I led and managed the website redesign project for the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy, working closely with the Director of Marketing. 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 strong communication skills to drive the project forward and ensure its successful, on time delivery.
OVERVIEW
Project Manager
Web Manager
Web Designer
Art Director
Multimedia Designer
Videographer
ROLE
Background
The College of Pharmacy’s original website was designed and developed in the early 2000s using Drupal, a platform that, while powerful at the time, became increasingly outdated and difficult to maintain. Built on Drupal 7.0, the site required frequent security patches and developer intervention for content updates. With the Drupal Security Team announcing the end of official support for version 7 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: a more intuitive, sustainable, and user friendly content management system that would empower internal users to easily manage and update content.
Problem
During stakeholder interviews with faculty, staff, and students, the primary users of the website, one consistent theme emerged: the site was difficult to navigate. Users expressed frustration with the outdated structure, unclear menus, and poor information architecture, which made it challenging to find essential resources such as academic programs, research initiatives, or contact information. These insights highlighted a significant usability gap and reinforced the need for a complete redesign focused on user experience, accessibility, and intuitive navigation.
Roadblock
The original website was designed with the intent to democratize content updates, allowing faculty and staff across departments to manage their own pages. This open ended structure led to a fragmented and inconsistent experience. Without a centralized content strategy, editorial oversight, or branding guidelines, the site evolved into a patchwork of competing voices, styles, and navigation schemes. Content became redundant, outdated, and in many cases, inaccurate. This created confusion for users, weakened the institution's brand integrity, and complicated any attempts to implement a cohesive redesign. The new design requires not only a technical overhaul but also a cultural shift toward governance, training, and clear content ownership.
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, prioritizing, and communicating stakeholder feedback, facilitating regular check-ins with the agency, and ensuring alignment with our brand identity.
Additionally, I created and designed all the media featured on the website, including images, graphics, videos, and visual assets, ensuring a cohesive visual experience that enhanced the overall user interface. My dual role as both project lead and creative lead helped streamline decision making, reduce turnaround time, and maintain consistent design quality throughout the project. The result was a modern, user friendly website that was well received by both stakeholders, faculty, staff and students.
