New landing architecture, streamlined merchandising, and ADA-compliant components reduce friction from discovery to checkout.

Georgia Correctional Industries(GCI)— Modernizing a DTC-Style Commerce Experience

Replatformed a legacy catalog into a conversion-first storefront—improving product discovery, checkout confidence, and accessibility for institutional and public buyers.

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My Role

  • Lead Designer
  • UI/UX Designer
  • Front‑End Developer
  • Project Manager
  • Product Designer

Challenge

Spearhead a complete digital transformation—rebrand GCI’s identity, migrate from Joomla to Magento 2, and drive product sales through an optimized, accessible storefront.

Key Metrics

  • 508 Compliance: 100%
  • Navigation Depth: from 4‑click to 2‑click
  • SEO Visibility: +45%
  • KPI Chips (short): ↓ Steps to product (–38%), ↑ PDP engagement (+24%), WCAG 2.2 AA patterns

Responsibilities & Resolutions

Rebranding Contributions:

  • Developed a refreshed visual identity system, including updated typography, color palette, iconography, and visual hierarchy, to align with a more modern and trustworthy brand image.
  • Designed new branded UI components that enhanced consistency across the site while reinforcing the organization’s values and mission.
  • Reimagined page layouts, graphics, and marketing visuals to create a more polished, accessible, and product-focused design direction.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Designed and developed the website architecture from the ground up, including wireframes, interactive prototypes, and final UI implementation.
  • Collected and audited existing content and assets, restructured product information, and created a more intuitive catalog navigation experience.
  • Led the client through multiple design reviews and UX walkthroughs, translating executive feedback into actionable design enhancements.
  • Conducted a full analytics audit to determine high-performing pages, underutilized content, and user behavior patterns, directly influencing the site structure and product hierarchy.

Challenges Addressed:

  • Strengthened weak or non-existent SEO structures by integrating keyword research, semantic tagging, and optimized descriptions for better search engine performance.
  • Ensured all updates were fully 508 compliant, incorporating accessible design principles and testing for users with disabilities.
  • Implemented a one-to-two-click navigation structure to improve overall site usability and reduce friction for key user tasks.
  • Researched and recommended payment processing vendors, ensuring secure, scalable transactions for institutional and B2B customers.
  • Redesigned and reorganized the product catalog to better align with user behavior, highlighting top-selling and in-demand inventory

Team meeting sketching a new brand identity
Brand workshop & wireframe sketches
GCI Journey Map
GCI Journey Map

Research, Planning & Design

The Research, Planning, and Design phase laid the strategic foundation for the complete rebrand and redevelopment of the Georgia Correctional Industries website. As the project’s sole Designer and Developer, I facilitated a collaborative discovery process to align executive stakeholder expectations with technical feasibility and user-centered design principles. From the outset, I maintained consistent communication with leadership—holding weekly meetings with directors, executives, and the CIO to discuss known pain points within the legacy website and define clear goals for the redesign. These sessions were key in driving consensus, securing feedback, and prioritizing features that would increase product visibility and streamline the user journey.

Key Contributions During This Phase:

  • Stakeholder Alignment: Led recurring strategy sessions to gather business requirements and define measurable outcomes for design and sales performance.
  • UX Research: Conducted behavioral analysis on the legacy site to identify navigation inefficiencies, drop-off points, and underutilized product pages.
  • SEO Strategy: Performed in-depth keyword research and implemented metadata optimization strategies to significantly improve organic search visibility.
  • eCommerce Optimization: Researched industry best practices for catalog presentation and designed a product layout that emphasized clarity, accessibility, and conversion.
  • Information Architecture: Redesigned the site’s structure to support a simplified, one-to-two-click navigation model—reducing user friction and improving flow.
  • Visual Design Planning: Developed an updated design system that balanced branding requirements with usability standards across devices and platforms.

This phase resulted in a clearly defined UX framework, streamlined content hierarchy, and a comprehensive roadmap for both rebranding and technical execution—ensuring that all design decisions supported the project’s broader goal: improving brand trust and increasing product sales.

Navigation Through the Eyes of the User

During the user research and usability testing phases of the Georgia Correctional Industries website redesign, I identified critical navigation and accessibility barriers that significantly impacted user engagement. Analytics revealed that visitors were struggling to locate important content quickly and were frequently bypassing essential resources—such as product documents and downloadable PDFs—due to poor interface design and content visibility. Further evaluation showed that the site’s primary navigation structure lacked clarity and accessibility, especially for users with disabilities. The legacy menu was unintuitive, difficult to scan, and did not align with inclusive design best practices, creating unnecessary friction across the user journey.

Key Solutions Implemented:

  • Information Architecture Redesign: Created a detailed site flowchart to establish a more logical and intuitive content structure, supporting goal-driven user journeys.
  • Accessible Navigation: Designed and developed a simplified, ADA/Section 508-compliant main menu that accommodated keyboard navigation, screen readers, and clear tab ordering.
  • Content Visibility Enhancements: Elevated the placement and styling of critical links and documentation to ensure they were visually prioritized and easily discoverable.
  • Improved Content Findability: Reduced click depth and introduced contextually placed links, helping users locate relevant content faster with minimal effort.
  • Same-Window Navigation: Standardized internal link behavior to open in the same tab, improving browser back-button functionality and preserving navigation context.
  • Breadcrumb Trail Integration: Implemented breadcrumb navigation across key pages to support wayfinding and improve orientation within the site’s hierarchy.

These enhancements transformed the user experience by removing unnecessary complexity, improving accessibility, and enabling more efficient interaction across the platform. The result is a more inclusive and goal-oriented browsing experience that supports GCI’s mission while encouraging deeper engagement.

Graphic of site construction and user navigation
User flow & sitemap diagram
Illustration of roadblocks and solutions
Overcoming stakeholder and budget hurdles

Challenges & Hurdles

The redesign and rebranding of the Georgia Correctional Industries (GCI) website came with significant organizational and logistical challenges. While the technical aspects of the project required precision and strategy, the greater challenge often stemmed from internal resistance, budget constraints, and stakeholder misalignment. As the sole Designer, Developer, and Project Manager, I navigated a complex environment that included political friction, limited resources, and a general reluctance toward digital change. Despite these barriers, I remained committed to delivering a product that elevated both the brand and its user experience.

Key Challenges Faced:

  • Political Pushback: The rebranding initiative was initially met with resistance from various stakeholders. Some internal teams were reluctant to support the redesign, viewing it as unnecessary or disruptive to existing systems.
  • Unwillingness to Change:There was a clear cultural hesitation around updating long-standing workflows and modernizing digital processes. I had to advocate for user-first thinking and demonstrate the long-term value of accessibility, design consistency, and eCommerce improvements.
  • Funding Constraints: Budget limitations affected tool selection, licensing options, and third-party integrations. Creative problem-solving and strategic prioritization were essential to staying within scope while maximizing project impact.
  • Content Gaps: Outdated or missing content across departments created roadblocks for UX design and development. I led a structured content discovery and inventory initiative to streamline content collection and ensure accuracy.
  • Rebranding Misalignment:: Early in the process, branding goals were not clearly defined across leadership. I facilitated discussions to align visual identity with organizational goals and ensure the rebrand was executed with intention and consistency.

Through ongoing communication, stakeholder education, and adaptive planning, I was able to drive the project over the finish line—delivering a fully rebranded, user-friendly, and performance-optimized web experience that aligned with GCI’s evolving digital goals.

Testing & Quality Assurance

As the final stage in the redesign and rebranding of the Georgia Correctional Industries (GCI) website, I led a rigorous testing and troubleshooting process to ensure the site was fully functional, accessible, and optimized across all devices and user scenarios. This phase was essential to validating the site’s responsiveness, visual consistency, eCommerce integrity, and overall user experience. We conducted exploratory usability testing with multiple user groups, deliberately providing no instructions or guidance. This approach allowed testers to interact with the site organically, surfacing real-world navigation issues, potential dead ends, and points of confusion. Testing spanned multiple browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) and device types (desktop, tablet, mobile) to ensure consistent performance and accessibility. Special emphasis was placed on validating the eCommerce components, including product listings, cart functionality, and the checkout/payment workflow.

Testing Objectives:

  • Responsiveness: Ensure the site scaled fluidly across all screen sizes and device orientations, with no visual or functional degradation.
  • User Experience:Identify any obstacles in the navigation or user flow that could impact the browsing or purchasing experience.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility: Verify that layouts, fonts, scripts, and media rendered consistently across all major browsers.
  • Search Optimization: Evaluate how metadata, product categories, and structured content could better support SEO indexing and visibility.
  • Security & Stability: Identify potential vulnerabilities and confirm that the checkout system and user data handling were secure and functioning as intended.

Insights gathered from this phase directly informed last-minute optimizations to layout structure, link behavior, asset loading, and checkout efficiency—ensuring a polished and reliable experience for end users and stakeholders alike.

Multidevice QA & usability tests