Civic Climate Platform
Translating $10M and 10 years of research into a library of tools, stories and resources for Texas communities
Role
Lead UX Researcher
& Designer
Timeline
18 months (2024-2026)
Team
4 core leadership,15 PIs, 36+ community partners
Outcome
Platform launching mid to late 2026
SITUATION
Planet Texas 2050 is a $10M, 10-year interdisciplinary research initiative at UT Austin addressing climate resilience across Texas.
As the initiative approaches its sunset, leadership needed to translate a decade of research into a lasting public resource—but had no UX infrastructure to do it.
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Fragmented outputs: 15 principal investigators across disciplines (ecology, public health, urban planning, engineering) with no unified way to share findings
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Diverse audiences: Researchers, policymakers, NGOs, educators, and community members all needed different things from the same platform
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No existing UX infrastructure: Research teams had expertise in their domains, not digital product design
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Sustainability concerns: Platform must outlive the initiative with minimal ongoing resources
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High stakes: This is the public-facing legacy of $10M in research funding
Problem Definition
The initial brief was "build a website to showcase our research and community work." But that's a solution, not a problem. Through stakeholder interviews, I reframed the challenge:
Surface problem: "We need a website."
Actual problem: Nine distinct stakeholder groups (condensed to 5) need to find, understand, and act on climate resilience research—but they have fundamentally different goals, vocabularies, and mental models for how information and tools should be organized.
The core UX challenge: How do you design one platform that serves users who would organize the same content in five completely different ways?
TASK
Lead end-to-end UX research and design to create a platform architecture that:
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Serves 9 stakeholder groups (condensed to 5) with conflicting mental models
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Translates academic research into actionable community resources
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Can be maintained with minimal ongoing resources post-initiative
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Meets WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards
My Responsibilities
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Problem definition and stakeholder alignment
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Mixed-method research (36+ interviews, surveys, synthesis workshops)
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Information architecture and taxonomy design
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Wireframing and prototyping (40+ screens)
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Design system components for UT Drupal CMS
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Strategic recommendations for long-term sustainability
Constraints
Must be built using UT Web Services and UT Drupal Kit CMS; estimates needed for custom components.
ACTION 1
Stakeholder Research (36+ interviews across 9 groups)
Conducted mixed-method research to understand fundamentally different needs:
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Researchers: Trusted space to share data, highlight outcomes, support collaboration
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Community Partners: Plain language, locally relevant tools, trust-building resources
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Policymakers: Evidence-based, digestible data visualizations for decision-making
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NGOs/Nonprofits: Storytelling and resource-sharing to extend reach
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Educators: Interactive tools for teaching and youth engagement
Key Insight: These groups don't just have different preferences...they have fundamentally different mental models for how climate information should be organized and accessed.
ACTION 2
Synthesis & Strategic Recommendations
Translated research into 5 design decisions that shaped the entire platform:
Users approach PT2050 with different goals and mental models
→ Multi-entry navigation with persona-based pathways
Users want research translated into action, not a repository
→ Impact-first content structure with curated toolkits
Trust and visibility of contributors matters
→ Standardized templates with explicit partner/PI attribution
Communities want to engage, not just consume
→ Participatory "Take Action" features and feedback mechanisms
Platform must be maintainable with limited resources
→ Standardized components, limited customization, governance protocols
ACTION 3
Information Architecture & Design
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Site map and taxonomy balancing 9 stakeholder mental models
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40+ wireframes from low to high fidelity
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5 content types with standardized templates
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Design system components compatible with UT Drupal CMS
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WCAG 2.2 AA compliance integrated throughout
ACTION 4
Cross-Functional Alignment
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Presented findings to program leadership, 15 PIs, and 30+ community partners
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Validated design direction during synthesis workshops
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Created stakeholder matrices and risk trackers for ongoing governance
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Delivered phased reports enabling leadership to make informed build decisions
RESULTS + RELEVANCE
The research infrastructure I built—stakeholder matrices, synthesis frameworks, design-to-build specifications—will enable the platform to be maintained and evolved long after the initiative sunsets.
Metric
Result
Stakeholder Coverage
36+ interviews across 9 distinct user groups; Condensed to 5 archteypes
Architecture
Multi-entry IA serving 5 conflicting mental models
Design Deliverables
40+ annotated wireframes, 5 content types, taxonomy
Build Clarity
4 CMS vs. custom-build decisions with rationale
Alignment
15 PIs and 30+ community partners aligned on shared vision
Accessibility
WCAG 2.2 AA integrated from discovery
Timeline
On-track for launch in mid to late 2026
Strategic Impact
This project required solving a genuine systems problem: how do you create coherence across content that different users would organize completely differently?
The multi-entry architecture I designed means:
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Researchers see their work organized by project/discipline
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Policymakers see it organized by decision relevance
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Communities see it organized by geography and lived experience
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All of them are looking at the same content, just through different lenses
Why this matters:This project required synthesizing input from stakeholders with competing priorities—researchers who wanted depth, communities who wanted accessibility, policymakers who wanted data, and leadership who needed sustainability. The platform architecture I designed gives each group what they need without fragmenting into separate siloed experiences. The templates, taxonomies, and governance rules I created will enable the platform to be maintained and extended by non-UX staff long after I'm gone.
EVOLUTION
What I learned
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Problem definition determines solution space. "Build a website" leads to feature lists. "Serve 9 groups with conflicting mental models" leads to architectural thinking.
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Jobs to Be Done reveals hidden conflicts. Researchers want attribution; communities want plain language. Both are valid. The IA had to honor both.
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Governance is a design deliverable. Templates and taxonomies aren't overhead. They are how you ensure the system scales without fragmenting.
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Lock the "definition of done" earlier. Toolkits vs. full ecosystem priorities can diverge midstream without explicit alignment on what "finished" means.
What I'd do differently
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Set up research repository in week 1. With 36+ interviews, I needed searchable evidence storage earlier.
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Run RACI + collision mapping with other consultants earlier to make ownership explicit
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Two-pass estimation with dev team. Rough scoping early, detailed later—with component assumptions documented.
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Layered stakeholder outputs. Executive digest + working deck + deep archive on a regular cadence.
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Maintain a decision log. Link every design choice back to specific research evidence or technical/business requirements.
What's next
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Card sorting to validate taxonomy and navigation
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Usability testing with representative users from each segment
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SME reviews for accessibility and technical feasibility
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CMS build-out using template-first approach
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Launch: Mid-to-late 2026
Tools: Figma • FigJam • Asana • Google Suite • UT Drupal CMS • Otter.AI • ChatGPT
Skills: Problem Definition • Jobs to Be Done • Information Architecture • Taxonomy Design • User Flows • Annotated Wireframes • Systems Thinking • Stakeholder Alignment • Design Governance
