Shady Side Academy runs on information. Cycle days that change the schedule. Athletic calendars. Dining menus. Faculty benefits. College counseling resources. For parents managing more than one child across different grades, keeping up can feel like a full-time job. For faculty, hunting down the right form or policy isn’t a great use of anyone’s time either.
For years, much of this information was simply… out there. Not behind a password, not organized, and not easy to find. SSA knew it was time to build something better: a dedicated site (they call it a portal) — for parents, students, faculty and staff — where each group could access exactly what they need in one secure, organized home. They had the vision, the content, and the team to build it. What they needed was someone to figure out how to actually structure it, design it, and make it feel like Shady Side.
Because I came to this project from outside SSA’s institutional history, I could see the information the way their users would — without years of “but this is how we’ve always done it” clouding the view. That outside perspective turned out to be exactly what the project needed.
First we understood the need for mobile-first thinking. These users are in the car, in the hallway, and at practice after school. So mobile-first became the lens for every decision we made. The portal was built for the device already in everyone’s hand.
Working closely with SSA’s Director of Web and Digital Marketing, I helped identify, group, and organize the content across all four portals. We mapped out what pages existed, what lived where, and how users would move through each section. Whether you’re a parent, student, alum or faculty member, everything is organized. Everything in one place. No more hunting down a random PDF.
Once the architecture was mapped, I designed wireframes and mockups for every page, and my SSA counterpart built them out. Throughout, the visual design stayed true to Shady Side’s brand — a natural extension of their existing communication family. We brought in Second Block Studio to create custom icons for each topic, giving every category its own clear, cohesive identity.
Then it was time to bring it all home. The portal was ready to go…but the most exciting part? Letting the SSA community know about it so they could start using it. I designed a series of audience-specific emails, packed with the right information and links to get them moving.
The most powerful thing an outside collaborator can bring isn't always just a visual refresh. Sometimes it's a completely different way of seeing your information — unencumbered by the history of how things used to be done.
If your organization is sitting on a pile of documents that no one can find, I can help you give that information a real home: organized, on-brand, and built for how your audience will use it. I love helping my partners configure all of their necessary info into something that works (just like our partnership).
I know great things can happen when passionate, talented people work together.
Contact me to set up a 30-minute, complimentary video call to candidly discuss your needs, and see if our personalities, aesthetics and working-styles align.
