The legacy site failed accessibility standards and buried 30 museums in admin-style navigation, and both had to be fixed before redesign.
No baseline accessibility, so low-vision and screen-reader users were locked out. WCAG 2.1 AA was legally required.
Admin-style categories hid regional, festival, and tribal links, so users couldn't connect stories across 30 museums.
Respect cultural protocols while making archives easier to find and use, for local communities and a global audience.
WCAG 2.1 AA
Legal accessibility: contrast, keyboard navigation, semantic HTML, ARIA, and screen-reader support.
Cultural IA
Story-driven paths by region, tribe, and festival, not admin-style category lists.
Mobile-first RWD
Lightweight responsive layout for rural users on slower networks and smaller screens.
Five stages: Investigate → Ideate → Design → Test → Implement, each tied to a concrete decision in the final site.
Two official sites showed the same navigation and accessibility gaps.
I audited the legacy platform and benchmarked the Council of Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Development Center sites to map friction, patterns, and where accessibility fell short.
IA by region, tribe, and festival, not admin lists.
Thirty museums are grouped the way communities tell stories: place, lineage, and seasonal events, so links feel discovered, not searched.
Heritage and coexistence: a calm palette on every screen.
Wireframes and prototypes tested layout across devices. Visuals stay restrained, with warm cultural tones and humanist type for a calm, community-led browse.
Responsive layout: verified across devices
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Built-in type size and high contrast, no plugins.
Accessibility was tested in design, not after launch. A global toolbar offers S/M/L text and high-contrast mode across the site.
Skip-links and ARIA landmarks for keyboard and screen readers.
I built the front end in semantic HTML/CSS: skip links, ARIA regions, and responsive layout so the design kept its accessibility in production.
One WCAG 2.1 AA platform, built for communities and a global audience.
Zero audit failures across all museum profiles.
Works on mobile, even on slower rural networks.
Archives opened with dignity and accurate representation.
Accessibility removed visual noise and sharpened the experience, for everyone, not just edge cases. Designing for WCAG 2.1 AA forced clearer hierarchy, stronger contrast, and semantic structure that also improved navigation for sighted users.
The same mindset shaped our slow-technology approach: respect users' attention, reduce clutter, and let cultural content lead, not the interface chrome.
