Hannah Linn Urkowitz - DesignUrk - Wharton Webinars Case Study

Wharton Webinars New Design and Migration

Communications team created a new design and user experience for Wharton Webinars. These webinar events are provided for Wharton alumni throughout the year.

Project Duration

July 2024 - September 2024

The Problem

UX Web Designer was made aware in 2022 that the plugin for Wharton Webinars was going away. After further investigating it was clear webinars system also did not meet Penn’s accessibility standard of WCAG 2.2 AA.

The Goal

Project goal was to create a new process for Lifelong Learning team to manage webinars, design a new system for users, rebrand the look and feel of webinars graphics and images.

My Role

Web Designer, UX Designer, Project Manager

Responsibilities

I was responsible for migrating webinar content from previous webinar website, creating content management system, designing prototypes, design user journey, training Lifelong Learning on how to manage the new process for hosting webinars.

User Research: Summary

Wharton Webinars was not accessible for alumni, the video library did not meet the WCAG 2.2 AA standard set by Penn. Almost every thumbnail for the session had the same text, the description font was very small, and video pages did not have hierarchy of information. The primary landing page for Wharton Webinars was not accessible, and was not responsive for mobile devices.

The FAQs for Webinars was not in the FAQ section of the alumni site and most of the information needed to be updated. We also identified a second webinar FAQs page with a created negative and confusing experience for alumni because the information was not consistent.

Pain Points

01

The web system for Webinars was obsolete and being discontinued by Wharton IT. The webinar system needed to be redesigned in WordPress with a new process for upcoming and archiving webinars.

02

The current webinars web system does not meet the university’s accessibility standard. The redesign plan for webinar needs to meet
Penn’s WCAG AA 2.2 standard.

03

Webinar stakeholder needed to learn a new process for archiving past webinars into a new system. The stakeholder also needs user access to WordPress backend.

04

We need to examine the end-to-end user journey of webinars with Vimeo’s automated emails and Marketing Cloud email campaigns.

Problem Statement: Wharton alumni need to access Wharton Webinars because it is a part of their Lifelong Learning benefit. The web system for webinars is obsolete and needs to be redesigned.

Persona: Undergraduates

Persona: MBA Graduates

Persona: WEMBA

User Journey Flow

We took into consideration how alumni would watch archived webinars, register for upcoming webinars, and how the email communications could compliment that flow.

Pilar Page Wireframes

We redesigned the webinars into a pillar page system. We wanted to promote upcoming webinar, have a content library of archived webinars, use photos of the presenters, and provide helpful PennKey information.

Images of before the usability study and after the usability study.

Upcoming Webinar wireframes

In WordPress we would be using posts upcoming webinar sessions. This post would contain information about the session, speaker, link to speaker’s bio, and form to register for the webinar.

Archived Webinar Page Wireframes

Once a webinar session has ended the post would be made private and then archived into the webinar video library with a category tag.

Alumni Wharton Homepage Fidelity Prototype

Filtering System Wireframes

Previously archived webinars needed to be migrated to WordPress and labeled with a filtering system that works best for the alumni.

Low-fidelity prototype

As a cross-functional team specializing in UX design, video production, email marketing, and content strategy, we collaborated on the full end-to-end experience for Wharton Webinars.

The low-fidelity prototype allowed us to validate layout ideas, refine the structure of webinar listings, and align key components across the site — from registration pages to email communications. This step was critical for aligning design with stakeholder goals and accessibility standards.

Pillar Page: Before and After

On the right is the original pillar page for webinars and on the left is the redesigned webinars page after the content was migrated.

Archived Webinar Page: Before and After

On the left is the original archived webinar video landing page and on the right is the redesigned archived webinar landing page after the content was migrated.

Filtering System: Before and After

On the left is the previous filtering system that used a dropdown. On the right is the updated filtering system where the alumni select each topic to filter by topic.

Email UX Lifecycle

Users who signup for Wharton Webinars receive three emails from Vimeo. This email lifecycle confirms successful signup, event reminder, and a follow up with VOD recording information.

High-fidelity
prototype

Wharton Webinars is live and available on the Wharton Alumni website.

Takeaways

Impact:

This project demonstrated the value of collaborative, cross-disciplinary work to support a complex user flow. As a team, we refined the copy and cadence of Vimeo emails, mapped the full user experience from registration to replay, and ensured accessibility and consistency at every step.

What I learned:

I learned to think holistically about the alumni experience — not just how users access webinars, but also how stakeholders manage the system. This included developing training materials, providing technical guidance, and supporting content updates across multiple platforms.

Next Steps

1

Create a cyclical update process: Establish a semester-based workflow for publishing and archiving webinar content.

2

Support stakeholder onboarding: Provide documentation and training for managing webinars in WordPress, including how to archive sessions into the video library.

3

Refine email communications: Continue iterating the design and delivery of webinar-related emails in Vimeo and Marketing Cloud to ensure the best possible experience for registered users.

Accessibility Considerations

1

Videos have captions for users with low hearing or prefer captions to help with processing auditory information.

2

All images have alt-text for screen reader users. These users may have low to no vision or may have reading traction difficulties and prefer to listen to content. High contrast design for those who have color blindness.

3

Keyboard scrolling compatible navigation. Meets the WCAG 2.2 AA standard for accessibility at University of Pennsylvania.

Meet me

Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey Area

Read about me

About
Resume

Contact me

hurkowitz@designurk.com
+1 856 701 7503

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