Increasing engagement with Education Department

The site was hindered by confusing navigation, a dated and inaccessible design, and a legacy ColdFusion platform with no true content management system for staff.

With more than 800 pages and 5,000 PDFs, it had become difficult for visitors to navigate and for editors to maintain. OHE undertook a full redesign and rebuild to improve usability, accessibility, and long-term sustainability, and to migrate years of legacy content without losing the authoritative resources students and families depend on.

Improved UX

Our team began with a review of the site's navigation and how well it served the department's audiences and goals, using user testing to refine recommendations before finalizing a simpler, clearer structure. 

Design Refresh

Building on State branding guidelines, we introduced a more modern design that emphasized warmth and readability while providing a calmer layout for content-heavy needs, with additional usability testing near launch to guide refinements.

Technical Improvements

On the technical side, our team led discovery to identify the project's technical and editorial requirements and to map the migration of 800+ pages and 5,000+ PDFs off the legacy ColdFusion system. OHE had an internal developer who planned to maintain the site after launch, and our team worked alongside them throughout, sharing Drupal and developer-operations best practices so they could carry the site forward.