PRODUCT DESIGN
TEAM
Website Graphic Designer •
Executive Director
Workers' Compensation Manager
DURATION
1 Week
CONTRIBUTIONS
Homepage Structure
Design Systems
Prototyping
TLDR;
The Department of Risk Services arranges safety protocols and manages insurance and liability claims, working to protect the employees in the wider campus community.
As the Website Graphic Designer, I redesigned the Risk Services homepage after I assisted in migrating three separate department sites into a singular site. The old page had no mission or hierarchy, and it buried urgent information that needed to be easily accessed. This redesign fixes both problems and gives all six service areas equal footing.
CONTEXT
An Overview
As the Website Graphic Designer, one of my biggest tasks was transitioning both the primary and several other affiliated websites from the Campus WCMS (Web Content Management System) to Wordpress.
I also managed both systems and ran routine usability checks to keep the site accessible and functional. Those checks are what surfaced the issues that the homepage has.
• THE PROBLEM
FIG. 1
THE OLD HOMEPAGE
Urgent tasks were buried
Someone reporting an injury or filing a claim has to read past a promotional carousel first. It's not accessible enough.
Outdated layout
Large stretches of empty margin sit on either side of the text, and there's no real visual hierarchy that exists.
How might I envision a modern homepage that acts as a central hub and gets people to urgent information immediately?
User Considerations
01
Users reporting an injury or filing a claim would the fastest possible path to a specific action.
02
Staff or faculty exploring wellness or safety programs may time to scan but no patience for a directory
• THE PROCESS
Scoping
FIG. 2
SITEMAP; RED * = SEPERATE DEPARTMENTS BEING INTEGRATED
Kept the four highest-need actions (Injury Reporting, Occupational Health, Loss Claims, Travel Risk) exactly where analytics had already validated them: first, above the fold.
• THE PROCESS
Accordian Menu
Photo cards for the six service areas were slower to scan than a compact list, and uneven photography made some areas look more established than others. Switched to identical navy bars.
• THE PROCESS
What Stayed
The map, directions, and office address needed no rethinking, so they kept their place near the footer unchanged.
•
THE SOLUTION
My Reflections
Solving for speed didn't automatically solve for fairness across sections. Getting the four urgent tasks in front of people fast was one goal, making six service areas read as equally established was another. The two only turned out to share a fix, identical navy bars instead of uneven photography, once the layout was clean enough to compare things side by side.
The three consolidated programs needed real visibility, but every addition risked burying the four urgent tasks. Keeping both meant constant trims, shorter copy, one shared format, so visibility never cost someone mid-injury their fastest path.