THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Website Audit, User Interface, User Experience, Prototyping
Project Overview
I was part of the creative team at The Daily Gamecock, our university’s student-run newspaper, during a major website redesign initiative. The existing site was outdated—visually stagnant, poorly organized, and lacking any dynamic or interactive features. Important sections were hidden or unclear, and many features received little user interaction because of poor prioritization in the design. As the team member with the most UI/UX experience and a plan to pursue that field professionally, I naturally stepped into a leadership role.
The design process was highly collaborative and iterative. We met weekly or biweekly, beginning with a full team audit of the current site. After identifying strengths and weaknesses, we assigned ourselves steps in the design process—gathering inspiration, sketching low-fi mockups, and later developing wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes. I created the final prototype that brought all our ideas together.
I also took responsibility for implementation feasibility, researching whether our ideas aligned with the capabilities of our development team and the tech stack already in place. Acting as the mediator between design and development helped ground our design in practicality.
Unfortunately, due to staffing turnover and leadership changes, the project was paused before it could be implemented. Still, it was one of the most valuable collaborative experiences I’ve had, and the newsroom still has our research, mockups, and prototype on hand for future use. It gave me a strong foundation in team-based UX workflows and problem-solving on a real-world scale.