A Decade-Old Site, Reimagined
The Oakland Institute website had not seen a major update in over a decade. With outdated technology, a cumbersome structure, and a design that no longer reflected the quality of its research, the site was long overdue for a refresh. I led a full-scale redesign and platform migration to modernize their digital presence—resulting in a faster, more accessible, and user-centered experience.
Key Improvements
The redesign prioritized user needs, content discoverability, and operational efficiency. Below are the most impactful changes and what they achieved:
Content-Led Design: Surfaced a greater variety of stories and publications on the homepage through a more dynamic and content-rich layout—encouraging exploration across a wider range of the Institute’s work.
Result: Increased the number of unique articles clicked from the homepage and boosted the prominence of stories among top clickthroughs.
Simplified Navigation: Made it easier to find key reports and related content with clearer hierarchy, structured layouts, and prominent calls to action that guides users to high-impact content.
Result: Users engaged more deeply with priority content—more downloads and higher views per visit.
BEFORE
AFTER
Smarter Reading Experience: Made longform articles easier to navigate with section overviews and improved footnotes—supporting both content engagement and inclusive access.
Result: Users stayed longer and engaged more deeply, with average reading time doubling.
Modern Infrastructure: Migrated the site from Drupal 7 to 11, gaining a modern development foundation, cleaner templating, and dramatically faster publishing workflows—making it easier to maintain, scale, and evolve over time.
Result: Reduced publishing time and increased reliability in content updates through an improved development workflow.
Project Impact
A modernized platform that advances the Oakland Institute’s mission by making its research more discoverable, its message more compelling, and its engagement with key audiences more effective.
But improving how people access the Institute’s work was only part of the transformation. Learn how I also enhanced the donation experience to grow support and deepen impact: