Northern Trust was preparing for its first full website redesign in more than a decade. The mandate was clear: modernize a legacy digital presence without compromising trust, clarity, or regulatory rigor. I partnered closely with the Chicago agency Huge, embedded directly within their sprint teams, serving as Lead UI/UX and Brand Designer across the engagement.
My role spanned end to end. I helped translate a newly approved design vision into a living, scalable system, shaping how strategy became interface. I owned the UI and UX execution for the most complex and flexible page templates on the site, developing key wireframes, high-fidelity visual comps, and interaction concepts that balanced sophistication with usability. I designed and refined core components that users would encounter repeatedly: navigation systems, search, forms, modals, alerts, and cross-journey guidance elements.
Beyond static design, I focused heavily on behavior. I concepted motion and micro-interactions that clarified intent and reduced friction, including a collapsible global navigation and animated client-login patterns that felt deliberate rather than decorative. Throughout the process, I acted as the connective tissue between brand intent, UX logic, technical constraints, and accessibility requirements, ensuring the system held together under real-world conditions.
This was not a single page or a single idea. It was the construction of a digital foundation meant to last, designed to evolve as business needs, content, and user expectations changed.
The primary challenge was scale. The site needed to support diverse audiences, complex content structures, and strict compliance standards, all while shifting toward a more modern, lead-generation-focused experience. Accessibility added another layer of complexity. Hero imagery paired with headline overlays made traditional contrast testing unreliable, so I introduced a layered gradient system informed by live contrast testing to consistently meet ADA AA standards without diluting the brand.
CMS limitations also shaped the work. Search functionality, forms, and legal disclosures required solutions that respected backend constraints while still delivering a refined, confident front-end experience. I designed flexible form systems with clear validation states, modular modal patterns that handled long-form legal content gracefully, and a “Safety Net” component that re-routed users at key decision points rather than letting journeys dead-end.
The site launched in early 2019 and delivered immediate impact: a 24% increase in organic traffic within the first two months, followed by sustained gains in engagement. More importantly, the component system and UX patterns established during the redesign became a durable framework, enabling continuous iteration long after launch. For Northern Trust, it marked a clear shift from legacy digital presence to a modern, scalable platform. For me, it was a defining example of leading design at the intersection of brand, UX, and systems thinking.
Ready to launch
your next
big idea?
