In July, after an extensive proposal process, the Office of Communications selected the firm AllofUs to redesign the school’s web templates and Flyerboard digital signage. Our brief to them was to create a modern template set that would best represent the school’s iconic education system and cutting edge research.
Creating the Design Language
Over the summer, we invited representatives from across the school to participate in a series of full-day workshops to help define the school’s web audience and clarify the brand, which would be the basis of the visual design language created for T4 and digital signage. In addition, the team interviewed more than 50 stakeholders from across the school, including the dean, department chairs, faculty, staff, alumni, and students. With this input, AllofUs created a presentation that captures the school’s web identity, which you can view at https://yale.box.com/s/4dlg1o4gkif4ad8l349d3jal3ag9f4ou.
Three Design Paths
After establishing the design language, AllofUs hosted another series of workshops to present three competing design paths. Again, representatives from across the school participated and we ultimately chose the “Heritage” path, with some alterations. You can see the proposed paths along with the group’s feedback in the presentation at https://yale.box.com/s/e81agvd2mbwwfdf74ia2s8kcp8z7quld.
Design Progress
The design team is approaching completion and we’d like your input on any major elements that you feel are missing or additions that you’d like to see. Below are three links to InVision. Each requires the password “progressisexciting" to open.
- Design System: https://invis.io/4WOVUWFQH5Z. This board specifies fonts, styles, spacing, etc. and displays each component template variation (we’ll finish adding component templates next week). Based on your feedback, we are replacing the Nimbus Condensed font with Vista Sans, which is more accessibility friendly (you can see our font exploration at https://yale.box.com/s/hfjc0co0sdhujb6q16b1bx1xxdlen71s).
- Design Templates: https://invis.io/8POVV0GM3DT. This board shows progress on the various template designs and component template options for T4. You will notice that we are adding a marketing-focused template as well as new color options for labs (we will launch with 5-10 color options, which are not yet shown in the designs), as well as a few other exciting new templates.
- Signage: https://invis.io/7ZOOANZQRMP. The Flyerboards are being completely rethought. The new screens feature calls to action to help entice people to touch them, and streamlined interactive views once a user engages.
We anticipate substantially completing the design process within the next few weeks and have already started development. Please feel free to send your feedback to ysm.editor@yale.edu.