ProblemA research program whose audience arrives once and leaves without a way back BuiltA site that earns the one visit, and a form that keeps the visitor

Why

One visit, a short window, and research that deserved better.

How it was made

Five months, from demo concepts to a launched site.

1. ILearn the readerWho actually arrives: agency staff, partner institutions, researchers nearby. Once, from a citation, with a short window.
2. IIRedesign the ReWater homepageThe existing video and a new MailChimp form, side by side above the fold, in WordPress.
3. IIIThree concepts in FigmaThree mid-fidelity sites for the Consortium, each a full set of pages: home, people, resources, contact.
4. IVPresent as trade-offsResearchers and program staff with strong views; options framed against the visitor’s experience, not taste.
5. VDesign the reportsA template for the Potable Water Reuse Report and the first three issues: an editorial layout for readers who won’t read linearly.
6. VIHand offThe selected concept specified for development, with the reasoning written down at every step.
7. VIILaunch, then measureLive in 2024; 40% more engagement and 1,000+ subscribers by December.

The concepts

Three sites from one brief. Scroll inside each.

Three complete concepts, so the team could choose a direction rather than approve a page. Same content, same four sections, three different bets on how a first-time visitor reads.

Design 1 · Landing

Design 2 · About

Design 3 · About

Mid-fidelity: the photography and names are placeholders from the Figma file. The live site has been updated slightly since; most of the original design is still in place.

The selected design

What a first-time visitor sees, and why it is there.

1 2 3

01The first screen does the whole job.

1. 1A full-bleed aerial of a reservoir, the name, and one button: Subscribe. The thing the visitor is most likely to do in their first ten seconds is right there.
2. 2A location card ties the Consortium to a place and a campus, so a reader from an agency knows who they are dealing with.
3. 3The four partners (USC, Arizona, Nevada Reno and the Army’s ERDC) sit under the hero as the credentials. This is the row the launched site kept.

1 2 3

03People are the proof.

1. 1Research is credible through the researchers. The director gets a full-width introduction before any project is described.
2. 2Her objectives, in her words, in a reading column: the page says what the research is for, not only that it exists.
3. 3The team as a staggered grid with a name, a role and the social links, so a researcher in an adjacent field can find a counterpart in one scroll.

1 2 3

04Resources as a magazine, not a list.

1. 1“What’s new” leads: the newest findings first, with a picture each, because the audience checks back for what changed.
2. 2Categories as a quiet side rail, for the reader who came for one topic.
3. 3A card grid that gives each item a picture and a date, so the research reads as current work rather than an archive.

The reports

The research paper, rebuilt as a magazine.

The Potable Water Reuse Report, published quarterly by the ReWater Center with Trussell Technologies. The team’s findings existed as an academic paper: correct, complete, and read by almost nobody outside the field. I designed the template and laid out the first series so the argument survives a reader who won’t read linearly. The Center has published every issue since in it: ten so far, through 2026.

Series 1, the regulation of direct potable reuse: the three issues I laid out. Each cover opens the issue as a PDF on rewater.usc.edu, where Series 2, 3 and a special issue have followed in the same template.

1 2 3

05Figures given room, text given a way in.

1. 1Fifteen years of California’s regulation drawn as a route across the page, instead of a paragraph of dates. The figure is the argument.
2. 2The United States as a map, states colour-coded by where their rules stand, with the interviewees beside it. A policy reader finds their own state first.
3. 3The world map for the global issue, and on every cover a key-takeaways panel: a skimmer gets the point, a reader gets the two columns beneath.

Try it

The prototypes, as they were presented.

Outcome

Concept to launch, with the intent intact.

• 1 of 3concepts selected and builtThe editorial concept went from Figma to the live Water Reuse Consortium site with the design intent intact through development.
• 40%more engagementOn the ReWater Center after the homepage redesign, measured in December 2024, seven months after the project ended.
• 1,000+subscribersThe list the form built reached EPA officials, educators and defense personnel: the specific audience the research needed.
• 10issues in the report templateThree series and a special issue published in the layout since March 2024, the latest in August 2026.

1. 1Sole designer on a large project. No design review and no second opinion, so I made the reasoning explicit at every step and let the non-designers judge the decision, not the aesthetic.
2. 2Consensus across experts. Researchers and program staff with strong, sometimes conflicting views. Several rounds of iteration, and options presented as trade-offs against the visitor’s experience.
3. 3Building on what existed. A produced video, institutional constraints and a WordPress stack: designing into a system already in motion, not from a blank canvas.
4. 4The messiest piece, defended hardest. MailChimp inside a WordPress build next to multimedia: the component that turned a page into a channel.