Case Study · 07
Website Redesign
A full website redesign and platform migration from WordPress to Squarespace—managing information architecture, visual design, content strategy, and stakeholder coordination from concept through launch.
The Problem
The existing WordPress site had accumulated years of structural debt: inconsistent page templates, buried navigation, outdated content, and a design that didn't reflect the organization's current identity. The site was functional but not effective—it served people who already knew where to find things and failed everyone else.
A redesign meant more than a visual refresh. The information architecture needed to be rebuilt from the ground up, the content needed to be audited and rewritten, and the platform needed to support ongoing maintenance by a non-technical team.
The Approach
I chose Squarespace for a specific reason: the Communications Coordinator who would maintain the site day-to-day needed a platform with guardrails. WordPress's flexibility is also its liability for small organizations—it invites inconsistency. Squarespace's template constraints would preserve design integrity after handoff.
Process
Content audit
Every page inventoried, evaluated, and rewritten or retired
Stakeholder interviews
Identified the user journeys that actually mattered
New IA
Navigation rebuilt around those journeys, not the org chart
Design system
Visual language aligned with the organization's broader brand
Design Lineage
This wasn't my first website redesign. In 2010, as a graduate student, I pitched and executed a freelance website redesign for Western Theological Seminary. That project—completed fifteen years before this one—establishes a trajectory: the design instincts aren't recent; they've been developing for over a decade.
The platform decision was a maintenance decision. Good handoff design means the site still looks intentional a year after you leave the room.
What This Demonstrates
Web redesign is project management, content strategy, and visual design compressed into a single deliverable. This project shows the ability to manage scope, make platform decisions with long-term maintenance in mind, and execute a design that serves real user needs rather than aesthetic preferences.
The live site is at aacrc.org; before/after documentation available on request.