Goal: Redesign The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life (OFSL) website to improve access to information and resources for current and prospective 乱伦社区 students and parents, while also ensuring that ongoing site management is simple and efficient.
Project overview
The OFSL website required a comprehensive overhaul, including updates to its content strategy, information architecture and WordPress theme. The primary goal was to ensure that current and prospective students (and their parents) interested in fraternity and sorority life could easily access important information in a user-friendly format, while also aligning the site with the UW鈥檚 web and design standards.
Project launch date: October 27, 2025
Length of project: Roughly two months
Project elements
Competitive analysis
To better understand the content landscape and establish baseline standards, we conducted a competitive analysis of six universities and their fraternity and sorority life websites. Sites were selected based on the strength and reputation of their fraternity and sorority programs.
The analysis focused on key content areas, including navigation menus and menu items, homepage content and supporting site pages. Each category was evaluated using a rating scale from one to ten, where one indicated poor performance and ten represented best-in-class execution.
One key takeaway from the analysis was the ability to compare how different universities structured layouts, imagery and large blocks of text. Higher-rated sites demonstrated more effective integration and layout of these elements, resulting in clearer communication and a smoother user experience.
Content audit
Following the competitive analysis, we conducted a content audit of the OFSL鈥檚 existing website. This involved reviewing each page, documenting all existing content, and identifying areas that required clarification based on insights from the competitive analysis.
After compiling the audit, the OFSL team reviewed the content and accompanying notes to determine next steps. This included decisions on whether content should be archived, retained, deleted or merged with other pages, as well as identifying any partial content worth preserving.
This collaborative process provided clarity on what content should be maintained or revised, directly informing the subsequent information architecture. It also created space for multiple perspectives, allowing team members to contribute ideas and align on a cohesive content strategy.
Sitemapping
Old menu navigation
Because the OFSL supports and advises the councils, but not all the different fraternities and sororities themselves, there听were听a lot of discussions about how the information architecture should be laid out. Additionally, this was听an important step听considering the main target users, and how easily available certain types of information would be placed.听听
The previous sitemap had seven different tabs, with information that wasn鈥檛 grouped intuitively.听
New menu navigation
To reorganize the new site’s information architecture, we first looked at the current pages of the OFSL site and mapped them into pages where similar types of information could be听located.
We then visited the听websites of each individual council to see if听there were common pages that could be added听to听the main OFSL site, as there were talks of making the site a听consolidated location of information for the councils as well. However, after mapping all the separate pages from each council鈥檚 individual website, we听determined听that it was not听feasible听within the听timeframe听to add pages for the individual councils on top of everything else.
After听collaborating with other project members, the proposed navigation was refined based on the time constraints and strategic considerations.听Some information, like fast facts for听parents, were听added while some pages听like听Housing Information and听Forms were听consolidated听under one 鈥淩esources鈥� tab.
Wireframing
The next step was to wireframe the possible layouts of the pages. Two pages we experimented on were the home page and the councils page. For the home page, we thought of various layouts to incorporate 鈥淔ast facts鈥�, 鈥淰alues鈥� and 鈥淗ow to join鈥�.
We wireframed possible layouts for the councils landing page to highlight each of the individual councils. The previous page simply provided hyperlinks to the councils, so we wireframed layout ideas that would utilize cards to highlight images and more context for each of the councils.
Through discussions we听came up with听a prototype that merged elements from the low fidelity wireframes,听content audit, and the site mapping.听Some听important features that were added included immediately听available听fast facts, more images听that听showcased听Greek life, and a more straightforward navigation to important resources and听individual council websites.听听
Project launch
With the redesign, the OFSL site now had a new clean information architecture, homepage and supporting pages to cater various user needs. Content on the new homepage leverages various images and fast facts to set the tone of fraternity and sorority life for prospective students and their family members. Clear pathways on the homepage and site on how to join and parent information also help this user group get the information they need. Additionally, instead of immediately sending users to each council’s site, the new councils landing page gives a bit more context to who and what the councils are.
**Use the wayback machine to view the OFSL site before the launch of the redesign October 27, 2025