Youth Civil Rights Academy
Sample Image from the Youth Civil Rights website
Summary
The Youth Civil Rights Academy (YCRA) is an educational initiative created in partnership with the University of Michigan School of Sociology and the University of Michigan Academic Innovations department. The mission of the Academy is to provide accessible, engaging civil rights education for young learners through thoughtfully designed digital experiences.
I was contracted by University of Michigan Academic Innovations to design and build a public-facing website that could serve as both an informational hub and a long-term platform for the program. One of the primary requirements was that the site be built in a client-maintainable CMS, allowing the YCRA team to update content independently without needing to call a developer every time a paragraph changed or a new resource was added.
The site also needed to visually align with educational video content being produced in parallel. This meant the website had to reinforce the same tone, identity, and accessibility goals as the videos, creating a cohesive experience across mediums. The challenge was balancing academic credibility with youth accessibility, without drifting into either “too dry” or “trying way too hard.”
Solution
The solution was a WordPress-based website designed with clarity, flexibility, and longevity in mind. The information architecture emphasized simple navigation and clear content hierarchy, making it easy for users to understand the Academy’s mission and explore its resources without feeling like they accidentally enrolled in a graduate seminar.
Custom graphics and layouts were created to support learning and engagement while remaining approachable for younger audiences. Visual design choices prioritized readability, consistency, and tone, ensuring the site felt welcoming rather than institutional. In short, it looked like a place you’d want to learn, not a place that scolds you for scrolling incorrectly.
Throughout development, I worked closely with the Academic Innovations team to ensure the site’s look and feel aligned with their video content. This coordination ensured the website and videos felt like parts of a single educational ecosystem rather than two projects that happened to share a logo.
My Role
I was responsible for the end-to-end design and build of the Youth Civil Rights Academy website.
My contributions included:
Designing the overall UI layout and visual system
Creating all graphics and visual assets used throughout the site
Building and configuring the site in WordPress for long-term maintainability
Formatting and structuring content for clarity, accessibility, and ease of updates
Collaborating with University of Michigan Academic Innovations to align the website with their educational video content
Practically speaking, this meant translating complex academic subject matter into a digital experience that feels approachable, empowering, and usable by both learners and administrators. The final product supports meaningful learning, scales with the program, and does not break into a cold sweat when someone clicks “Update.”