The Kenyon Collegian Website

In 2017, the Kenyon Collegian needed a new website. At the time, the existing website looked outdated, was hard to navigate, and had the potential to undermine the Collegian’s reputation as a trustworthy newspaper—the site even appeared in Google search results as potential malware. I worked with the Collegian’s executive staff—Bailey Blaker, Lauren Eller, and Gabrielle Healy—over the summer and fall to design and develop a revamped website that would work better for both Collegian staffers and readers.

Because the project timeline spanned the summer and fall, the Collegian staff and I worked remotely for most of the process (I was off-campus in the fall semester). As a result, good communication was crucial, and I made sure to clearly relay my reasoning, decisions, and progress. I began the process with a usability audit of the previous website, outlining the problem areas in need of a redesign. Next, I drew up wireframes of critical pages and addressed how they would solve some of those problems. After the Collegian editors approved the plan, I set about designing and developing the new website.

The redesign focuses on using clear typography, generous whitespace, and occasional accents of Kenyon purple to provide a highly organized, readable news format for Collegian readers online. The transitional serif Libre Baskerville for headlines and the grotesque sans serif Chivo for labels and other secondary text give the typography an established, but approchable character. Clearly labeled homepage modules, section listings, and other pages help readers find their way around the site.

A large portion of those readers use the site on their mobile devices, reading stories shared on Facebook and Twitter, so it was important that every screen was functional and clear at small sizes as well.

See the website live at kenyoncollegian.com.