The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States, dedicated to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.
They were seeking help with designing and developing a comprehensive set of projects, including websites, web applications, and mobile applications.
My role was to develop a brand-new design language, design a comprehensive design system, and ensure consistency across all projects, starting with they main websites.
I began by arranging several meetings with the project lead and other key stakeholders to gather their insights on the website. During these meetings, we uncovered that the current navigation was confusing for users and important CTAs were unnoticeable.
Mapping the current site structure, I also found that there exists repeated content, so we decided to restructure the website, making it easier to navigate and locate what you need. This restructuring also led to the creation of a new menu structure.
After we all agreed on the new structure, I created two stylescapes that showcased potential looks and feels for the new design. The AAU marketing team also participated in the decision-making process to select one of the stylescapes to proceed with.
The next step was to create wireframes for the various page templates. The objective was to restructure the website in a manner that felt similar to their previous design, while simultaneously introducing a more intuitive layout.
After presenting the wireframes, I began the exploration phase. Some websites required distinct sections to be visible or hidden from the home page, so I designed each section independently while maintaining a consistent design language.
After collaborating with the client and making several revisions, we arrived at a finalized design.
The client liked the new design, so we received the green light to implement it. Based on this design, I developed a design system that will serve as the foundation for all future projects. This makes it easier to create consistent UIs using the components in Figma.
During the implementation phase, I started discussions with the client about the upcoming projects.