The michigan daily arts section redesign

ProblemS

A 3-month website exploration and redesign.

Reaching subcategories within the Arts section required multiple steps and was unnecessarily complex
The Arts landing page and subcategories lacked a distinct visual identity
Readers could not easily distinguish whether a story was a “Review” or a “Notebook,” which made skimming content more difficult

Goals

Clarify Story Type: Introduce visual indicators to clearly distinguish Reviews from Notebooks
Reinforce Category Identity: Highlight the seven Arts categories so each article is instantly tied to its section
Strengthen Navigation: Enable seamless movement between the Arts landing page, subsections, and individual stories
Modernize Layout: Refresh the design to reflect contemporary digital publishing standards
Improve Readability: Enhance scannability through consistent typography, spacing, and imagery

Process

PHASE 1

PHASE 2

Studied leading arts and media sites (Vulture, The Cut, Wired, and Vogue) for navigation and layout patterns.

Mapped user flows and uncovered two key pain points:

Users often missed the dropdown menu, clicked “Arts” by mistake, and had to backtrack
Once on a story page, there was no clear path back to the subsection page

PHASE 3

PHASE 4

PHASE 5

Sketched ideas for a modular system to keep the layout compact, skimmable, and easy to navigate. Ideated on tags for “Review” and “Notebook” story types.

Built information architecture layout for landing page and subsection page to define clear content hierarchy and streamline navigation flows.

Home Page IA

Sub-Section IA

Subsection Page

Find some of The Daily’s previous design work here.

Landing Page IA

Built high-fidelity prototypes for final delivery.

PHASE 6

Ideated on module build outs and developed lo-fi wireframes to test different layouts and module structure (image-based vs. text based), refined through critiques.

Landing Page

Solution

Story Page

A modular Arts landing page where users can browse recent stories and jump directly into a subsection
Tags on all stories making it easy for readers to skim and distinguish between “Reviews” and “Notebooks”
A direct subsection button on story pages, eliminating reliance on the back arrow or dropdown menus
refreshed, modern visual identity that sets apart from the rest of The Daily while staying consistent with brand guidelines