Syracuse University
Today
Website redesign for a higher education news website.
Overview
Syracuse University Today is the university’s primary news platform, used to highlight stories, research, and campus updates.
Working within a newly established visual identity, the goal was to modernize the experience, better showcase content, and create a flexible system that could scale across a wide range of articles and events.
I led the design process, developing homepage explorations, a component system, and key page layouts in collaboration with UX, project management, and development.
Challenege
The existing site felt dated and no longer aligned with Syracuse University’s updated brand.
Content lacked visual presence, and top stories weren’t clearly prioritized, making it harder for users to quickly understand what mattered most.
At the same time, the solution needed to work within the constraints of an existing WordPress CMS while introducing new components and a consolidated taxonomy.
Approach
Because the university had already established a refreshed visual identity, we were able to move quickly into design.
Rather than exploring broad stylistic directions, I focused on applying the new brand system directly to the product—developing two distinct homepage concepts for stakeholder feedback.
From there, the work centered on building a flexible, component-driven system that could support a wide range of content types while maintaining visual consistency.
Design System & Components
Flexibility was a core requirement.
News and events needed to be featured at different levels of importance, often with varying amounts of available content. I designed a system of modular cards that could scale in size, adapt to different layouts, and accommodate multiple content scenarios without breaking consistency.
I also explored more expressive uses of color and graphic elements early on, ultimately refining the system into a cleaner, more cohesive direction that aligned closely with the broader Syracuse University web experience.
Email Newsletter
The component system extended beyond the website into the Syracuse University Today email newsletter, where I translated key patterns into a format optimized for content distribution while maintaining visual consistency with the site.
Outcome
The redesigned Syracuse University Today experience launched successfully and was well received by the client.
The new system provides a more modern, visually engaging platform while giving the team the flexibility to manage and promote content more effectively moving forward.
