News legacy refreshed
Role
Lead designer
Duration
Q3 2021 - Q2 2022
Company
The Seattle Times
Primary program
Adobe XD / Adobe AE
OVERVIEW
The Seattle Times’ Company Site
Lead designer for Seattle Times' corporate website redesign. Completed in 3 months with a small team (creative director and front-end developer). Created a refreshed visual identity that better showcased journalistic achievements while supporting recruitment efforts.
BACKGROUND
Challenges
Living in the past
Website untouched for nearly a decade with outdated visual design. Technical issues including broken links and outdated information
Large audience means different needs
Needed to serve both internal employees and general public. Multiple stakeholders (newsroom leadership, executives, HR) with different priorities
Juggling institution and innovation
Required balancing traditional journalistic reputation with modern appeal.
THE PROCESS
Finding the right vibe
Started with mood exploration to establish the visual direction. Aimed for a balance between trustworthy/dependable and fresh/contemporary.
Mood-board explorations
winner winner chicken dinner
The solution: stark black and white (conveying newspaper heritage) with vibrant color accents (adding modern energy).
After establishing the visual direction, conducted a full audit of the existing company site to understand all content needs and problem areas.
Researched competitor publisher websites (New York Times, Washington Post) to analyze industry approaches. Found most corporate sites were standard and conservative – an opportunity for Seattle Times to stand out with more energy and community focus.
Conducted site audit
THE DESIGN PROCESS
Design Development
After establishing the visual direction, developed wireframes focusing on reorganizing content and creating a consistent layout treatment across pages
Wireframe sketches
Early homepage visual explorations
Developed multiple iterations exploring different approaches, eventually creating a core template system based on the homepage and one content-heavy page. This template system ensured consistency while accommodating varying content needs throughout the site.
Early explorations
RESULTS
Going live
Created a visual system built on stark black and white contrasts reminiscent of newspaper print, enhanced with strategic color accents that brought modern energy to the design.
Site styles
Careers and DEI pages
Journalism showcase page
Key Outcomes
Streamlined navigation reducing time-to-information for key user journeys
Enhanced recruitment tools supporting HR objectives
Increased visibility for the organization's achievements and community impact
LOOKING BACK
Project Reflections
The redesigned Seattle Times Company website successfully met both aesthetic and functional goals. The modern, energetic design better represented the organization's journalistic values while creating a more engaging user experience.
Working within tight timeline constraints taught valuable lessons about efficient decision-making and stakeholder management. The project demonstrated that even traditional media organizations benefit from bold design choices when they remain anchored in brand heritage.