ENG.UW.edu

Background

Joining UW was a fresh challenge after six years with Miami Law.

As a part-time engagement it opened up some free time to focus on sports-snaps.com while working on impactful projects for the UW.

My Role

• Lead web designer for the launch of a novel graduate degree program, Stacked Master’s degrees.
• Collaborated with writers to design web pages for editorial story-telling pieces.
• Informed and updated website navigation strategy to improve how visitors find and interact with the college’s web content.
• Kept the College of Engineering’s website current by making daily content updates
  

homepage

Stacked master's degrees

The College of Engineering began offering a new type of master’s degree tailored for working engineers. The degree's flexible structure allows busy professionals to select from a variety of "stackable" certificate programs across various engineering disciplines.

After completing two certificates at a pace that suits their career and life circumstances, students complete an applied capstone project and then earn a “stacked” master’s degree.

My challenge was conveying such a novel degree offering in a clear and straightforward way.

Solutions

Appeal to the target audience

Balancing important selling points with images that the target audience can identify with.

While still text-heavy, this hero provides the essential unique value propositions within a "stack-like" aesthetic.

General Degree program homepage

A General Overview,
with access to Details

The most difficult aspect was explaining the student's learning experience. Some key considerations include:

• Organizing the process into individual, straightforward steps
• Including a graphic depiction of the overall process*
• Intentionally listing the steps in an accordion format so that:
  • Steps can be consumed simply as a list
  • Users have access and context for detailed information

* Note: I did not design the graphic.

Making every pixel count

Specific degree pages followed a template to make the most of a visitor's first impression. 

• Page hero with an attention-capturing image and button for a clear call to action
  
• Immediately and attractively list the top value propositions with links to explore more details
• Anchor links above the hero image making deep page content more discoverable

Specific Degree Landing PAge

Breaking down Complexity

Leveraged visual hierarchy principles to communicate dense content:

• Highlighted the most important information graphically
• Provided a list of options students can choose from
• Sample pathways show practical applications of the preceding information

Lending credibility

Highlighting an endorsement from the College's Dean was highly encouraged.

The quote helps build rapport and trust by directly addressing potential skepticism surrounding the program's novelty.

News stories

In addition to leading the Stacked Master's web project, I collaborated with editorial writers to design web pages for their story-telling pieces.

Using provided art and copy, I helped showcase the College of Engineering’s contributions to the field of engineering and its impact on society.

Gallery

Learn More

Reach out to me directly if you would like to learn more about this project.