The Michigan Tailoring System

The Michigan Tailoring System (MTS) is an open source authoring platform for writers who want to develop tailored communication: content designed specifically for an individual based on data known about that individual. The tool is free for use or modification in non-profit, research, and educational settings.

MTS was originally built as a desktop application by the University of Michigan Center for Health Communications Research in 2008. In 2020, the U-M Center for Academic Innovation converted MTS to a web-based application. This update included many technical and design tasks. As the lead designer, I was responsible for the latter, and my tasks included:

• User experience research interviews with our project team’s core users (behavioral science team) to observe and improve workflows
• Improving the user experience and establishing a new user interface
• Brand and identity consultation and execution
• Front-end code implementation (HTML/LESS/CSS) to realize my designs with software developers

Brand Identity, Brand Direction, UI & UX, Design System, Prototyping, Web Design, Front-end Developer, Iconography, Project Management & Leadership

Branding & Visual Identity

I designed and developed the branding for MTS. This included elements such as logomark, typeface selection and typography guidelines, custom icon library, and more.

User Interface Design & Feature Development

To improve collaboration with behavioral scientists and software developers, I created high-fidelity prototypes, showing the user experience and flow through our features. This helped us easily visualize the best interface for our users.