Morgantown Public Library System

My Role

I led the project from strategy through launch, including brand identity design, information architecture, wireframing, UX/UI design, accessibility planning, and WordPress development.

My work included:

• facilitating strategy and discovery conversations
• designing the new visual identity and design system
• restructuring the site architecture and navigation
• creating responsive wireframes and UI designs
• developing the custom WordPress implementation
• building accessible navigation and content patterns
• integrating third party APIs and RSS feeds for dynamic content
• creating scalable content structures for programs, resources, events, and branch locations

The final public library website design included custom integrations for LibCal events, Wowbrary book feeds, and dynamic resource management designed to make ongoing updates easier for library staff while improving usability for the public.

The Challenge

The Morgantown Public Library System serves a wide range of audiences, from children and families to students, researchers, and older adults, all with very different needs and goals. Over time, the website had accumulated a large amount of content, resources, and programs that had become difficult to organize and navigate clearly.

The challenge was not only creating a more accessible and maintainable public library website design, but also building a system that could help users quickly understand everything the library offers. The new experience needed to balance discovery, usability, and community engagement while supporting the library’s evolving role as an educational, cultural, and civic resource for Morgantown.

The Rebrand

The rebrand focused on creating a warm, flexible identity system that felt modern, welcoming, and community centered without losing the sense of trust and accessibility expected from a public institution.

The new visual identity was built around the idea of opening: opening books, opening doors, opening opportunities, and opening access to information and community resources. The core logo system was intentionally simple and adaptable, allowing the broader identity to expand through color, pattern, illustration, and environmental applications.

A flexible color palette and rounded typography system were designed to feel warm, approachable, and adaptable across audiences, branches, programs, and digital experiences.

One of the most important parts of the rebrand was the custom doodle system. Built from the core book shape, the doodles represent the many different people, personalities, interests, and experiences connected through the library system. Some reference learning, creativity, music, technology, storytelling, or community interaction, while others simply add warmth, curiosity, and personality throughout the experience.

The doodle system helped create a public library website design and brand identity that could flex across audiences, ages, programs, signage, print materials, and digital spaces without feeling rigid or institutional. The result was a visual language designed to feel approachable, expressive, and deeply connected to the community the library serves.

The Design Solution

The final design solution combined a flexible brand identity system with an accessible, community centered digital experience. Warm typography, a broad but cohesive color palette, and the custom doodle system helped create a visual language that could flex across audiences, programs, signage, print materials, and digital spaces while still feeling unified.

The website design focused on clarity, usability, and resource discovery, helping users more easily navigate events, services, digital tools, and educational resources across the multi branch library system. The result was a modern public library website design built to feel welcoming, scalable, and easy to maintain long term.