UX/UI Case Study
Project Overview
Great Oaks Charter School Bridgeport serves as a beacon of educational excellence in Connecticut, empowering students through rigorous academics and strong community values. The website redesign aimed to create a digital experience that reflects the school’s commitment to student success while making information easily accessible to parents, students, and the broader community.
The goal of this project was to reimagine the school’s online presence to better communicate its mission, showcase academic programs, and support engagement with prospective families. The redesign focused on clarity, usability, and emotional connection while maintaining a professional and trustworthy digital identity.
The Challenge
The website needed to serve a diverse audience with distinct needs, including prospective parents researching schools, current families seeking updates and resources, students accessing school information, and community members learning about the school’s impact.
The previous website suffered from complex navigation and unclear information architecture, making it difficult for users to quickly locate key content such as admissions details, academic programs, calendar events, and contact information.
In addition, the design needed to capture the warmth and excellence of Great Oaks Charter School while maintaining professional credibility. Authentic representation of students and real school moments was essential to building trust and emotional resonance.
Mobile accessibility was also a critical challenge. With over 60 percent of parents accessing school information on mobile devices, the experience needed to function seamlessly across all screen sizes.
Building a Design System That Inspires
The color palette was carefully selected to reflect trust, energy, and warmth. Navy blue was used to establish professionalism and authority, bright blue highlighted calls to action and key sections, vibrant orange added warmth and emphasis where needed, and clean white provided clarity and breathing room throughout the layout.
Design principles focused on strong visual hierarchy, authentic imagery, and consistent patterns. Content was prioritized using scale, color, and whitespace so users could immediately identify what mattered most. Photography featured real students, teachers, and school moments to create trust and emotional connection. Reusable components ensured consistency across pages and improved usability.
Typography
The typography system balances professionalism with approachability using clean, system-based sans-serif fonts. Headings are bold and confident, while body text is optimized for extended reading with generous line height and excellent legibility across all devices.
Typography hierarchy guides users naturally through the content, making pages scannable and easy to digest. Text color contrast meets WCAG AA standards, and responsive scaling ensures comfortable reading on smaller screens without sacrificing clarity.
Accessibility & Usability
Users were able to find key information much faster due to streamlined navigation and improved information architecture. Parents reported a noticeably better experience accessing admissions and academic content, while mobile bounce rates dropped substantially after launch.
The site’s emphasis on authentic storytelling and accessibility resulted in increased engagement from prospective families and higher enrollment inquiries. Meeting WCAG AAA accessibility standards further reinforced the school’s commitment to inclusion and equity.
Results and Impact
The redesigned website led to measurable improvements in engagement and performance. Site engagement increased significantly, mobile traffic accounted for the majority of usage, load times improved, and overall feedback from users was overwhelmingly positive.
Key Learnings
Early investment in user research proved essential in preventing costly revisions and ensuring the final product met real parent and student needs. Authentic photography created stronger emotional connections than stock imagery and reinforced trust in the school’s brand.
Performance optimization directly improved user satisfaction, particularly on mobile devices, demonstrating that speed is a core component of user experience. Maintaining a cohesive design system across colors, typography, and components helped establish credibility and consistency throughout the site.
Conclusion
The Great Oaks Charter School Bridgeport website redesign successfully transformed the school’s digital presence into a powerful tool for communication, recruitment, and community building. By prioritizing user needs, accessibility, and visual cohesion, the website now reflects the excellence and warmth that define Great Oaks.
This project reinforced the value of human-centered design in education. Every design decision, from layout to typography to color, was made with real users in mind, resulting in a digital experience that truly serves its community.
