National Academies

To help the National Academies build on their legacy of excellence, we elevated the brand to better capture the authority and impact of their work, modernizing the visual identity through a refreshed typography system and expanded color palette inspired by their publications.

At the same time, the site was restructured to surface their most influential research more clearly, improving discoverability through topic-driven entry points and simplified paths across their content ecosystem.

By bringing together previously fragmented platforms and aligning the National Academies brand more closely with its research and influence, the new experience reinforced their credibility and made their contributions more visible to their stakeholders and the public.

The experience also sought to humanize the institution by highlighting the experts and collaborative approach to the research, telling a more consistent story about their unique ability to convene leading minds to address critical issues.

We transformed the National Academies experience from a fragmented content archive into a connected, approachable ecosystem where users can clearly understand what the organization does and what they gain from it. 

Previously, the site often presented content out of context, making it difficult for users to see the bigger picture of the organization’s work and rigorous process. By unifying the design system, restructuring information architecture, and establishing more connectivity across content types, we encouraged users to move seamlessly across the site and explore the relationships between projects, processes, and output. What was once a disjointed and sprawling experience is now structured, intuitive, and purpose-driven, giving both users and internal teams the clarity and tools needed to communicate, discover, and scale the organization’s impact.

One of the main objectives of this project was at the organization level: the new platform needed to equip internal staff with the tools and structure required to manage and communicate their work at scale. By introducing a dynamic template system that accommodates the full lifecycle of the National Academies’ work, the platform enables teams to publish and maintain content more efficiently while ensuring design and navigation are cohesive and effortless.

A redesigned data architecture and content model make research more discoverable, searchable, and easier to maintain over time. At the same time, the new structure helped produce alignment across the organization, helping previously disparate units present their work consistently and tell the story of the National Academies and its mission with clarity.