This was an assignment for my second-year class where we needed to redesign RIT's university news.
I noticed a lot was wrong with the original website. Spacing was often too large, font sizes sometimes inconsistent, and many interactions (like the weird scrolling system on the top section of the website) felt like they would be unfamiliar to users The website's UI and lack of variation in formatting didn't convey RIT as a top tech school. Additionally, the content seemed to celebrate RIT as a business rather than a school, with subheadings focusing on media coverage and sponsorships rather than the accomplishments of students and alumni.
I began the project by blocking out gray squares to conform with the grid. I chose a 24-column grid with a gutter of 15. A large, even amount of columns would allow me to be flexible with my formatting.
Since we didn't need to adhere to the branding conventions of RIT for this project, I decided to go with a sophisticated, serious look reminiscent of companies such as CBS and Forbes. While I didn't stick to this guide fully, it still helped me.
The introduction of a "featured people" highlight was made to introduce some visual variety, as well as to increase appreciation for RIT by touching on the individual accomplishments of students. I also changed the "see more" button to a link and put it at the top for a more familiar interface, as well as to reduce margins between sections.
Reducing the padding on category tags helped eliminate confusion between category tags and buttons. Additionally, it drew more attention to the heading by reducing the visual weight. I avoided excess gradient use as well.
In my final iteration, the most effort was put into making the widgets and advertisements as illustrative and engaging as possible. This includes a social media section, a subscribe section, and previews for the University Magazine and podcast.