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Client

Macquarie University

Agency

The Friendly Agency

Work included

Design system
UX/UI Design
Art Direction

Global Experience Macquarie (GEM)

Macquarie University required a design system that would be effective in unifying the work of their many online collaborators. The existing system had over 500 editors, 86 different design customisations and more than 13000 broken links - such an inconsistent user interface and user experience meant that the university was unable to quickly react to change. 

As the lead UI designer on the project I was responsible for creating a design system which improved Macquarie's user experience, accessibility, and was simple and straightforward to use by their numerous content creators.

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GEM won gold in the Digital-Education category at the 2021 Sydney Design Awards
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Foundations

The foundation of the GEM design system includes: colour, grids, and typography.

Google font alternatives of the brand fonts were chosen for greater accessibility by their many contributors
Brand colours of Macquarie University were optimised for digital use, including accessibility requirements and a fully responsive grid system
Components

An array of components were created for GEM that included buttons, navigation, cards, alerts,  tabs, accordions, tiles, form components etc. They were designed to work together seamlessly and be easy to use by the Universities content creators.

Templates

Templates and layout examples were created to simplify the design process for editors, remove confusion and allow them to create their pages easily and efficiently. 

Outcome

The award winning GEM system was a great success for Macquarie University. It resulted in an increase in velocity by their digital team, increased brand awareness, and an overall improved UX/UI leading to increased conversion rates.

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