UW Sustainability

The University of Washington Sustainability office website was a maze of 56 navigation items that left students and faculty frustrated when trying to find basic information like upcoming events or green certification programs.

In 2016, as a UX designer and front-end developer, I conducted comprehensive user research, including usability testing with 5 participants, card sorting with 10 users, and content auditing to understand the core problems. Through this research, I redesigned the information architecture from scratch, reducing navigation from 56 to 20 menu items, created a mobile-responsive design system aligned with UW branding guidelines, and elevated critical content like events to primary navigation.

The redesigned website launched in December 2016 with dramatically improved task completion rates, clearer user pathways, and a cohesive branding that made sustainability resources truly accessible to the UW community.