Fetching Creativity
St. Lawrence College
Client: St. Lawrence College
Role: Lead Designer
Team: Product, Content, Development
Duration: 8 Months
Platform: Public Website
https://www.stlawrencecollege.ca
Challenge
After seeing the work OCAS was producing for its own products and services, St. Lawrence College approached us for assistance with a small microsite project. The success of that engagement led to an opportunity to participate in the proposal process for a complete redesign of the College’s public website.
The challenge was to create a digital experience that reflected the College’s brand, supported the needs of prospective and current students, and improved access to information across a large and complex content ecosystem.
Approach
As the sole designer on the project, I worked closely with Product, Content, and Development throughout the engagement. The team began with a week-long discovery session at the College’s Kingston campus, meeting with stakeholders to understand their processes, priorities, challenges, and vision for the future.
Insights gathered during discovery informed the site’s information architecture, user experience, and visual design. Product led requirements gathering, Content conducted a comprehensive audit of existing pages, and Development translated the designs into a fully functional website. My role focused on creating an experience that aligned user needs, business objectives, and the College’s evolving brand.
Outcome
The redesigned website delivered measurable improvements for both users and the institution. One of the earliest indicators of success came from the College’s contact centre, which reported that users were arriving with fewer basic questions because they were able to find information independently through the website.
The project received positive feedback from the College community and the broader post-secondary sector. Beyond the success of the website itself, the engagement demonstrated OCAS’s ability to deliver large-scale digital experiences for external partners and contributed to the creation of a dedicated website services line of business that continued for several years.
