NYU Student Affairs
Multipage Redesign
Navigating college is a challenging experience; students are actively figuring out how to make connections, manage their coursework and wellbeing, all while planning for life after graduation. NYU’s large, dispersed campus particularly adds to this challenge. To help address this, I redesigned 13 Student Affairs webpages to make key resources easier to access, helping students navigate the NYU experience with greater confidence.
This case study primarily focuses on the Office of the Dean of Students (ODOS) webpage as a sample, along with a few other Student Affairs offices, to highlight key improvements I made as the sole designer of the redesign.
Design Approach
High-fidelity prototype on Figma
Goal
This redesign focused on making Student Affairs resources and services more visible and accessible to all users, targeting key usability principles and metrics:
Reduced click depth: Users reach resources faster
Faster task completion: Users find information more quickly
Streamlined user flows: Users navigate pages more efficiently
Timeline
Project Duration: 12 months (executed as sole designer while managing additional job responsibilities).
January – March: Conducted research on Student Affairs officers, wrote content for 13 webpages, and developed initial mockups.
April – August: Met with internal stakeholders and unit leaders to collect feedback and refine mockups.
September – December: Implemented redesigned pages, replacing the old versions; met with the CMS Team for Q&A sessions on AEM and accessibility.
Research notes on Notion
Collaborators
Supervisor: Served as the primary point of contact for the Student Affairs executive team and unit leaders.
Unit Leaders and Executive Team: Supplied content to fill research gaps and approved essential UX edits.
CMS Team: Provided editing access to approved pages and guidance on AEM implementation and accessibility standards.
Tools
AEM (Adobe Experience Manager) for implementing web edits, Figma for developing hi-fidelity mockups, Illustrator for designing icons, Photoshop for editing images, Notion for organizing research, and Zoom for delivering presentations to unit leaders.
Target Audience
Current students: Seeking resources, services, and opportunities during their time at NYU.
Prospective students: Interested in applying to NYU and exploring the student experience.
Parents and families: Helping their students explore college options.
Faculty and staff: Looking for information to help students who need support.
Step-by-Step Process & Core Responsibilities
1. Research: Audited NYU’s website to identify each Student Affairs unit’s resources and services, compiling relevant links to include in the redesign.
Content Design: Wrote copy in NYU’s brand voice to showcase each unit’s services and resources, drawing on insights gathered through research and stakeholder meetings.
3. Mockup Design: Created a wireframe template on Figma and organized content within the template.
4. Visual Sourcing: Selected and edited images from the NYU Photo Bureau to support content and design.
5. Unit-Level Collaboration: Shared mockups with unit leaders and their communications managers via email and Zoom to collect input and verify content accuracy.
6. Implementation and Launch: Partnered with the CMS team to implement mockups on the live site through AEM, ensure accessibility, and publish updates.
Key Layout Pain Points Across Unit Pages
Problem 1: Inconsistent Layout Designs
The placement of navigation elements and content varied across Student Affairs webpages, resulting in a disjointed user experience. Without a structured user flow, users often spent excessive time searching for the information they needed.
Problem 2: No Hierarchy
The lack of clear visual and textual hierarchy made it difficult for users to scan and process content efficiently. Without an organized structure, important information risked being overlooked and was less accessible to users relying on screen readers.
Problem 3: Excessive Click-Through Experience
Resources were scattered across multiple pages, creating a maze-like information architecture. This cumbersome click-through experience increased cognitive load, often causing users to abandon tasks before finding what they needed.
Office of the Dean of Students Webpage
The ODOS (Office of the Dean of Students) supports community and belonging at NYU by upholding student conduct standards, connecting students with essential resources, and offering spaces for reflection during campus, national, and global challenges.
Before the redesign, the original ODOS webpage did not reflect the depth of resources and services available or its central role in supporting student well-being and success at NYU.
The following pain points impacted each of the Student Affairs pages, including ODOS:
Structural-level
Sparse layout → page felt empty
Sidebar reliance → buried key info
No hierarchy → unclear content priority
Element-level
No CTA → no direction forward
Limited visuals → little breathing space
Missing links → navigation gaps
Review other Student Affairs unit pages before the redesign.
UX Solution: Wireframe Template
I optimized 13 Student Affairs landing pages using a custom wireframe. The wireframe applied a unified layout, clear hierarchy, and streamlined navigation principles directly to the page structure, ensuring that each unit’s resources and services were easier to access and explore.
Page Layout and Order:
Hero Image → Creates a visual entry point and immediately conveys each unit’s purpose.
Navigation Bar (Left Sidebar) → Organizes links for predictable navigation.
Mission Statement → Provides a concise overview of the unit’s objectives and services.
Information Bar (Right Sidebar) → Gives quick access to contact info, team links, and social media.
Key Resources → Highlights top resources through buttons linked to child pages.
Body Image → Breaks up dense text, reduces cognitive load, and supports visual hierarchy.
Highlights Section → Offers additional context for resources beyond buttons and images.
Values Module → Concludes the page while reinforcing hierarchy and layout consistency.
Final Design Deliverable
As a sample, here are snapshots of the finalized ODOS landing page, addressing the three major UX problems. They highlight key features from the wireframe guide I created, which was applied across all 13 Student Affairs landing pages.
Problem 1: Inconsistent Layout Designs – Standardizing navigation elements and content placement across all pages created a consistent structure, making task flows predictable and resources easier to find.
Problem 2: Absence of Visual and Textual Hierarchy – The new layout established a clear visual and textual hierarchy, making content easier to process and scan, while ensuring accessibility for users with screen readers.
Problem 3: Complex Click-Through Experiences – Highlighting key resources and adding relevant links from other pages in the content section reduced excessive clicks and improved page navigation, providing clear paths to other related pages.
Mobile View
These snapshots showcase the finalized Global Spiritual Life (GSL) landing page on mobile, another Student Affairs unit to reference edits across redesigned pages. They highlight key features from the wireframe guide I developed and applied across all 13 Student Affairs unit pages.
Global Spiritual Life Data Overview
From March 2024 (before the redesign) to November 2025 (10-11 months after the launch in January 2025), the GSL landing page saw significant growth:
Total users: 334 (🟢 +147%)
New users: 47 (🟢 +194%)
Page views: 415 (🟢 +127%)
Average engagement time: 19 sec (🔴 −29.6%)
Engagement rate: 80.79% (🟢 +7.5%)
Takeaway: The redesign drove a noticeable increase in users, page views, and new visitors. While average engagement time decreased, the improvement in engagement rate shows an opportunity to enhance content and enhance user experience for deeper interaction.
Mission Statement: Per stakeholder’s requirements, maintained the original mission statement and call-to-action button for users to learn more about GSL.
Body Image: Selected abstract, architectural, and nature-based visuals to represent sensitive or complex topics in a respectful, non-literal way. These choices support emotional safety while maintaining the page’s positive, neutral tone.
Body Copy: Expanded program descriptions that aren’t easily conveyed through short labels or visuals, giving users the context they need to understand each offering and explore further with confidence.
Key Resources: Organized the resources section using text-based hierarchy, allowing users to easily scan and access additional information through direct links to child pages.
Accessibility Practice: Per NYU’s accessibility requirements, included the file size on the button linking to a Google Doc so users can anticipate load times across devices, especially those on mobile data or slow WiFi.
Promo Buttons: Added image-based buttons to create clear pathways to child pages with additional resource details — in GSL’s case, guiding users to campus faith spaces.
Values: Added the unit’s core values, which appear across all Student Affairs landing pages, to highlight the unit’s objectives and create consistency across pages.
Contact Info / Mobile View: NYU’s layout template shifts the navigation bar to the bottom on mobile to maximize content visibility, while keeping it on the right sidebar for desktops for quick access.
Office of the Dean of Students Data Overview
User Engagement Insights
13 Student Affairs landing pages were launched gradually from October ‘24 to January ‘25. Below are the Looker Studio metrics for the Office of the Dean of Students webpage — captured before its redesign in March ‘24 and revisited in November ‘25, 13 months after its publication in October ‘24.
Total Users in Mar. '24 vs. Nov. '25
Total users nearly doubled from 1,855 in March 2024 to 3,539 in November 2025, indicating that the redesign attracted more visitors to the page.
New and Returning Users in Mar. '24
March 2024: 576 new users (31% of total), suggesting a solid base of first-time visitors.
New and Returning Users in Nov. '25
November 2025: 964 new users (27% of total). While the percentage of new users slightly decreased, the overall growth shows the page is attracting more first-time visitors and retaining returning ones.
Page Views in Mar. '24 vs. Nov. '25
Page views increased significantly, from 2,758 in March 2024 to 8,268 in November 2025, nearly tripling over this period. This growth suggests visitors are exploring more content, likely due to a more engaging layout, clearer navigation, or more compelling resources following the redesign.
Engagement Rate in Mar. '24 vs. Nov. '25
The engagement rate declined from 67.06% in March 2024 to 54.26% in November 2025, a drop of about 13 percentage points. While more users are visiting and viewing multiple pages, a smaller proportion are interacting in measurable ways (clicks, scrolls). This may indicate that some users are quickly accessing content without deeper interaction.
Engagement Time in Mar. '24 vs. Nov. '25
Average engagement time nearly doubled, increasing from 39 seconds in March 2024 to 73 seconds in November 2025, suggesting that visitors are spending more time interacting with the page.
Overall Interpretation
The redesign increased overall traffic and page views, with returning users making up a larger share of visitors, indicating improved retention. Although the engagement rate dropped, users who engaged spent significantly more time per session, suggesting deeper, more focused interaction, and that the goals of streamlining access and enhancing resource familiarity were achieved.
Additional Redesigned Pages
Wasserman Center for Career Development – Brief Data Overview
Since the redesign launched in December 2024, the Wasserman Center webpage has shown steady growth. As of November 2025, it achieved:
Total users: 16,558 (🟢 +177%)
New users: 2,221 (🟢 +165%)
Page views: 22,963 (🟢 +187%)
While total traffic increased, behavior metrics shifted slightly:
Average engagement time: 19 seconds (🔴 −9.5%)
Engagement rate: 81.34% (🟢 +0.6%)
Takeaway: The redesign drove significant growth in users, page views, and new visitors. Engagement metrics decreased a bit, highlighting an opportunity to enhance content.
On-Campus Living – Brief Data Overview
After the redesign launched in January 2025, the On-Campus Living landing page saw substantial growth through November 2025:
Total users: 76,857 (🟢 +853,866.7%)
New users: 13,611 (🚫 baseline N/A)
Page views: 120,212 (🟢 +134,969.7%)
While total traffic increased dramatically, behavior metrics shifted:
Average engagement time: 27 seconds (🔴 −86%)
Engagement rate: 87.15% (🔴 −8.9%)
Timing played a role in these engagement trends: Engagement increased during February and March, coinciding with the housing application period. Another spike occurred in April, when housing selection officially opened. Outside of these periods, engagement was lower, as users visited the page without deep interaction.
Takeaway: The redesign drove a dramatic surge in total users and page views, showing that the site’s visibility and reach improved exponentially. At the same time, understanding contextual patterns, such as housing cycles, can guide strategies to boost engagement consistently, not just during peak periods.
Project Reflections
Challenges
Solo Execution: Independently, I executed every phase of this project from research and content writing to design and web implementation. While I received feedback from internal stakeholders and accessibility support from the CMS Team, additional collaboration could have taken the redesign further.
Template Limitations: Working within NYU’s website template system limited opportunities to explore new ideas and modernize an outdated structure that lags behind other university web experiences.
Design Alignment: Stakeholders’ preferences often clashed with best practices for user experience. Managing these conflicts and guiding the project toward a consistent, functional design required careful negotiation and diplomacy to drive buy-in.
Project Takeaways
Hands-on Execution: Managing research, writing, design, and implementation on my own strengthened my ability to see a project through from beginning to end, while managing multiple tasks simultaneously. This initiative deepened my experience in balancing priorities and decision-making.
Problem-Solving within Constraints: Working within NYU’s website template system taught me to be resourceful and creative within limitations. I learned how to adapt ideas to existing structures while still enhancing design and accessibility.
Collaboration and Feedback: Even as a solo executor, gathering insights from stakeholders highlighted the importance of external perspectives. Their feedback helped me refine my ideas and improve outcomes for the benefit of our target audience.
