UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science & Society

CDSS focuses on computing and data science research - AI and machine learning applied to healthcare, climate change, politics and more. It needed a comprehensive redesign and a migration off a proprietary platform onto Drupal, timed to support heavy fundraising ahead of an exciting transition: CDSS was about to become Berkeley's first new college in over fifty years.

A distinct look, inside Berkeley's brand guidelines

Black Antelope has designed a number of Berkeley department sites over the years, and the challenge each time is the same: work within well-defined brand guidelines for logo, typography and colour, while still giving each department its own identity. For CDSS, I introduced a new geometric accent tied to the data-science subject matter, mixed with campus photography and gradient colour blends across panels and titles.

A 14-year timeline, made visual

One of the more enjoyable problems was CDSS's historic timeline - originally a plain text list. I redesigned it around hexagonal graphic accents with a year-by-year mini-navigation, breaking fourteen years of Berkeley data-science history into something visually engaging on desktop and a clean single column on mobile.

Accessible and mobile-first, at scale

The new site needed to meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility requirements (keyboard navigation, colour-blind-safe palettes), checked throughout with Siteimprove, alongside a mobile design given as much care as desktop for a heavily mobile audience of students and faculty. The scope also included six standalone micro-site hub templates for CDSS's various programmes and events, each following the core design language.