Overview

Celebrating a milestone

DePaul, a University in Chicago, Illinois wanted to mark their 125th anniversary with a marketing concept, branding, and web experiences. Our creative team was a total of 6 people and I was 1 of 2 UX designers.

Problem

Filling in the gaps

The biggest challenge in this project was the lack of content and information needed to pull off a well rounded concept for their anniversary. After the team came up with different concepts, we worked closely work with their in house content team and took charge in organizing the data.

Process

All teams go

This project had a very restrictive timeline with creative only having around 3 weeks to get hi-fidelity prototypes in place. By week 3, we would need it ready for base level usability tests.

Research

Gathering insights

With the tight timeline, the only time for research was the first few days after project kick off. I looked around for campaigns and experiences that showcased timelines and historic milestones with interesting displays and interactions.

Information Architecture

Connecting the dots

Even with a small microsite, it was important to map out how this experience would exist within the ecosystem. We worked on many iterations and found a solution that suited the content needs.

Work

Building the concept

After defining the information ecosystem, I began working on lo-fi wires and catching the visual team up on my wires. There was some freedom in designing components and templates given that this was a separate microsite. It was a fun opportunity explore how our hi-level creative concepts could come to life.

Takeaways

Designing without guard rails

The microsite was a success and launched on time. The takeaway from this specific project was the importance of designing for the concept. Although we had to update some components based on AEM limits, having the ability to try out more creative UX was a really fun opportunity and helped get the concept in the right spot.