Humanities Action Lab

In the discovery phase, we worked closely with the HAL team to build a shared foundation for the redesign.

This included a comprehensive questionnaire, stakeholder interviews, and a collaborative review of brand materials, content needs, and organizational goals.

We gathered insights into HAL’s structure as a coalition, its values and mission, and the diverse audiences the site needed to serve, ranging from university and community partners to potential collaborators and the public.

This research informed a detailed creative brief that served as a north star throughout the project, shaping the site's structure, tone, and visual approach.

To ensure the new website reflected the voices and needs of its coalition partners, we conducted a detailed survey with HAL staff and partners.

The survey gathered both qualitative and quantitative insights on how users engage with the current site, what content and features best support their work, and how they want their organizations represented.

This participatory approach helped shape the site’s structure, features, and visual design in a way that centers partner voices and real-world use.

Our approach to content strategy began with a thorough audit of the client’s existing sitemap, followed by collaborative refinement to better align the structure of the website with user needs and organizational goals.

We then provided a prioritized features matrix to help the HAL team assess which custom elements would be most impactful and within budget to include.

With this foundation in place, we translated the updated sitemap and feature priorities into wireframes, establishing a clear content hierarchy, user flow, and functional layout to guide both visual design and development.

Within the website redesign scope included a light branding refresh, as the client came to us with minimal brand assets.

Through an iterative style tile process, we explored updated typography, color palettes, and visual treatments that could better reflect HAL’s coalition-based, community-driven work.

Once a direction was approved, we applied the refreshed visual language across pixel-perfect comps for key pages, such as the homepage and project pages to establish a foundation, then moving efficiently through the rest of the site.

The result of the site included a flexible, modern visual system that supports HAL’s evolving identity while remaining accessible and mission-aligned.

Before launch, we conducted a thorough QA process to ensure the site functioned smoothly across devices and browsers.

We provided the HAL team with a user testing guide to support internal review, gathered feedback on usability and performance, and implemented any necessary design updates or bug fixes.

This final phase helped confirm the site was stable, accessible, and aligned with project goals.