01/ Challenge & audience
A connected community. A fragmented online experience.
The Chamber supported local relationships and events, but the digital experience needed clearer pathways, stronger consistency, and more sustained engagement.
Chamber
Community
Bussiness
Design question
How might we make MACC’s digital experience as connected, welcoming, and useful as the community it serves?
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Local businesses
Understand membership benefits, find opportunities, and connect with other businesses.
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Residents and visitors
Find events, discover local businesses, and participate in community life.
Chamber leadership and partners
Communicate clearly, support members, and maintain a cohesive presence.
Mahomet Area Chamber of Commerce
A community built on connections.
A digital experience built to strengthen them. Research, stakeholder co-creation and coordinated design across website, brand and community engagement.
Design strategy
UX Research
Brand Experience
My role
Project Lead &
UX Researcher
Focus
Website experience, brand, and community engagement
Team
17 graduate
designers
Who we’re designing for
Local businesses, residents and visitors, and Chamber leadership
Outcome
New brand story with guidelines, website & social media presence
Live Website
The product was shipped and was live after 3 months of handoff
IMPACT AT A GLANCE
From disconnected touchpoints to a shared direction.
The initiative connected brand identity, website experience, and community engagement strategy around a common vision for MACC.
1
Launched public-facing website
A real-world digital presence supported by a coordinated set of design recommendations, created with stakeholder input.
Important measurement distinction
The launch is confirmed. Website traffic, membership conversion, and engagement improvements have not been independently verified; the numbers above describe project outputs, not growth metrics.
3
3
Coordinated workstreams
Coordinated workstreams
680+
Pages of project documentation
02/ RESEARCH TO DIRECTION
Three insights. Three design responses.
Insight 01
Design Confidence
Response
Develop a more cohesive identity and consistent messaging across touchpoints.
Research methods included ecosystem mapping, benchmarking, a UX audit, and stakeholder collaboration.
Insight 02
Information pathways needed clarity.
Response
Simplify information architecture and foreground membership, events, and resources.
Ecosystem Mapping
Benchmarking
UX Audit
Stakeholder collaboration
Insight 03
Engagement needed continuity.
Engagement needed continuity.
Response
Provide repeatable campaign and storytelling tools beyond one-off events.
Each response connects a research theme to a specific design opportunity rather than presenting methods as an isolated checklist.
03/ CO-CREATION
Designing with the community, not just for it.
Brand diagnostics and focused co-creation sessions brought stakeholder perspectives into the process.
Listen
Surface needs and aspirations
Facilitation methods
Brand DNA mapping
My contribution
Overall coordination across all teams, UX research, and helping translate stakeholder input into actionable design direction.
Dreams & Nightmare
Sailbot mapping
Align
Find shared priorities
Business model conversations
Translate
Turn insight into direction
04/ DESIGN RESPONSE
Three workstreams. One connected experience.
The website was my primary UX focus, supported by the wider team’s brand and campaign work.
My primary focus
01/ Website experience
Clarify navigation, prioritize key journeys, strengthen calls to action, and recommend accessible, consistent patterns.
02/ Brand identity
Create a recognizable visual and verbal system that reflects Mahomet’s local character.
03/ Community campaign
Develop reusable storytelling and communication tools to sustain engagement.
05/ LAUNCH & VALUE
From design challenge to a live community platform.
The live website provides entry points to membership, events, local business listings, and Chamber information.
Membership
Discover the Chamber’s value
The website is live at www.mahometchamber.com. This case study describes the design process and recommendations; it does not claim measured performance changes.
Events
Find ways to participate
Business Directory
Explore local businesses
Chamber Info
Understand the organization
06/ REFLECTION
Creating alignment was part of the design work.
Working across a large team and community stakeholders taught me to balance individual needs, organizational priorities, and practical design decisions.
KEY LEARNING
Good design does not always start with a shared vision. Sometimes, creating that vision is the work.
Facilitation helped turn uncertainty into decisions that people could understand, support, and build upon.
07/ NEXT STEPS
What I would do next.
Validate the live journeys through usability testing.
Audit accessibility and content consistency.
Track event discovery, membership inquiries, and task completion.