Project Highlight
UBC Civil
Web Redesign
How I combined human-centered design with efficient project management and strong stakeholder engagement.
The Challenge
The institution I worked for was held back by an outdated website running on an older version of Drupal. It had a steep learning curve and didn’t support mobile responsiveness or brand flexibility. We also depended on costly external support for maintenance.
In essence, the previous website didn’t communicate our status as the #1 ranked school of civil engineering in Canada and failed to highlight the remarkable achievements of the faculty and students.
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The Process
Stepping in as the project lead, I directed a diverse team of stakeholders to reboot our web presence. This included faculty members, students, staff, committee members, and work-learn assistants.
I laid out a comprehensive project plan and stitched together a user-focused, friendly, and engaging website.
My approach was meticulous yet creative, backed by competitor analysis, audience mapping, surveys, wireframing, and design.
Regular monthly meetings with faculty committees to track project progress and discuss issues ensured alignment and approval at each stage.
The Impact
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The Results
The finished product was a revitalized, responsive website that emphasized student and faculty achievements, made research outputs more accessible, and conveyed the institution’s top-tier status more effectively. The updated website had an immediate positive effect, with traffic to targeted pages increasing by approximately 20%.
We eliminated reliance on external support by moving the website hosting and support in-house, delivering significant cost-savings to the department.
We also succeeded in decreasing the barrier to entry for staff by shortening the training time necessary to maintain the website.
