Katie’s Web Review — Processed Notes

Source: inbox/Oranburg Law Web - Review.pdf
Reviewer: Katie (Teaching Assistant)
Processed: 2026-04-05
Machine-readable versions: katie-review-2026.json / katie-review-2026.yaml

Overview

Katie reviewed all five main sections of oranburg.law and provided 15 distinct observations spanning content quality, navigation UX, broken links, and structural issues. The site is a Jekyll/GitHub Pages academic portfolio using Liquid templates and YAML data files. This document summarizes her findings in plain terms with technical file references.

Priority snapshot: 1 high · 5 medium · 9 low

🔴 High Priority

ISSUE-14 — Scholarship PDF Links Open Markdown Files

Section: Scholarship page
Katie said: “These ‘PDF’ links open md files. This happens with all ‘PDF’ links where they appear under this page.”

All 33 scholarship entries with PDF links in _data/scholarship.yml point to .md files (e.g., /scholarship/04 Oranburg – PUBLICATION The Genius Dilemma.md) — not actual PDFs. The rendered “PDF” link label is misleading.

Fix options:

• Best: Upload real PDF files to /assets/pdfs/ and update links.pdf values in scholarship.yml
• Quick: Rename “PDF” label to “Preprint” or “Working Paper” in scholarship/index.html (line 79)
• Alternative: Remove local .md links and rely on SSRN links (most entries have links.ssrn)

🟡 Medium Priority

ISSUE-01 — Header Tagline Inconsistency

Section: Site-wide header
Katie said: “Make subheading the same across all pages OR replace ‘educator’ with ‘Commentator’ for consistency with home page.”

Fix: Add tagline: "Law Professor | Fintech Scholar | Public Commentator" to the front matter of insights/index.html, courses/index.html, lectures/index.html, scholarship/index.html, and contact/index.html.

ISSUE-02 — About Section Bio: Plain Language

Section: Home → About
Katie said: “Consider using plain language! Especially for newer law students who may not be familiar with some of these concepts.”

The current bio uses terms like “technological disruption,” “decentralized autonomous organizations,” and “institutional trust” that may alienate a general audience. Katie provided a complete plain-language draft in the PDF (see katie-review-2026.json → ISSUE-02 for the full text).

Fix: Replace bio text in index.html About section with Katie’s draft or a similar plain-language version.

ISSUE-06 — Insights Topic Back Button Skips Parent Bucket

Section: Insights → Library → [Bucket] → [Topic]
Katie said: “I was trying to go back to the ‘Lawyers & Learning’ page, but only option is to skip that page and go back to library.”

The back button in _layouts/insights_topic.html (line 48) always hardcodes /insights/library/ regardless of which bucket (e.g., Lawyers & Learning at /insights/library/lawyers-learning/) the user came from. The breadcrumb shows the path but is not interactive for going back.

Fix: Add a parent_bucket_url front matter field to each of the 18 topic pages and update insights_topic.html to use it for the back link.

ISSUE-07 — Duplicate Courses Pages (/lectures/ and /courses/)

Section: Courses
Katie said: “Duplicate??”

Two pages both list the same 3 courses:

• /lectures/ — what the navbar “Courses” link points to (default.html line 88)
• /courses/ — the canonical base URL for course pages (e.g., /courses/contracts/)

The /lectures/ page is richer (adds lecture playlists, podcast, assessment), while /courses/ is a simpler course card grid with a CTA to /lectures/. A user clicking “Courses” in the nav hits /lectures/, but all course links go to /courses/*.

Fix: Consolidate into one page at /courses/, or give /lectures/ a clearly distinct title like “Video Library.”

ISSUE-08 — No Back Button on Any Course Page

Section: Courses → Contracts, Business Associations, Trade Secrets
Katie said: “NO BACK BUTTON FROM CONTRACTS / BA / TS COURSE PAGE BACK TO COURSES” (flagged on 3 separate PDF pages)

None of the three individual course pages (courses/contracts/index.html, courses/business-associations/index.html, courses/trade-secrets/index.html) have a back button or link to return to the courses hub. By contrast, Insights topic pages have ← Back to the Library.

Fix: Add <p><a href="/lectures/">← Back to Courses</a></p> near the top of each course page, or create a _layouts/course.html layout that auto-injects this.

ISSUE-13 — Trade Secrets Casebook: Stale “Forthcoming” Label

Section: Courses → Trade Secrets → Casebook
Katie said: “Link not active. ‘Forthcoming’ 2025?”

The Trade Secrets course page (courses/trade-secrets/index.html) has hardcoded “forthcoming” and “Pre-order now” text that is not driven by the status field in scholarship.yml. The book (protecting-trade-secrets) is now status: published (2026) with a valid Carolina Academic Press link, but the template still shows the old labels.

Fix: Update template to conditionally render text based on pts_book.status.

🟢 Low Priority

ISSUE-03 — Add Personal Touch to About Section

Section: Home → About
Katie said: “A sentence or two about your interests, hobbies, or life outside of work can help visitors and students get to know you.”

Katie provided a specific suggested sentence (highlighted in yellow): “When he isn’t working, Attorney Oranburg enjoys discovering new hiking trails near his home in New Hampshire, spending time with his daughter, Zeeva, and cooking with his wife, Talia.”

ISSUE-04 — Hero Subtitle Too Dense

Section: Home → Hero
Katie said: “I just don’t like this IDK”

The hero subtitle (hero_subtitle field in index.html front matter, rendered in default.html line 77) reads as a dense academic mission statement. Katie’s informal reaction suggests it feels off-putting. Consider simplifying or removing it.

ISSUE-05 — Insights: Two Similar Section Headings

Section: Insights page
Katie said: “Duplicated intentionally? Just flagging.”

The Insights page has “Featured Guides & Essays” and “Latest Notes & Commentary” as two adjacent sections. The distinction is intentional but not obvious to newcomers. Consider adding sub-descriptions.

ISSUE-09 — Contracts Podcast Possibly Not Loading

Section: Courses → Contract Law → Podcast
Katie said: “Possibly a webpage issue because the podcasts work for me on the Trade Secrets Course page.” (mentioned twice)

Both courses embed the same Podbean playlist with different season filters. Trade Secrets uses season=12, Contracts uses season=1. Worth verifying that season 1 returns episodes in the Podbean player.

ISSUE-10 — Contracts: Related Scholarship Has No Links

Section: Courses → Contract Law → Related Scholarship
Katie said: “Link not active”

The Related Scholarship section on the Contracts page renders articles as plain text (title + journal/year) with no hyperlinks. The main Scholarship page does render SSRN/Full Text/PDF links. Same issue exists on the BA page (ISSUE-12).

ISSUE-11 — Business Associations: Dangling Comma in Book Display

Section: Courses → Business Associations → Casebooks
Katie said: “Looks like information is missing (see red arrows) – remove comma or add remaining information.”

The BA casebook (business-associations-book) has journal: null in scholarship.yml. The template renders ` (forthcoming ) — producing a blank where the publisher name should be. Also, in the article list, , ` produces , 2026 when journal is null.

Fix: Wrap all journal references in `` conditionals.

ISSUE-12 — Business Associations: Related Scholarship Has No Links

Section: Courses → Business Associations → Related Scholarship
Katie said: “None of the links on this list are active.”

Same structural issue as ISSUE-10 — same fix applies.

ISSUE-15 — Contact Page: “Reach Out Directly” With No Direct Contact Info

Section: Contact page
Katie said: “Might delete this sentence unless you provide a method for people to reach out directly (email, phone, etc.)”

The page intro says “Use the form below or reach out directly” but no email address or phone number is shown. The contact form uses sco259@nyu.edu in a JavaScript mailto handler but doesn’t display it.

Fix: Either remove “or reach out directly” OR display the email address visibly on the page.

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