2023 Webby HonoreeIES Abroad and its sister organization, the Study Abroad Foundation (SAF), are an elite pair of organizations that help students find academic programs around the globe.
In need of a replatform, IES approached us to create a flexible, customizable digital experience that could be adaptable to both brands and best serve the unique needs of their different audiences.
Our design process enabled us to craft a unique experience that delivered both for the organization and its constituents.
The redesign for iesabroad.org was a 2023 Webby Honoree in the Best Navigation/Structure category.
During Discovery we worked with IES stakeholders to align on their organizational goals and challenges, audited and evaluated existing IES web pages and content, reviewed competitors’ websites, and workshopped personas to gain greater insights into user mindsets.
Together this information helped us establish a clear set of requirements that would enables us to design an experience that equally satisfies the needs of the organization and its constituents.
Using the insights learned from Discovery, our Visual Designers worked to create a look and feel for the new experience.
Through Stylescapes, we were able to establish unique visual directions for both IES and SAF by exploring foundational design elements like color, typography, and common UI elements. This allowed us to envision how the each brand identity could come to life in different ways.
Following Discovery, our Content Strategists and UX Designers translated our initial recommendations and requirements into artifacts and deliverables that helped us document organize all of the information and content in the new system.
An improved Information Architecture, Taxonomies, Site Maps, and Wireframes would all drive a more unified experience that made the site more usable and help power the relationships that will drive search, filtering, and content relationships.
Once we had approved Wireframes, we applied the approved design direction from the earlier Stylescapes to create High Fidelity Mockups of key templates and components, a Clickable Prototype for usability testing, and an Annotated Design System.
