SSI / Website Redesign

The Space Studies Institute needed a clearer digital home for a mission with deep technical roots, a rich research archive, and an audience that ranged from longtime supporters to first-time space-curious visitors.

I led the redesign around UX clarity, content structure, and long-term maintainability. The work translated a dense nonprofit site into a calmer, more intuitive experience that helped visitors understand the mission, explore research, and find meaningful paths to support.

Audience

Primary Donors, researchers, nonprofit supporters, and longtime SSI members

Secondary Space-curious new visitors looking for an approachable path into the mission

My Role

Solo UX/UI Designer. I owned research, information architecture, visual design, usability testing, responsive implementation, and CMS handoff

Timeline

1 year (2022–2023)

Tools Used

Figma, WordPress (Divi), basic SQL database, HTML/CSS

Challenge

The Problem

The site held a lot of valuable material, but the experience needed a clearer path through it. The UX challenge was to help different audiences understand where they were, why the work mattered, and what action made sense next.

Make technical research and organizational history easier to approach without oversimplifying the mission
Restructure navigation around visitor intent instead of internal content sprawl
Clarify donation pathways, impact messaging, and moments of trust across the site
Improve readability, responsive behavior, and accessibility for an audience with varied technical comfort

Objectives

Project Goals

Create an information hierarchy that supports donors, researchers, members, and new visitors
Improve readability through accessible typography, clearer page structure, and responsive layouts
Build donor confidence through mission storytelling, proof points, and visible next steps
Give the SSI team a maintainable CMS structure they could update independently

Selected visuals

Project Assets

SSI Research Library Online SPS Reports Collection

Approach

Design Process

01 Research & Discovery
- Interviewed stakeholders to understand mission priorities, donor needs, and the role of the research library
- Reviewed library metadata including ISBN, author, and value fields to inform content structure and archive strategy
02 Information Architecture
- Restructured navigation into clearer audience paths for research, donation, organization context, and archival material
- Mapped user flows for new visitors, researchers, donors, and returning SSI members
03 Wireframing & Prototyping
- Designed desktop and mobile wireframes around readability, hierarchy, and clear calls to action
- Refined layouts in Figma with special attention to font scale, visual weight, and scanning comfort
04 Usability Testing
- Tested prototypes with target users for navigation ease, content clarity, and donation flow comprehension
- Used feedback to tune copy, button prominence, homepage structure, and content grouping
05 Visual Design & Implementation
- Selected WordPress and Divi to support editing confidence for a small internal team
- Built templates, styled components, and page structures with Divi plus custom HTML/CSS
- Collaborated on CMS integration so stakeholders could maintain content without constant outside support

Results

Outcome & Vision

Clarity A complex mission became easier to understand, browse, and support.

Trust Donation paths, research context, and organizational proof points gained stronger visibility.

Stewardship The site became easier for SSI to maintain as their archive, events, and mission continue to grow.

"Visitors mention how clean and easy the site feels now, especially compared to before."
SSI Client Feedback