Duke University
Duke Alumni
Role
UX Director
Responsibilities
Design Execution
Information Architecture
Accessibility
Prototyping
Design System
Cross-Team Collaboration
Overview
Duke University partnered with Yamamoto to fully redesign its alumni digital ecosystem. They approached us with the challenge of applying their new modernized branding and creating an ecosystem that would encourage alumni to be more engaged with their peers and university events.
Problem
The site was organized around how Duke works internally, not around what alumni come looking for. Staff who use the site daily still can't find things on the first try, alumni have to know the answer before they can search for it. Finding a travel program requires clicking through multiple unrelated pages, and regional events aren't filtered by location, so users see everything, everywhere. Alumni with different interests, years, and locations were all being served the same experience
Solution
We designed a new logged in experience that tailors the site based on who they are. Another key goal was to connect with Duke's younger generation of alumni, so the new site integrates more of their bright colours and presents a more approachable copy to make the platform feel welcoming and accessible. The whole project was done in collaboration with Duke's development team to create an integrated design system across all alumni platforms.
200K+
30+
100+
Homepage
Duke Travel
Alumni Directory
Alumni Profile
Duke has over 200,000 alumni worldwide. We designed a modular profile template to offer flexibility to each alumnus/alumna to present themselves as they wish, showing as much information as they see fit. A clear information hierarchy allows users to easily identify important details when browsing another alumni's profile. The side tab navigation was added to break information into clear and concise categories.
Navigation
During the research and strategy phase, one of the most recurring pieces of feedback was the challenge of getting to second, third, and fourth level pages. With that in mind, we completely redesigned Duke's navigation: we introduced a meganav offering a full overview of every section, and sidebar navigation on internal pages.
Mobile Nav
Robust Design System
As part of our deliverables, we developed a comprehensive and robust design system. We created a modular structure with complex components built from smaller base components, ensuring scalability and consistency. Typography and color styles are rooted in a clear hierarchy and accessibility.
Base Components
