Overview

I served as the Lead Web Designer and Developer for the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University. In this role, I worked with another designer, Taya Mikado, who had created the original site and coordinated communication between the project team and my supervisor, Sari Graben.

My job was to redesign and develop three websites to showcase the school’s law initiative programs. The goal was to create a modern, user-friendly site that would attract more students and donors.

This case study will focus on the first website, as the second website has changed significantly since I left, and the third website has been postponed.

Problem

The existing school’s website had a few significant problems:

Outdated Design

The website looked old and didn’t reflect the law school’s professional image, making it hard to attract new students and donors.

Hard to Update

Faculty members couldn’t easily change the content themselves, which prevented faculty from adding new information.

Low Traffic

Not many people were visiting the website, which made it harder to reach potential students and donors, and to showcase faculty work.

Goals

After looking at the major flaws of the site, I created a list of goals that would significantly improve the goals of the faculty and its user:

1. Make the website look professional

We wanted to create designs that show the law school’s strength and help attract students and donors. The new design needed to look modern and professional, so people would trust the school’s image.

2. Make content easy to update

The goal was to make it easy for faculty to update their own content without needing extra help. This would keep the website fresh and current.

3. Increase traffic

We wanted more people to visit the website. This meant improving the design and making the sites easier to find, so students, donors, and others would engage with the content.

4. Improve site performance

It was important that the website load quickly. A fast website makes for a better experience and encourages visitors to stay longer and explore more.

Process

Consutling with faculty

I started by talking to faculty members to understand what they needed on the website. This helped me learn what was important to them and how best to show their work. I created mockups in Figma to help me layout the redesigned pages and visualize how the updated design would improve user navigation and overall experience.

Redesigned the website

• I used the designs to build the redesigned pages, bringing the improved user experience to life on the live site. The new designs were clean, professional, and easy to navigate.
• To achieve a more formal and academic look, I replaced rounded corners with sharper edges and introduced structured layouts to enhance the design’s overall aesthetic.
• I built a WordPress system so faculty could update their own pages whenever they wanted, without needing help.

Made the website faster

• I improved website speed by optimizing image sizes, implementing lazy loading techniques, and streamlining the code for better performance.
• I improved the websites’ search engine rankings by optimizing content, refining meta tags, and ensuring the sites followed SEO best practices to make them easier to discover.”

Conducted feedback sessions

Once the designs were done, I tested the sites and asked faculty for their feedback. I used their ideas to make the sites even better.

Conclusion

The redesign brought several important improvements to the website.

More people visited

After the updates, site traffic increased by 102%, with 382 visitors in just 90 days. This showed that the new design made the site more appealing and engaging.

Faster and smoother experience

The website now loads much faster because images were made smaller, lazy loading was added, and the code was cleaned up. This made it faster for users to browse without delays.

Easier to find online

By improving SEO, like adding better keywords and fixing meta tags, the website became easier for people to find in search results. This helped more users discover the site.

A fresh and user-friendly design

We redesigned 12 pages, replacing rounded corners with sharper edges and adding a more structured layout. This made the site feel modern and professional while improving navigation and usability.

Final Designs