The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, on the University of Kansas campus, celebrates the nearly century-long lives of public service of United States Senators Bob and Elizabeth Dole. 

The Institute is part archive of the senators’ political work, part training ground for future leaders, and part hub for events featuring leaders and luminaries from around the world. Presidents, congresspeople, authors, ambassadors, and more than could be listed here have shared their wisdom and experiences here. My duties there led to my first experience of working with C-SPAN to broadcast some of the events to the world.

Such a prestigious organization unfortunately had a website that had not been redesigned in over 10 years. It was completely static, violating the first law of current web design: responsiveness is key. Modern sites must function and look as good on an iPhone as they do on a 48-inch computer monitor.

This website redesign was an utterly unique experience for me, as it was the first time I would not be directly building the site. My other duties with the Institute left me no time for a project of that scope. Instead, I had to communicate to a freelancer exactly what we wanted.

It was also the first time I worked with a group for the entire design process. I showed the head archivist and the digital archivist the present paradigm on UX/UI design. They showed me vital aspects of the Institute that had been neglected by the old site.

This process resulted in a site that finally lived up to the singular legacies of the Dole Senators.