UI/UX DESIGNER & RESEARCHER
Strategic Procurement
A branding and design project for Harvard University's, Office of Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (EID); a sub-division of their Strategic Procurement department.
UX Designer
Role
Timeline
2 Months
Toolkit
InVision
OpenScholar
Summary
Harvard University's Strategic Procurement department created a new sub-division, Equity, Inclusion, & Diversity (EID), devoted to serving underrepresented business enterprises. The department encourages business from underrepresented groups in the purchasing of goods and services at Harvard.
The integration of EID into the existing Strategic Procurement website while maintaining its distinct brand identity was of utmost significance. Additionally, this project played a vital role in addressing the immediate needs of the division. Harvard's CMS is an in-house developed platform known as OpenScholar. During the project timeline, Harvard was actively transitioning to a new platform based on Drupal. Until the completion of this migration, EID required a dedicated space to host essential information for underrepresented businesses seeking access to contractual opportunities at Harvard.
On this project, we focused on the client's desire to uniquely identify itself from the rest of their department, content inventory, and the way information was presented.
Client Goals
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Develop a unique identify from the client's core department.
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Redesign the presentation of EID related information that was preexisting before the client's division was created.
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Identify internal and external content.
User Groups
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Underrepresented Businesses
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Current & Potential Contractors
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Strategic Procurement Stakeholders
Wireframing
We worked with the client during the iterative design process over the course of 3 weeks. After three low fidelity prototypes, we were able to translate these designs into OpenScholar.
During the design process, significant attention was given to the pre-existing EID-related information on the Strategic Procurement internal and external websites. It became evident that several of the original pages contained dense content, causing difficulties for users in locating the necessary information. In addition to addressing the client's branding requirements, these user experience concerns were carefully taken into consideration, prompting modifications to enhance accessibility and optimize the overall user journey.
Results
The integration of EID into the existing Strategic Procurement website successfully provided a dedicated space for underrepresented businesses seeking contractual opportunities at Harvard. The design improvements led to a streamlined user experience, resulting in increased engagement and improved findability of critical information.
Conclusion
This case study demonstrates the successful integration of EID into the Strategic Procurement website while upholding its distinct branding. This temporary solution addressed immediate divisional needs during Harvard's CMS transition, fostering inclusion and accessibility for underrepresented businesses. The iterative approach, involving stakeholder collaboration and user feedback, played a pivotal role in ensuring a user-centric and effective website integration.