Michigan Athletics | Help Recruits Picture Their Future

Athletic recruiting is highly competitive. Families and athletes want answers to important questions: What will my life look like here? What do coaches expect? Can I picture myself in this place and program?

Discovery included a site strategy workshop, interviews with coaches, input from current student-athletes, and feedback from sport-camp attendees and parents. We also reviewed competitors and researched how teens use devices. Students said they mainly used laptops for research, while industry data showed that smartphone access was also important. This insight led to a recommendation for a clean, accessible, fast-loading, and responsive experience that matched how prospective athletes and families actually researched schools.

I developed a content approach that balanced Michigan’s polished story with the real, everyday life of a student-athlete. Facilities, achievements, and tradition created a sense of aspiration. Practice, teammates, coaching, and daily routines helped recruits see the experience they could actually have.

My content recommendations focused on timely, personal stories about the people and routines in each sport. The goal was to create a sense of place and possibility, always highlighting real experiences instead of generic promotion.

The navigation model combined global recruiting content with sport-specific experiences. It encouraged exploration and made it easy to find details about each sport. I focused on recruits and their families as the main audience, but also ensured that fans, alumni, and media could find what they needed.

Wireframes and content outlines gave the team a clear path from strategy to execution. The framework helped Michigan and its partners plan content, assign responsibilities, and keep a consistent voice across all sports.

The result was a usable framework for the team: a clear audience model, navigation for both global and sport-specific needs, and a content approach that balanced aspiration with the reality of team life. These tools guided Michigan’s next steps in site planning and content development. This project reinforced a principle I bring to every experience strategy: help people see the life around a decision. Research revealed the questions. Content strategy provided ways to answer them. Design turned those answers into an experience with a real sense of place.