SELECTED WORK
Metro Justice
Metro Justice
Six decades of organizing Rochester's community to fight for a more just city.
Six decades of organizing Rochester's community to fight for a more just city.
Despite decades of organizing work and real campaign wins, Metro Justice's website didn't reflect the strength or clarity of the organization behind it. The project began as a small favor. I'd reached out about an issue getting a yard sign as a supporter, and once that was resolved, I offered to bring my design background to their site. I started where most designers start, building a full visual mockup in Framer. But the deeper I looked, the more I found a
Despite decades of organizing work and real campaign wins, Metro Justice's website didn't reflect the strength or clarity of the organization behind it. The project began as a small favor. I'd reached out about an issue getting a yard sign as a supporter, and once that was resolved, I offered to bring my design background to their site. I started where most designers start, building a full visual mockup in Framer. But the deeper I looked, the more I found a structural problem hiding underneath the cosmetic one: visitors couldn't tell what the organization was asking them to do, or in what order, because the site's navigation gave every page equal weight regardless of its purpose. The challenge was to bring clarity and hierarchy to the site within the real constraints of NationBuilder, the platform Metro Justice runs on and wasn't able to migrate away from in the near term.
structural problem hiding underneath the cosmetic one: visitors couldn't tell what the organization was asking them to do, or in what order, because the site's navigation gave every page equal weight regardless of its purpose. The challenge was to bring clarity and hierarchy to the site within the real constraints of NationBuilder, the platform Metro Justice runs on and wasn't able to migrate away from in the near term.
Project Roadmap
The navigation was overloaded.
Rather than attempting a full redesign all at once, the work was sequenced into four fast-moving phases designed to deliver immediate value while steadily building a cohesive, sustainable digital presence. The first two phases focused on utility and clarity. Launching a centralized Graduate Student Resources Hub resolved long-standing pain points around access to information, while the redesigned Research section restructured content around people, labs, and active work rather than static descriptions. New information architecture and dynamic layouts made research output easier to navigate and more compelling to external audiences, reinforcing the department’s academic credibility and impact. The final phases shifted from fixing problems to shaping identity. The Instagram relaunch established a consistent visual and editorial system that could be sustained over time, turning social media into an extension of the department’s voice rather than an afterthought.
The top-level menu had too many items, and several were redundant without solving the underlying problem. Their RED utility-justice campaign, for example, had three separate menu items for the petition, the yard sign, and bill-assistance resources, but none of them linked to a central RED campaign page. A visitor curious about RED had no clear front door.
Rather than attempting a full redesign all at once, the work was sequenced into four fast-moving phases designed to deliver immediate value while steadily building a cohesive, sustainable digital presence. The first two phases focused on utility and clarity. Launching a centralized Graduate Student Resources Hub resolved long-standing pain points around access to information, while the redesigned Research section restructured content around people, labs, and active work rather than static descriptions. New information architecture and dynamic layouts made research output easier to navigate and more compelling to external audiences, reinforcing the department’s academic credibility and impact. The final phases shifted from fixing problems to shaping identity. The Instagram relaunch established a consistent visual and editorial system that could be sustained over time, turning social media into an extension of the department’s voice rather than an afterthought.
The menu didn't reflect what visitors actually needed first.
Rather than attempting a full redesign all at once, the work was sequenced into four fast-moving phases designed to deliver immediate value while steadily building a cohesive, sustainable digital presence. The first two phases focused on utility and clarity. Launching a centralized Graduate Student Resources Hub resolved long-standing pain points around access to information, while the redesigned Research section restructured content around people, labs, and active work rather than static descriptions. New information architecture and dynamic layouts made research output easier to navigate and more compelling to external audiences, reinforcing the department’s academic credibility and impact. The final phases shifted from fixing problems to shaping identity. The Instagram relaunch established a consistent visual and editorial system that could be sustained over time, turning social media into an extension of the department’s voice rather than an afterthought.
"Donate" sat near the top of the nav, ahead of the content that would actually make someone want to donate. Asking for money is more effective after someone understands and trusts the organization.
Rather than attempting a full redesign all at once, the work was sequenced into four fast-moving phases designed to deliver immediate value while steadily building a cohesive, sustainable digital presence. The first two phases focused on utility and clarity. Launching a centralized Graduate Student Resources Hub resolved long-standing pain points around access to information, while the redesigned Research section restructured content around people, labs, and active work rather than static descriptions. New information architecture and dynamic layouts made research output easier to navigate and more compelling to external audiences, reinforcing the department’s academic credibility and impact. The final phases shifted from fixing problems to shaping identity. The Instagram relaunch established a consistent visual and editorial system that could be sustained over time, turning social media into an extension of the department’s voice rather than an afterthought.
Identity and action needed a clear relationship, not a collision.
Rather than attempting a full redesign all at once, the work was sequenced into four fast-moving phases designed to deliver immediate value while steadily building a cohesive, sustainable digital presence. The first two phases focused on utility and clarity. Launching a centralized Graduate Student Resources Hub resolved long-standing pain points around access to information, while the redesigned Research section restructured content around people, labs, and active work rather than static descriptions. New information architecture and dynamic layouts made research output easier to navigate and more compelling to external audiences, reinforcing the department’s academic credibility and impact. The final phases shifted from fixing problems to shaping identity. The Instagram relaunch established a consistent visual and editorial system that could be sustained over time, turning social media into an extension of the department’s voice rather than an afterthought.
Pages meant to explain who Metro Justice is were competing directly with pages meant to get visitors to do something (join, sign, donate) — both sitting as equal, unordered items in the same flat menu. A visitor scanning the nav had no sense of which to read first. The fix wasn't to split them into two unrelated categories; it was to nest the asks underneath the identity content that gives them meaning; visitors land on "Who We Are" first, and "Donate" and "Membership" appear as a natural next step from there rather than as a cold, top-level demand.
Rather than attempting a full redesign all at once, the work was sequenced into four fast-moving phases designed to deliver immediate value while steadily building a cohesive, sustainable digital presence. The first two phases focused on utility and clarity. Launching a centralized Graduate Student Resources Hub resolved long-standing pain points around access to information, while the redesigned Research section restructured content around people, labs, and active work rather than static descriptions. New information architecture and dynamic layouts made research output easier to navigate and more compelling to external audiences, reinforcing the department’s academic credibility and impact. The final phases shifted from fixing problems to shaping identity. The Instagram relaunch established a consistent visual and editorial system that could be sustained over time, turning social media into an extension of the department’s voice rather than an afterthought.
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© 2017-2026 Bryan Prince. All rights reserved.
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© 2017-2026 Bryan Prince. All rights reserved.