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Redesigning a College Website to Create Alignment Across Departments
Lead UX Designer
3 months
EdTech
B2C
Web & Mobile
End-to-end
Project Overview
Their college site had become fragmented over time, with outdated navigation and scattered content that no longer reflected the school’s warmth. I partnered with leadership to lead the end-to-end redesign, from alignment and research to IA and launch.
Key Outcomes
Time on site
Pages per session
Bounce rate
Daily average visit
Project Enablers
Facilitated alignment across 3 executives, 10 department heads, and ~50 collaborators
Rebuilt information architecture and navigation for clarity, scalability, and audience-specific pathways
Refreshed content and introduced alumni storytelling for recruitment impact
Established governance and workflows for future updates and sustainability
Landing Page BEFORE
Landing Page AFTER
Context
A college built to bridge East Asia and the U.S.
Hawai‘i Tokai International College (HTIC) was founded to connect East Asia and the U.S. through education and cultural exchange.
Over 80% of students are international, primarily from Japan and East Asia, while domestic students mainly come from Hawai‘i and the mainland U.S.
Discovery
67% of prospective users expressed frustration with unclear or outdated information
I began by spending time on campus — conducting over 40 interviews with students, staff, and faculty across Hawai‘i and Japan. The goal wasn’t just to test the website, but to understand the people behind it: their experiences, challenges, and how they looked for information about HTIC.
I wanted to meet them where they were — to learn how they actually used the site in their day to day.
Users revealed
"I looked at the website before enrolling, but the transfer information was confusing and didn’t show which partner schools were actually possible."
Student @ HTIC
“I tried to find details about the dorms (like what to bring or what’s provided) but that information wasn’t there.”
Student @ HTIC
“When I looked for guidance about what happens after HTIC, I couldn’t find where that information was on the site.”
Student @ HTIC
43%
of students visited before enrolling
67%
frustrated by missing/outdated info
Data showed
Average time on site
42s
Bounce rate
47%
Pages per session
1.8
Visitors were coming to the site but weren’t finding the information they needed. Most left after viewing only a page or two, confirming that unclear structure and outdated content were making it difficult to stay engaged.
Process
Building alignment around clarity
After understanding the problems, I started by establishing a clear direction — both for the content and for the team. The process unfolded in three parts: audit and synthesis, strategy and north star, and collaboration and review.
Audit and Synthesis
I began with a full content and structure audit to understand what was working, what was missing, and where users got lost. From there, I defined three key priorities to guide the redesign:
Clean up information architecture for scalability and clarity
Update information and elevate storytelling
Modernize content and visual hierarchy for easier scanning
Strategy and North Star
To align everyone around a shared direction, I led working sessions with executives, faculty, and staff to define the redesign’s focus. Together, we established a north star that guided every design and content decision.
From that, we defined three measurable goals:
Clarity – streamline information architecture and labeling.
Trust – ensure content accuracy and transparency.
Connection – surface authentic student and faculty stories.
Positioning Map
Collaboration and Review
Because the redesign involved 3 executives, 10 department heads, and over 50 collaborators, communication and shared ownership were essential.
I set up a rhythm that encouraged visibility and accountability across all teams:
Weekly working sessions kept stakeholders informed and aligned on progress.
Decision-point reviews invited key voices to weigh in during critical moments — information architecture, page templates, and visual design.
This structure turned a complex, multi-department project into a collaborative and transparent process — one that not only delivered a clearer site but built long-term alignment within the organization.
Challenge
Designing for two cultures with distinct information needs
This cultural duality made the redesign uniquely complex.
A layout that felt complete to one audience could feel overwhelming to another. Content that built trust for one group could appear overly formal or distant to the other.
Every decision — from hierarchy to language to visual density — had to balance these perspectives without favoring one over the other.
Having worked between Japan and the U.S., I understood both sides of this communication gap.
I used that background to interpret cultural nuances and translate them into design choices that worked across contexts, creating pages that offered depth where detail mattered and simplicity where speed was key.
Iteration
Testing how users navigate across two audience pathways
To address the culture nuance between international (mainly Japanese) and domestic (mainly from Hawaii) audiences, I proposed creating two separate welcome pages tailored to each audience’s needs:
International students: Focused on the pathway to the U.S. - community, safety, cultural-exchange
U.S. students: Highlighted pathway to Asia opportunities - cultural exchange, study abroad, affordability
Both pages were linked directly from the hero section through two primary CTAs, designed to help users self-select their journey from the start.
Result
A redesigned site that unified clarity, culture, and storytelling
The final design delivered a modern, accessible, and cohesive experience that represented HTIC’s role as a bridge between Hawai‘i and East Asia.
Impact
Clearer Structure, Stronger Connection, Measurable Impact
Doubled engagement and strengthened trust across all audiences.
Measured Outcomes
The redesign didn’t just improve usability—it rebuilt institutional confidence and created measurable impact across engagement and reach.
> 2x
Time on site
42s → 95s
> 2x
Pages per session
1.8 → 3.9
-16 %
Bounce rate
40% → 40%
+ 123 %
Daily average visit
(42.7/day → 95.3/day)
Business Impact
In addition to usability, the redesign delivered measurable business value through lower costs, clearer workflows, and smoother long-term maintenance.
49 %
Saved in annual subscription
$564/yr → $288/yr
Stakeholder Reflections
I want to express my deepest gratitude to you as well! It was a very fulfilling project to be a part of, and I have learned so much from you… and I am also happy to have made it this far and to have gone on this journey with such a skilled professional such as yourself. Looking forward to polishing the website going forward.
Mahalo Nui Loa,
Coordinator @ HTIC
Mahalo nui to you and everyone who worked on this. It looks great and we really appreciate all your hard work!
Faculty @ HTIC
It looks very nice. Nice, clean layout!
Board of Trustee @ HTIC
I just want to say thank you so much.
Chancellor @ HTIC
Takeaways
This project sharpened how I navigate large, multi-stakeholder projects - aligning diverse voices, balancing structure with flexibility, and keeping clarity at the center of collaboration.
Define scope early
Setting clear expectations upfront turned ambiguity into alignment. Early clarity helped manage competing priorities and made decision-making smoother across teams.
Get buy-in through transparency
Sharing early prototypes and progress updates built trust with executives, faculty, and staff. Open communication reduced rework and encouraged active participation throughout the process.
Adapt without losing direction
Timelines, content, and feedback evolved constantly — but staying flexible allowed the team to keep momentum while still meeting the project’s north star of clarity and connection.