BFS Website Revamp

BFS Website Revamp

A large-scale information architecture and content modernization project for UC San Diego's Business and Financial Services department — restructuring navigation, updating the majority of pages, and building a repeatable process the team could sustain independently.

Role
UX Designer & Content Lead
Timeline
January 2025 – September 2025
Team
2 Designers, 1 Project Manager
Key Focus
IA, Content strategy, CMS, Figma
Situation

A site that had outgrown itself

The BFS website had accumulated years of incremental additions without a corresponding cleanup. Pages went stale, links broke, and navigation was structured around how BFS was organized internally — not how users actually looked for information. Google Analytics confirmed what people were experiencing: large portions of the site received almost no traffic, a clear signal that content wasn't findable.

There was no ownership model, no review cadence, and no shared standard for what a good page looked like. The problem wasn't just the content — it was the absence of any process to keep it current.

Outdated or broken page example
Broken and outdated links
Many pages linked to retired tools — including legacy Oracle systems — creating dead ends users had no way to navigate past.
Navigation built for the org, not the user
Site structure mirrored internal BFS departments rather than the tasks users were trying to complete, making information hard to find.
Inconsistent content quality
Pages varied widely in structure, tone, and accuracy. There was no shared standard, so quality depended entirely on which team owned a page.
No maintenance process
Without clear ownership or review cycles, outdated content stayed live indefinitely. The site was impossible to maintain at scale.
Approach

Phased, data-driven, built to last

I led weekly working sessions with 15+ subject matter experts, conducted the majority of page revamps, and created and maintained the reporting system tracking what was done, in progress, and still needed attention. The work was phased — not everything at once, but prioritized by where users actually were.

~90%
Page update completion
15+
SMEs onboarded to Figma
3
Major phase rollouts
1
Audit and map
Full site inventory in Figma — color-coded by status, organized by owner, with V1/V2 layouts side by side for review. I built and maintained a parallel Google Sheets tracker that logged every page's progress from authorship confirmation through CMS sign-off, making it easy to see at a glance what was done, what was blocked, and what was next.
2
Prioritize with data
Google Analytics drove sequencing — high-traffic pages (Merchant Equipment, Payment Cards, Student Receivables) were updated first so improvements reached the most users fastest. Low-traffic sections were flagged for consolidation or archival. A separate video audit tracked view counts and recency across all Finance training content to determine what was worth keeping.
3
Lead working sessions and ship
I ran weekly review meetings with 15+ SMEs — equal parts progress check and content education. SMEs learned to think about web content differently: how to write for users rather than internal audiences, when to link vs. duplicate, and how to flag when something needed compliance review. Content was implemented in BLINK CMS and routed through final review before going live.
Figma site map or tracker screenshot
Design decisions

The choices that made the work land

Figma as collaboration layer, not deliverable
SMEs reviewed and commented on page layouts in Figma without needing design skills. The canvas became the weekly meeting artifact — keeping reviews grounded in actual content rather than abstract discussion. Accountability happened in real time, not after the meeting.
Data before intuition
Analytics drove sequencing. Pages that mattered most to users got fixed first — which didn't always match what seemed most outdated internally. Some sections that felt critical had almost no traffic; others that looked fine were heavily visited and long overdue.
Built for handoff from day one
The tracker, weekly cadence, Figma workflow, and SME onboarding were all designed so BFS could maintain the site independently after I left. A cleaner website without a sustainable process behind it is just debt deferred.
Plain language as a non-negotiable
BFS content historically used internal jargon and passive constructions that were accurate but impenetrable. Rewrites led with what users need to do — not how the department is organized — without sacrificing compliance requirements.
Key deliverables

What we shipped

  • Figma site map and collaborative review workspace — full visual inventory with status tracking and before/after comparisons across all sections
  • Google Sheets project tracker — page-by-page progress log across authorship, editing, staging, CMS implementation, and sign-off
  • Video content audit — inventory of BFS finance training videos with view counts, upload dates, and archival recommendations
  • Restructured information architecture — reorganized navigation and page hierarchy across the Finance & Accounting section
  • Plain-language content rewrites across high-priority pages including Merchant Equipment, Accounts Receivable, and Budget & Finance
  • SME onboarding and process documentation — so BFS could continue the work and maintain standards independently
Result

A site the team can actually maintain

Approximately 90% of site pages updated across three major phase rollouts. Broken links and references to retired tools cleared across the Finance & Accounting section. A repeatable content review and CMS update process established for ongoing maintenance — not just a cleaner site, but a system for keeping it clean.

Improved findability
Navigation restructured around user tasks rather than internal org charts, making it easier to find accurate financial information without prior knowledge of how BFS is organized.
Cleared technical debt
Broken links and references to retired Oracle tools removed. Pages that hadn't been touched in years were either updated to current standards or archived.
Consistent content quality
Plain-language rewrites and shared templates raised the baseline across the site. SMEs left with a clearer understanding of web content standards they could apply going forward.
Sustainable process
The tracker, Figma workflow, and ownership documentation gave the BFS team a repeatable system for ongoing updates — not just a one-time cleanup.
Reflection

Large institutional websites are hard to change not because of any single design problem, but because of the organizational dynamics underneath them: distributed ownership, inconsistent standards, no shared language for what "good" looks like, and no process for keeping things current. The design work mattered — the IA restructure, the content rewrites, the Figma workspace. But what made it actually ship was the operational layer: the tracker, the weekly cadence, the SME relationships, the sequencing decisions. That's the part of UX work that doesn't always show up in portfolios, but is often the hardest and most valuable thing a designer can do.