Less Page, More Purpose: The MIT SHASS Redesign Story
About MIT SHASS.
The MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) is where human insight meets technological innovation. As one of MIT’s five schools, SHASS equips students and researchers to explore the cultural, ethical, political, and creative dimensions of our world—ensuring that breakthroughs in science and engineering are grounded in a deep understanding of humanity.
Industry: Higher Education
At a Glance
The Challenge: When Content Grows Without Connection.
The original MIT SHASS website spanned more than 200 pages but lacked a consistent structure or unified framework. Each user group approached the site with its own objectives, yet their experiences were isolated from one another. As a result, the site became fragmented, with minimal consideration for cohesive user journeys or a shared understanding of how visitors navigate and engage with the content.
Guided by curiosity and a set of targeted survey questions, we met with each user group to uncover their goals, challenges, and wish lists for the MIT SHASS website. As expected, the responses varied—a professor’s needs differed greatly from a student’s—but one theme emerged: everyone wanted a simpler, more direct path to their destination with fewer pages to navigate.
Armed with these insights, our UX team translated findings into a streamlined sitemap and then into wireframes—the skeletal blueprints of each page.
These visual frameworks allowed stakeholders to see how users would move through the site and provided space for quick iteration and refinement of content groupings.
This step was crucial—it aligned the team around a shared vision early on, reducing rework later in the design phase and ensuring that every layout decision supported clarity, accessibility, and user intent.
As the structure took shape, our copywriter established a consistent tone and clear editorial standards to unify the voice across contributors. Working hand in hand with the UX designer, she developed purposeful page content—refining labels, headlines, calls-to-action, and subcopy—to ensure every word guided users seamlessly along their journey.
The Solution: Where Strategy Meets Simplicity.
Through user research and UX design, we reimagined how MIT SHASS’s content could be structured, managed, and maintained. The redesign unified what had previously been two separate platforms by integrating the intranet directly into the main site—simplifying management for the communications team and creating a more seamless experience for users.
We also developed a library of customized WordPress blocks that safeguard SHASS’s visual identity while giving administrators the flexibility to update or expand the site with ease. This modern framework now supports quicker updates, consistent organization, and long-term scalability.
The upfront investment in user research and UX design set the foundation for a leaner, more intentional website—streamlined from over 200 pages to just 75, without sacrificing content or functionality.
Through research-driven design and strategic consolidation, we transformed a sprawling, disconnected site into a cohesive digital experience—one that unites audiences, streamlines management, and reflects the clarity and purpose at the heart of MIT SHASS.
GraVoc’s work and support have been top-notch since we partnered with them to redesign and improve our site. We can’t recommend them highly enough. From UX to customer service, our experience has been exemplary.
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