Excerpt from project's recommendations (PDF)

Problem

washingtonpost.com was an eager participant in the early days of online journalism. Their enthusiasm and talent built a site with an astonishing quantity and quality of information. But like a badly overgrown garden, it's almost impossible for users to appreciate what can be found there. This has hindered the ability of the site to satisfy advertiser goals, to effectively prioritize projects, and to measure the success or failure of the site's content and functionality.

Solution

I designed and led a massive, six-month project with these ambitious goals:

1. To outline an organization of content that would make it easy for users to satisfy their goals on the site
2. To develop and align the site's user and business strategies
3. To create a unified product strategy that could lead major improvements to the site's technical architecture and applications
4. To leverage the expertise of more than half the staff without allowing that involvement to slow the progress of the project

My deliverables for the project included a comprehensive outline of the problem teamed with a detailed and holistic description of the solution. As I facilitated the work of various teams to inform the solution, I was also able to build deep, cross-departmental consensus.

I researched, wrote, designed, and illustrated the 65-page document that described all of these aspects. The document outlined user, business, and navigational strategies; a site structure; other related solutions; and an outline of the project's implications.

See more about the washingtonpost.com Relaunch Project