Circles Salt Lake
Circles Salt Lake is a nonprofit working to end poverty in Salt Lake County. Its website had grown to 30+ pages that visitors couldn’t navigate and staff dreaded updating. As a UX design intern, I helped condense it to about a dozen pages with clearer navigation and a mobile optimized layout, all within a 2015 WordPress theme.
Project banner for the Circles Salt Lake redesign.
Role: UX Design Intern | Team: 3 UX designers | Timeline: Jan to Jul 2025 | Tools: Figma, WordPress
Problem
Circles Salt Lake, a nonprofit reducing poverty in Salt Lake County, had a website that had grown past 30+ pages. Visitors couldn’t find what they needed, so staff regularly received calls asking for information that was already available online. Updating the site had become a task they dreaded.
Research
We ran a full site audit to find usability issues, outdated content, and structural problems, then decided what to cut, keep, or condense. We met with the client to set direction and studied similar nonprofit sites to see what worked.
Ideation
Once the client approved our direction, we moved from sketches to wireframes and prototypes. Early concepts tested several navigation models before we committed to a condensed, optimized structure.
Early hand sketches and wireframes ideated before the final design.
Iteration
Multiple rounds of user testing shaped the final design. Feedback from users drove changes to the navigation, the content structure, and mobile layouts specifically. We also worked within real limits. With no budget to change platforms, the site had to stay on WordPress with a theme from around 2015. We adapted our designs to fit those limits while still meeting user needs.
Outcomes
We condensed 30+ pages to about a dozen, with redesigned navigation, mobile optimization, and SEO improvements. Staff said managing the site felt far less stressful, and we left tutorials so they can keep it updated on their own.
In the client’s words: “It feels like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders.”
Final desktop designs for the redesigned site, now live at circlessaltlake.org.