Elected as Creative Director for the Student Government Association (SGA), I was tasked with managing a $50,000 marketing budget and a team of designers in a high-pressure, deadline-driven environment. Beyond visual output, my goal was to modernize the organization's internal workflows and external communication strategies.
I took the time to find time. I spoke to as many senators as I could about what potential roadblocks they were facing and what resources they thought might be useful. IIt helped me inform my entire approach and end-goals. I used a basic heuristic analysis framework to achieve this. Each senator was asked these sets of questions.
This helped inform what direction I wanted to take the SGA as it's Creative Director, but it also helped them align on vision, bureaucratic efficacy/collective coherence, and communication.
I identified that legislative inefficiencies were causing burnout. After conducting over 100 hours of interviews to map senator pain points, I developed a new "Legislative Flow" framework. This structural redesign streamlined decision-making, reducing weekly senate meetings from 7 hours to just 2 hours.
I jumped through the red tape and the hoops required to get a survey sent out to the entire student body. That was around 40,000 students at the time. The process required constant revision from various stakeholders including the Dean, President, and Vice President. Answers would trickle in daily but I had the general gist of things within the first day.
I hired and directed a team of designers and photographers, shifting the organization from reactive, one-off posts to a cohesive "macro" content strategy. This ensured consistent messaging across social media, town hall announcements, and campus outreach. This process also helped inform the use of the marketing budget.
Refreshed the SGA visual identity, including a logo redesign and standardized merchandise (umbrellas, water bottles) to improve organizational visibility and student sentiment.Merchandise I was developing for the organization also included an SGA branded water bottle and umbrellas (to pass out on a rainy day) for the student body.
By treating the democratic process as a user experience problem, I was able to remove significant friction for the senators while simultaneously increasing engagement with the student body through clearer, more professional communication.