IEEE
Leading the Digital Transformation of IEEE Computer Society's 6,000-Page Platform
I led the strategy and UX for a multi-year transformation of Computer.org, aligning executives, volunteers, developers, and business leaders around a scalable digital platform. This work modernized a 6,000-page digital ecosystem by creating a scalable design system and establishing governance for long-term growth.
Role
UX Manager & Design Lead
scope
Digital Transformation
team
18 Stakeholders · 2 Designers · Engineering
impact
Reduced 6,000 pages to 2,200 · 14 Templates · Governance Framework
Transforming a Website Was Easy. Transforming the Organization Wasn't.
IEEE Computer Society had spent two years attempting to modernize Computer.org, but progress had stalled. The organization managed more than 6,000 pages, owned by multiple departments with inconsistent navigation, content standards, and user experiences. The challenge wasn't simply to redesign a website—it was to create the organizational alignment, governance, and scalable systems necessary to modernize one of the world's largest computing associations.
Before Designing the Experience, We Needed Shared Understanding
The first phase of the project wasn't centered on wireframes—it was centered on alignment.
I conducted 23 stakeholder interviews, facilitated Lean Canvas workshops, defined business objectives and KPIs, and collaborated with executives to establish a shared understanding of customer needs, organizational priorities, and success criteria.
These activities helped transform competing opinions into a common product strategy that could guide every subsequent design decision.
A Simple Framework Guided Hundreds of Design Decisions
During research, one question kept surfacing:
What should Computer.org become?
The challenge wasn't simply redesigning pages—it was defining a product strategy that could guide thousands of future decisions across content, navigation, features, and business priorities.
Through stakeholder interviews, customer research, and strategy workshops, I identified three principles that became the foundation of the experience:
- Content creates value and gives people a reason to return.
- Community strengthens engagement by connecting members with one another.
- Commerce naturally follows once value and trust have been established.
This framework became the lens through which we evaluated homepage priorities, navigation, templates, and future roadmap decisions. Rather than asking, "What should we add?" we continually asked, "Does this strengthen Content, Community, or Commerce?"
The 3 Cs framework: Content, Community, Commerce
Every major decision, from homepage hierarchy and navigation to reusable templates and future roadmap discussions,
was evaluated against this framework.
Redesigning 6,000 Pages Would Never Scale
Early discovery made one thing clear: designing thousands of individual pages would create an unsustainable amount of work for both design and engineering. Before creating interfaces, we needed to determine what deserved to exist, what could be removed, and what patterns could be reused across the platform.
Rather than immediately designing screens, I focused on reducing complexity before increasing fidelity.
Four Strategic Decisions Reduced Complexity Before We Designed Anything
Reduce the Problem
Instead of redesigning every page, we audited existing content and eliminated approximately 4,000 outdated pages, reducing implementation effort before design even began.
Design Templates, Not Pages
We shifted from designing hundreds of unique pages to building a template-based system, dramatically reducing design and development effort while improving consistency.
Prioritize Governance
Rather than documenting standards after launch, we established voice, imagery, and accessibility guidelines early so the platform could continue evolving after the initial release.
Build for Scale
Components were designed as reusable building blocks that ultimately became a design language library shared with development.
A Flexible Design System Replaced Hundreds of One-Off Experiences
With the strategic direction established, we focused on creating a platform that could scale.
Navigation was simplified, responsive templates replaced one-off layouts, and reusable interface components enabled consistent experiences across desktop, tablet, and mobile. Every design decision reinforced the broader goal of reducing complexity while increasing flexibility.
Operationalizing the Experience
Launching the redesigned experience was only part of the transformation.
To ensure long-term sustainability, I partnered with teams to establish content governance, voice and tone standards, image guidelines, accessibility reviews, and migration processes that enabled future teams to manage the platform consistently without relying on design involvement for every change.
Building Systems That Continued Beyond the Project
Reduced Project Scope
Content audit reduced the migration from 6,000 pages to approximately 2,200, allowing the team to focus development effort where it created the greatest value.
Established a Scalable Design System
Created 14 reusable templates and a shared design language that accelerated development and improved consistency across the platform.
Created Organizational Alignment
Worked across 18 stakeholders, executives, editors, developers, and volunteers to establish a shared product vision and roadmap.
Improved Long-Term Governance
Delivered standards for content, imagery, accessibility, and migration that continued guiding the platform after launch.
Reflections...
Great digital products require organizational alignment first.
Beautiful interfaces are easy to debate. Shared understanding is much harder—and ultimately far more valuable. Investing early in stakeholder alignment made later design decisions faster and more durable.
Reducing complexity often creates more value than adding functionality.
Auditing content, simplifying navigation, and introducing reusable templates reduced implementation effort while improving consistency for both users and internal teams.
Systems outlive screens.
One of the most valuable outcomes wasn't the redesigned homepage—it was establishing governance, reusable patterns, and decision-making frameworks that allowed the organization to continue evolving long after the initial launch.
Til next time,
Let's build something meaningful.
If you're tackling a complex product or building something from the ground up, I'd love to hear about it.