We treated this as a single integrated engagement, not two parallel tracks. Brand strategy and UX strategy fed each other from day one: the language we developed for KERA’s mission, vision, and values shaped how we defined the audiences; the audiences shaped how we structured the site.
Discovery was deep. We led visioning workshops with KERA’s leadership and conducted stakeholder interviews across five teams — Audience Development, Senior Management, Finance & Development, the News team, and the Content team — to understand how the organization actually worked from the inside. That depth mattered, because in a public media org with radio, TV, news, and arts teams all sharing real estate, alignment doesn’t happen by default.
On the brand side, we proposed a refreshed mission statement centered on connection and storytelling, an aspirational vision built to support capital campaigns and long-term ambition, and a cleaner set of external values — Educate, Engage, Inspire, Inform, Entertain — that map directly to what KERA actually does. We also developed a new tagline, “Empowering North Texans one story at a time,” designed with an animated word swap so story could become show, song, or child depending on context. One line, multiple audiences, one brand.
On the UX side, we refined KERA’s original five audience segments down to four sharper ones: News, Arts & Culture, Education, and Members/Donors. For each, we mapped distinct user journeys based on where they actually arrive from — radio, email, TV pledge drive, direct — and what they’re trying to accomplish. Then came the structural decision that defined the site: rather than organize the navigation by department (the way the org chart is built), we organized it by action — Read, Listen, Watch, Learn, Get Involved. Anyone landing on the homepage interacts with the full scope of KERA’s sub-brands seamlessly, without one department getting top billing over another.
Competitive analysis sharpened the visual and editorial direction. Locally, we benchmarked against the Dallas Morning News, D Magazine, and the Dallas Observer — useful for identifying what to avoid (institutional design, ad-cluttered UX) and what to lean into. For aspirational benchmarks, we looked at LAist, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and WBEZ Chicago — the latter specifically for how to make a sticky audio player feel native instead of bolted on.
From there, four rounds of wireframing and prototyping, each pressure-tested against real KERA content and accessibility requirements — never lorem ipsum. The work landed as eight desktop and mobile page templates in Figma, backed by a comprehensive UI style guide designed to hold up as KERA’s team extends the system over time.
What We Built
A Refreshed Brand Platform. New mission, vision, refined external values (Educate, Engage, Inspire, Inform, Entertain), and a new tagline — “Empowering North Texans one story at a time” — built with an animated word swap so the line speaks to news listeners, parents, music fans, and kids without privileging any one of them.
An Action-Based Information Architecture. A reimagined sitemap organized around what users want to do (Read, Listen, Watch, Learn, Get Involved) rather than KERA’s internal department structure. The full KERA family — KERA News, KXT, WRR, KERA Kids — surfaces equally from the top-level navigation.
A Persistent Audio Player. A fixed player anchored to the bottom of every page lets listeners switch between KERA News, KXT, and WRR without interrupting their browsing. Inspired by WBEZ Chicago’s implementation and refined for KERA’s three-station context, the player makes live audio feel native to the experience rather than an afterthought.
Flexible Story Layouts. Modular templates that accommodate long-form investigations, quick news hits, and multimedia features without forcing editors to fight the CMS. Built-in recirculation hooks — related content, “gentle ask” donation prompts at the end of articles — keep readers moving deeper into the site.
An Accessible, Modern Design System. WCAG-informed hierarchy and contrast baked into every component — not retrofitted after the fact. Negative space and clean typography set the site apart from cluttered local competitors and give KERA’s dev team clear guardrails for building new pages.
Mobile-First UX. Simplified navigation and touch-friendly layouts. KERA’s audience increasingly shows up on phones; the experience finally reflects that.
