After I joined the MuckRock team in 2014, I led a top-to-bottom redesign of the website and brand. Within a few months, we relaunched with a flexible visual system and a fully responsive website. I’m proud to say that the site is still relying on my work, with minimal changes, to this day.

Since it had been founded, the site was running a lightly-customized Django template. This template was intended more for publishing than for creating or browsing user-generated content. While this approach had worked well as the company established itself, its reporting, and the tools it offered, it was not well-equipped to achieve our ambitions for richer interactivity and growing a community around public records.

The main goal was to give primacy to the FOIA-filing functionality, driving new user signups and increasing utilization of the unique tools provided by the platform. We established a new system of typography and colors, a new information architecture with corresponding navigation, and improved user interaction with judiciously applied JavaScript.

A key component of this redesign was the use of stylized, public domain images as illustrations. Since the platform deals in public documents, it was a natural fit to rely on images from government archives. This led to a mid-century visual style with a modern spirit. This helped communicate MuckRock’s brand traits: transparency, idealism, and technology.

Another crucial element of the redesign was giving entities—users, agencies, and jurisdictions—distinct portal pages.