McMaster Engineering
A leader in engineering education
OVERVIEW
A grid-based approach
McMaster University’s Engineering Faculty website underwent a transformation, ensuring alignment with the university’s overarching brand while retaining the unique identity of the Faculty. The redesign focused on enhancing user experience, streamlining navigation and simplifying content editing. It also spotlighted diversity, featuring women in engineering, while incorporating a robust grid system reflective of the mathematical, structured, sophisticated and precise nature essential for engineering.
GOALS
Brand & UX revamp with WordPress
The project’s primary objective was to modernize the website and develop a brand expression and design system that highlights the Faculty’s distinct qualities while remaining consistent with the core brand. To reduce the cost of ownership, the Faculty sought to transition to WordPress, the CMS centrally supported by the University. Our aim was to establish a more adaptable communications platform for staff, enabling each department to publish content consistently and efficiently. For end-users, we focused on creating a more cohesive experience by aligning the information architecture with the needs of prospective students, rather than the Faculty’s departmental structure.
CHALLENGES
Solving McMaster’s navigation challenges
The project involved aligning McMaster’s brand with the Faculty’s identity while addressing user issues with the previous website’s navigation and content findability. Analytics and feedback highlighted difficulties in accessing key information and navigating through the site. The new design had to streamline multi-departmental content and offer clearer navigation paths. Due to McMaster’s strict security standards and self-managed servers, we were limited in plugin choices and had to adjust our development approach.
SOLUTIONS
Structured UI & strategic art direction
We designed a new UI for McMaster University’s Faculty website that blends the University’s brand with the unique needs of engineering students. The art direction features grid patterns symbolizing bridge-building, a refined color hierarchy, and bold iconography, all aimed at creating a distinct identity for the Faculty.
The imagery focuses on diversity, particularly highlighting women in engineering. We streamlined navigation and information architecture to appeal to key audiences while maintaining a unified yet flexible content structure. Custom content tools ensure consistency with the brand, and the design enhances user experience with intuitive image management and form creation.
RESULTS
User-centric design & highly accessible
McMaster Engineering’s website now features user-centric design and streamlined navigation, enhancing accessibility. The redesign to WordPress improved user experience and backend efficiency, addressing brand conflicts and complex navigation. The updated site meets Ontario accessibility standards, reflecting diversity and inclusion values. The Experiences Catalogue and refined program sections enhance functionality for users and content creators.
- Studio—Evolving Web
- Client—McMaster Engineering
- Creative Direction—Morgan Guegan
- Art Direction—Shane Collier
- UI—Shane Collier, Elena Rodriguez
- UX—Annika Oesar
- Digital Strategist—Adrienne Smith
- Project management—Jaqueline Smoak
- Director of Technology—Simon Morvan
- Developers—Jasmin Merchant, Anastasia Doroshenko, Burak Ikiler, Firat Faik Ikiler, Jesse Dyck, Mahieddine Abdelkader, Marien Regnault, Saqib Sarwar, Abhinav Rana, Firat Ikiler, Ian Braid
- QA—Von Dela Cruz, Mykyta Ivanov
