I led and managed a six figure website redesign project for the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. We partnered with an external agency to rebuild the site from the ground up. As the client side project manager, I leveraged my design expertise, development knowledge and communication skills to drive the project forward and ensure its successful and on time delivery.
This project won the 2025 Education Digital Marketing Gold Award.
OVERVIEW
Project Manager
Web Manager
Web Designer
Creative Director
Multimedia Designer
Videographer
ROLE
Background
The College of Pharmacy’s original website was designed and developed in the early 2000s using Drupal 7.0. Drupal 7.0, while being a powerful platform at that time, has become difficult for users to manage and update content. It required frequent security patches and developer intervention for simple content updates. With the Drupal Security Team announcing the end of official support for 7.0 in January 2025, the need for a complete redevelopment became urgent. I was brought on as Web Manager in August 2024 to lead the strategic relaunch of the website on WordPress. The goal was to develop a sustainable and user friendly content management system that would empower the Marketing and Communications team to easily manage and update content.
Pain points
During stakeholder interviews with faculty, staff, and students, one consistent comment emerged: the site was difficult to navigate (screenshot on the right). Users expressed frustration with the outdated structure, unclear menus, and poor information architecture. All of these made it challenging to find essential resources such as financial information and research initiatives. These insights highlighted a significant usability gap and reinforced the need for a complete redesign focused on user experience and intuitive navigation.
Roadblocks
The original website was designed and built to allow faculty and staff across different departments to update and manage their own pages. While that gave everyone more control over their content, it also led to an inconsistent user experience. Without clear content guidelines or branding standards, each department developed its own visual identity and way of organizing information. Over time, content became outdated and inaccurate. This made it harder for users to find reliable information and significantly weakened the university's brand. This decentralized approach to content management made redesigning the site significantly more challenging. We not only had to improve the technology, but also establish a new way of working across departments.
Solution
We partnered with an external agency that specialized in modernizing outdated websites to lead the redesign of the college’s website. As the Project Manager on the client side, I was responsible for coordinating all aspects of the project internally. This included gathering and communicating stakeholder feedback and facilitating regular check-ins with the agency.
Additionally, I created and designed all the media featured on the website, including photos, graphics, videos, and visual assets. I directed all the photography and videography sessions. My dual role as both project lead and creative lead helped streamline decision making and maintain university brand standards throughout the project. The result was a user friendly website that was well received by stakeholders. It even won the Education Digital Marketing Gold Award in 2025.
