UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media

An Engaging Digital Presence for a Leading Media and Journalism School

Widely regarded as one of the country’s top media and journalism schools, UNC Hussman transforms students into skilled communications professionals who are poised to excel in dynamic media environments.

UNC Hussman is the most popular of UNC’s nine professional schools, and offers undergraduate, graduate, and global programs in addition to community outreach at the K-12 level. Notable alumni include Hulu founder Jason Kilar ‘93, CNN anchor Pamela Brown ‘06, and other leaders in the media and journalism space.

When the school approached us with the goal of overhauling their higher education website design, we leveraged our work on similar-scale UNC projects – UNC Kenan Flagler, UNC School of Information & Library Science, and Carolina Nursing – to design an efficient and thorough process for gathering information and delivering on key objectives. After working with the Hussman team for more than two years, we were proud to launch an energetic new website that elevates important information while conveying the school’s top-tier reputation and prestige.

Areas of Expertise

  • Higher Ed

Services

  • Discovery Research
  • Stakeholder Interviews
  • Website Design & Development
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A Distinctive Design Within the UNC Ecosystem

Built around the school’s existing brand and the overarching UNC visual guidelines, the site’s design is clean, colorful, and geometric. Elements like bold type and large imagery create a high-impact first impression and textural accents add color and visual interest. These stylistic choices come together in a way that feels uniquely “Hussman” while adhering to the university-wide system of colors, patterns, and design conventions.

To add a layer of interactivity, the site also incorporates page-load animations and subtle hover states that activate when mousing over links, buttons, and content tiles. All aspects of the site – animations, colors, graphics, and so on – comply with ADA accessibility guidelines and UNC’s rigorous web standards.

Persona-Driven Navigation

To engage UNC Hussman’s multiple target audiences, we designed the site’s navigation to feature an “Info For…” pop-out menu that segments important links by audience group. This feature allows users to quickly jump to relevant content from any page on the site.

Built for Ultimate Flexibility

Built on a WordPress base, the site features numerous custom interior templates designed around the school’s content. The templates include a mix of reusable blocks like statistics, testimonials, accordions, and carousels to illustrate the student experience and highlight long-term impact. Many pages also include related news, contacts, and calls-to-action to guide users deeper into the site.

Using the intuitive content management system and pre-designed block library, admins can continually update existing pages and create entirely new layouts for the school’s various initiatives.

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