, but I just haven’t featured it on my services page. And again, I want to reiterate your website is a work in progress always. So there’s no need to guilt yourself if it takes some time to get this info together.
An Example of a Research-based Personal Academic Website
So here’s an example for a research based website. I haven’t made one yet, but if I were to make one, this is what I include off the top of my head. So I would include screenshots or posters I presented if I could share that information, check with your PI. And then also include like a short description of my results or contributions, what I learned, like technical or interpersonal skills, I would also include the papers that I’ve contributed to explain my role in the word, a major takeaway linked to the paper. And then just another description with the least jargon possible, something that would be appropriate for a general like scientific audience. And then I would, of course, include a link to my CV, a bio about myself that shows some of my interests and personalities like about my story about why I’m in science and what I want to do in the future after my PhD.
And then if I had the time and was able to, like I wasn’t bound by confidentiality, and it was okay with my PI, then I could write a blog post about how I solve different research problems, to kind of show off my problem solving skills. So this would also be a great addition to my current website. But personally, I’m not really sure if I want to include that research work on my website yet, because right now, like I mentioned, my goal is more geared towards the web design business for some leaders instead of my accomplishments as a researcher, but this is kind of an example of what you could probably do for your website if you are more interested in the research side of a personal website.
2. Develop Your Personal Academic Website Content
Now we’re moving on to step two, which is developing your personal academic website content. When you’re satisfied with your website, outline then you can move on to developing your website content. So this is where you actually write out the website tags for each item of your outline. So it’s important to completely write out the website tags so that when you design your website, you can see what it looks like in real time. So if you skip this step, it will make your designing process more difficult. So when you’re writing out your website tags, keep your users and your goals in mind. What type of language would your users be familiar with? What information do your users want to know or that you want to convey to them to help you reach your goals, and continue doing this for every item in your website outline.
Developing your website content doesn’t mean the words and the text only. It also includes finding relevant photos, videos, documents, and other media. So when you find this media, organize them in folders, like Google Drive, or just on your computer. So you know which page they belong on, or what item they belong with. And this step usually takes the longest.
What Not to Do When Developing Your Personal Academic Website Content
If there’s one thing to not do, it’s to copy and paste your entire CV onto your website and do nothing else. And this actually reminds me of Cutthroat Kitchen. If you’re familiar, Cutthroat Kitchen is a reality cooking show where people have to cook simple dishes. But they’re sabotaged by having to incorporate strange items. And so there was this one episode where a contestant got a century egg, which is a Chinese preserved a bag that’s usually kind of brown on the outside and kind of has like a gray or green center. And it’s definitely an acquired taste. But he decided to treat it like a hard boiled egg to serve in a chicken coop salad when it’s usually eaten with a rice porridge. And, of course, the judges did not like this combination, and they were eliminated.
And so the moral of the story is you cannot just take your CV and throw it on your website, and think that that’s okay. I mean, it’s fine, but it won’t be as effective as your website could be. Because you want to use your website to showcase your expertise and experience in the best way possible, you will benefit a lot more if you can be a little bit more creative about how you talk about yourself. Because if your people wanted to read your CV, they would just read your CV. And you can definitely use your CV as a starting point for your website outline. And I recommend everyone to do this. But you now have a more creative space to share more about yourself. So find those things in your CV that you really want to highlight and show off and expand on those.
3. Design Your Personal Academic Website
Once you’re satisfied with your website content, you can now move on to the third step which is designing your personal academic website. So before you go into your website builder, you’ll want to create a mock up, and a mock up just a visualization of your website, which can be as simple as a sketch with boxes and lines. You can also gather inspirations from others websites. For example, from websites from people in your field, you can note specific features that you like and want to incorporate onto your website such as the fonts, the colors or the layouts. And you can screenshot these elements and compile them into one document to make your markup.
If you need more examples, you can also check out the best academics website contest that I co hosted with Jennifer Van Alstyne of higher ed PR, or and Dr. Ian Li from Owlstown. So I’ll link that information in the show notes for you to see what other academics have made. We also go in depth about what makes their academic websites good, so you can kind of see what are some of the best practices are.
How to Know When You’re Ready to Build Your Website
Once you have a good enough mock up, you can start using the website builder. What I mean by good enough is that if you can see what you need to put into the website builder, like pretty easily, then then that’s what I mean by good enough. If you cannot visualize it and you cannot figure out what exactly you need to put were, then I would recommend going back and keep working on your markup until you have something that is kind of easy to follow.
If you see that there are recurring patterns in the layout for your pages, I would recommend making one page with that layout first, and then duplicating that page for other pages so that you can make the process more efficient. Once you build out the page, then you can copy and paste your website content and then add in the Related media that you developed in step two. Finally, you can polish your website by checking for typos, spelling errors, and wrong links and then also customizing your colors and fonts for your website.
Choosing Colors and Fonts
For colors and fonts, honestly, I’m pretty simple and I which is highly recommend like choosing black text, or a dark dark gray, and then white for your background, and then choosing maybe one or two accent colors. And for example, we go onto my website, that’s what I have, I have black, white, a bit of gray. And then the teal and the navy are my accent colors.
And for your fonts, I am a huge proponent of Google Fonts, both of my fonts are from Google fonts. And I would just choose something maybe a little stylistic for the headings, and then something super basic and easy to read for the body text. Some really popular ones on Google Fonts are Open Sans Roboto. The one I’m using is called Karla, Merriweather, it’s also a good one. So yeah, just check those out. Just choose something simple. Really, we want your content to shine, the design is just there for fun, but it should be easy for your audience to read. And it should also again, match what your purpose and your goals are for your website.
Why We Focus on Strategy and Content Before Design
Before we wrap up, I want to share a story with you that is probably a common pitfall for many academics. I’m a second year PhD student in chemistry. And I recently just passed my thesis background exam. And before I started working on it, I asked a senior grad student about the formatting of the exam. For example, what order do things need to be in like the texts of the font, size and type and whatnot. And so what she told me was that it doesn’t really matter so much about the formatting. What matters more is the content. For example, do I show that I understand it, or master it. And that’s when I realized that I was looking into the formatting, and the design part and the overall aesthetic of the exam because I didn’t trust my own abilities to demonstrate my understanding of the material. So I was distracting myself with minor things like formatting.
I think this is a common problem for many people. And I’ve seen this a lot with academics, like for example, procrasti-baking or procrastinati-cleaning to avoid working. And like, yes, it is somewhat helpful to get to do those things. But the thing that would be more helpful is for you to be focused on getting the tasks you actually need to get done, and sort of all the other random stuff. And so my point here is like, that’s why we don’t start out with the layout or the formatting of the website, like the colors and the fonts until the very end.
And while I was writing the thesis background exam paper, I was dreading it the entire time. Everything I wrote, it sounded really bad. And I really wanted to try to make it sound better. But I know that like, if I was trying to fix everything in the moment, I was just like agonizing over like the sentence or two. But like, what I really needed to do was just to get the entire thing done, and then just go back to it later. And so I had to keep telling myself like, it’s better just to get like the deeper sound good enough right now as a first pass, and then go back later. And then gradually, like, make it better and better.
Final Thoughts
And so this is the same for your website, you know, the first version that you’ll create will probably be not great. And mine was not great either. And just like with a lot of the papers that you’ve written, or your presentations or anything, you will definitely have more drafts until you get something that you’re proud that’s good enough for you to share with people. And of course, like you’ll always find things that you can do more like you can always like, edit this a little bit better, or do more experiments or analyses. But at the end of the day, you really just need it done. It doesn’t need to be perfect. And so you really want to focus on just getting it done so you can move on to the other more important and fun things in your life.
I hope that this episode was helpful in terms of breaking down the three big steps of developing and creating your website. And so if you would like to go more in depth with this, you can definitely do that in the Website Setup Workshop. And so for more information on that check out brittanytrinh.com/wsw. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you in the next one.