New Mexico OST Site –
→ Built a new home and customer provider interface for the New Mexico Out-of-School Time Network
JUNE 2023 - AUG. 2023
Growing up in a household led by two parents who teach public elementary-school, education and access to educational resources was something I understood as important from a young age. I was truly fortunate.
I remember distinctly in elementary school years having to keep myself busy hours after the last bell would ring (in what felt like against my will) because my parents had papers to grade or meetings to attend. I recognized early on how much educator’s didn’t receive the credit they deserved– as caretakers and the one’s responsible for the next generation of thinkers. For this– I was, and continue to be proud of my parent’s work. The friendships I would make with students at the Bautista Creek Elementary School after-school program would contribute some of the fondest memories of my early life.
For my first UX internship to be heavy into the field of education and the non-profit space, it felt like a full circle moment and an opportunity that couldn’t have excited me more. For the entirety of the summer of 2023, I worked remotely to provide an intuitive platform for the parents, gaurdians, and students of New Mexico to learn about the network of after-school programs that the state offers.
ABOUT
NMOST, a non-profit organization focused on the developments of youth in after school programs, was looking to launch a new online presence come Fall ‘23. The existing site was identified as being difficult to navigate and visually confusing. As an intern at NMOST through build4good (an initiative by New America) I developed graphic, UX and web design skills by working on a customer-provider interface platform.
ROLE
UX Designer
Web Designer
👬 An intuitive education non-profit resource platform
TOOLS
Figma, Figjam, and Wordpress
FOCUS
Get the stakeholders (NMOST Board of Directors) to agree on a visual direction for the site
Design and build the initial 25+ page website — including creating a design system, collaborating on copy, and exporting assets
Make tech + design decisions that lay a solid foundation for future maintenance and growth
→ Pre-redesign: Outdated and lacking
→ Old CMS made it difficult for the board to find a reliable system of updating the site
wireframe sketches
Intuitive web pages that prioritize accessibility to resources.
USER PERSONAS
Maria Lopez → Program Director
Age: 45
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Occupation: Director of a nonprofit after-school program
Tech Comfort Level: Intermediate
Background & Goals:
Maria oversees an after-school program focused on STEM education for low-income students. She relies on NMOST to find funding opportunities, professional development resources, and ways to connect with other educators. Her biggest challenge is navigating grant applications and ensuring her program stays up to date with policy changes.
Pain Points:
• Difficulty accessing clear, up-to-date funding opportunities
• Wants a more streamlined process for discovering professional development workshops
• Needs a way to connect with other program leaders to share best practices
USER PERSONAS
JJ Martinez → High School Mentor
Age: 17
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Occupation: High school student & volunteer tutor
Tech Comfort Level: High
Background & Goals:
JJ volunteers at his local community center, mentoring younger students in math and reading. He’s looking for leadership opportunities, scholarships, and ways to get more involved with youth advocacy in his state. He often browses NMOST on his phone and prefers quick, digestible content.
Pain Points:
• Hard to find student-specific opportunities
• The website used to feel outdated and not mobile-friendly
• Wants more youth representation and involvement in the network
→ How the re-design addresses JJ's needs:
USER PERSONAS
Lisa Chen → Parent
Age: 38
Location: Las Cruces, NM
Occupation: Working mother of two
Tech Comfort Level: Low
Background & Goals:
Lisa works full-time and needs reliable, affordable after-school care for her two children. She finds it overwhelming to sift through different program options and wants a way to quickly determine what’s best for her kids based on location, cost, and schedule.
Pain Points:
• Hard to find programs that fit her kids’ needs
• Previously struggled with an overwhelming amount of links and unclear navigation
• Wants clear information on cost and eligibility for programs
→ How the re-design benefits Lisa's needs:
As with most redesign projects, but particularly in this one, the most important design decisions here were: picking what tools to use, creating a stable foundation, and setting organic processes.
CMS
Built on Wordpress. The board expressed the desire for a professional platform with a unique blog system– Wordpress was their immediate preference.
CHALLENGES
The majority of the NMOST Board was between the ages of 50 and 70– a difficult age to user test with, but still necessary as they would make up a good sum of the users for the platform (and of course sign off on the launch)
The head of NMOST was in Europe most of the summer which demanded our meetings to be heavy on substance and, on my end, constantly prepared with multiple iterations of design systems for her to react to as the time change became an issue.
First time using Wordpress! Had to commit several hours to tutorial on the platform and the various plug-ins that are best used for Wordpress site design.
SOLUTION
A new website with a organizational blog and mapping system built using Figma, Adobe CC, custom CSS and Wordpress.
→ Referring to the trademark New Mexico's sunrise/sunset with new gradient styling
