CIFAR Website Redesign

Digital Strategy | UX & Information Architecture | Stakeholder Engagement | Project Leadership

CIFAR’s website had become difficult to navigate and no longer met the organization’s evolving needs. Users frequently struggled to find basic information, while the site also needed to better serve external audiences, meet accessibility and bilingual requirements, and give internal teams greater flexibility to manage content.

As the in-house project and design lead, I helped guide the redesign from discovery and planning through agency selection, design, development, content migration and launch.

Discovery & Strategy

I led consultations with teams across CIFAR to understand how they used the website, where the existing experience was falling short, and what they needed from a new platform. These insights informed a concept note for leadership outlining the project brief, scope, timeline, resources and budget.

Following approval, I participated in the RFQ and agency selection process alongside CIFAR’s Communications Director and Chief Financial Officer. Hambly & Woolley was selected as the external design partner, and I became a key liaison between the agency and CIFAR’s internal stakeholders throughout the project.

Working closely with the agency, I helped shape the site's information architecture, navigation, content approach and functionality. A central priority was simplifying the user journey so external audiences could find information more intuitively and with fewer clicks.

Creative & Project Leadership

Throughout the design process, I reviewed wireframes and provided UI/UX feedback and art direction to ensure the proposed experience aligned with the goals of the redesign and CIFAR’s brand.

I coordinated internal review and feedback, reconciled the needs of different departments, and presented the proposed website scope, features and improvements to CIFAR’s leadership team and Board, where the project received unanimous approval.

During production, I served as project manager and in-house design lead, working closely with the external design and development teams while coordinating the migration of more than 3,000 pages of content. I also managed the prioritization of content requiring French translation and supported internal communications leading up to launch.

The Result

The redesigned site introduced clearer navigation and information architecture, more audience-focused content, improved search, a flexible system for creating and updating content, and a more accessible and visually engaging experience.

Despite the scale and complexity of the project, including the migration of more than 3,000 pages, the redesign was delivered within budget. Following launch, analytics showed users reaching content in fewer clicks and spending more time on pages.

The website was subsequently recognized with a Platinum dotCOMM Award for nonprofit websites.