Before my time as a Web Assistant at Oregon State University (OSU) in the Department of Enrollment Management, I was simply a Psychology student looking for a way to utilize my interest in Human-computer interaction. This job allowed me to represent my school through what others see on screen (a student ambassador as well), and it was an eye-opening career path that led me to where I am today. Before this, I had no idea what Figma was or the concept of web content management. My time as a web assistant developed my technical skills, including proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud applications, Drupal, and Figma. In addition, under the guidance of Valyn Bodensteiner (portfolio), Web & User Experience Design Manager, I was able to gain design insight from an industry professional. Storytelling through consistent branding (Go Beavs!), long-term reproducibility of pages and assets, how to understand basic front-end coding, and more. However, one of the most important skills gained came from the opportunity to sit in on higher-up meetings. These meetings helped teach me how, as a designer, I can communicate with those of different backgrounds.
Department of Enrollment Management Homepage (link)
Eye Opening
As you can imagine, with a Department titled "Enrollment Management", it comes with the use of research data. Data includes which pages were of high priority as well as what users were actually clicking (unable to show due to Disclosure agreement).
Utilizing Research
Another part of that was emphasized to me by Valyn was accessibility. An aspect of web design that should be viewed as a way to combine users so that all can experience the same narrative flow. A part of improving accessibility was adding alt text to all images. Although at first it seemed pointless, this taught me what it truly means to be inclusive and accessible, beyond color contrast and text hierarchy. From a narrative flow perspective, alt text allows users who rely on screen readers or cannot view images to remain within the content flow of the website.
Accessibility
Cameron Rennacker, MS; Editior-in-Chief
Siddhant Rajvanshi; Editor
Hannah Wilson; Editor
Collaborators
Assistant
Web
June 2024 - March 2025 | Written by Micah Watanabe
Website built for transferring students (link)
Years
Worked
During the period in which I was hired, OSU had been changing its Content Management System, or CMS, from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10. Although it is on the same CMS, the integrated 1:1 migration was flawed, and a lot of errors came with it. Pages would be migrated out of their original layout, requiring manual readjustments. However, we saw this as an opportunity to redesign old pages. Emphasizing the brand of OSU, using the user data we now have as a reference to what could be improved.
Oregon State University Enrollment Numbers (2015 - 2026)
Before
After
Improved
Visual
Hierarchy
Relevant
Branding
Improved
Navigation
Alt Text Example
"Oregon State University students standing on a football field forming an 'OSU'"
In the case of the image above, it was being used in a "Campus Life" section. The alt text, combined with the following section, enforces that idea of school pride and community that we as a team wanted to show. We did pay attention to other accessibility characteristics, such as color contrast. Earlier images showing the change in website design show a change in the header background and font, improving readability. This comes along with improved text hierarchy, as the old headers were difficult to differentiate from the body text and lacked text weight.