Rise in STEM
About The Project
Launched in 2026, the York Equity Timeline is an interactive platform developed by York University’s DEDI Strategy team. It documents York’s ongoing journey toward equity through key milestones, community contributions, and future aspirations, inviting the community to explore the past, share their perspectives, and imagine the future of equity at York.
My Role
As an independent Design Consultant, my contribution spanned early strategy through design and implementation, helping shape the initial idea into a complete digital experience. This included defining the platform architecture and participation model, shaping the UX and visual identity, and designing and building the final website in WordPress.
Focus
UX & SYSTEMS DESIGN
From an Open Idea to a Participatory Platform
Shaping the content, structure, and interactions behind an evolving community experience.
The project began as an open idea rather than a defined digital product. Working with the DEDI team, I helped shape the platform strategy, map the content and story flow, define calls to action, and develop the information architecture and participation model.
Early concepts explored open community contributions and real-time interaction. Through the design process, the experience evolved into a more sustainable model with moderated submissions and structured pathways for participation, balancing community contribution with accessibility, safety, and long-term management.
At the centre of the experience is an interactive timeline powered by Knight Lab's TimelineJS, customized and integrated into WordPress. I designed the full website experience, including how the timeline connects with the broader platform and how content can be managed as the project grows.
I also conceptualized and designed a custom reaction system, including the icons, while working with the DEDI team to shape the meaning behind each response. Community members can also contribute milestones through a moderated submission process.
The website was designed and built in WordPress with accessibility and long-term management in mind, allowing the team to maintain and evolve the platform independently.
VISUAL IDENTITY
Creating a Distinct Identity
Using archival storytelling and York's visual language to create a contemporary, community-driven experience.
One of the key requirements was that the Equity Timeline remain within York University’s established brand guidelines while developing a distinct identity of its own. Working within a defined colour palette and visual system meant exploring how those same elements could be used in more dynamic and unexpected ways to create an experience that felt approachable, expressive, and community-driven.
With no new photography produced for the project, York’s archives became central to the visual direction. I selected photographs connected to meaningful moments and milestones, allowing the imagery itself to contribute to the storytelling.
Archival photography, often in black and white, was paired with bold colour, graphic elements, and contemporary compositions. This preserved the history and character of the images while bringing new energy to them and creating a more distinctive visual language within York’s existing system.
The final direction remained fully aligned with York’s brand requirements while demonstrating how an established visual system could be reinterpreted to tell a new story.
Extending the Visual System
As the project developed, the visual language also needed to support Future Visions, an upcoming phase inviting community members to imagine what equity at York could look like in 2050.
I created adaptable social media templates for the DEDI team to share community ideas and quotes. These introduced a looser, more handmade quality to the visual system, creating space for community voices to feel more personal and expressive while remaining connected to the broader Equity Timeline identity.
REFLECTION
Designing Beyond Launch
Being involved from the project's earliest stages gave me the opportunity to contribute to the thinking behind the platform, not just its final interface.
Working within York's established brand, colour palette, and archival imagery also became an interesting creative constraint, showing how existing elements can be reinterpreted to tell new stories while still feeling distinctly York.
The project expanded my understanding of participatory design and reinforced the importance of designing not only for launch, but for how an experience can continue to grow and serve its community over time.