Architecting a 0 → 1 UI-Kit for a more intuitive student recruitment

Creating reusable components and refining navigation through usability testing and best accessibility practices

Timeline

Jun – Oct 2026
(Ongoing project)

My Role

Design Systems Lead, Web Designer

Team

6 Designers + 1 Design Lead

Skills

Figma, Claude, User Interviews, Design Systems

Overview

The UC Davis Triceratops Club needed a cohesive foundation for its web experience to attract and engage new students.

As Design Systems Lead and web designer, I translated client requirements into a reusable UI kit while collaborating with a team of six designers.

Alongside establishing the visual foundation, I used usability testing findings to identify opportunities to improve navigation and information hierarchy, making key recruitment information easier for students to find and understand.

My Impact

I established a reusable UI foundation for the team while identifying and addressing usability issues in the student recruitment experience.

My contributions included:

Built a 0 → 1 UI kit with reusable components, design tokens, typography, and color styles, giving six designers a shared foundation to design from.

Conducted 5 usability tests to identify breakdowns in navigation and information hierarchy, then reworked the navigation flow to make key recruitment content easier to discover.

Created reusable patterns that can be carried across future pages, reducing the need for designers to independently recreate common UI elements.

Final Artifacts