Parsons Disabled Fashion Student Program
Website Design
Brand Partnership
The Parsons Disabled Fashion Student Program is a groundbreaking initiative in higher education, transforming beauty standards and highlighting the importance of diversity in fashion.
As the Lead Designer at Unity Web Agency, our mission is to create “Inclusive, Accessible, Sustainable WordPress websites for nonprofits and impact-driven businesses.”
In line with the agency’s mission, the Parsons School of Design engaged our agency in 2023 to develop the website for its pioneering program. Guided by the central ethos of “Let access be an aesthetic,” the website emphasizes the program’s commitment to accessible design, striving to create fully inclusive and accessible online experiences.
Homepage Design
Evaluating the Parsons brand, consulted with the Parsons Marketing and Communications team, assessed the logo, color contrast, photography, and typography. A select set of elements met the Parsons brand criteria for true accessibility.
Parsons Disabled Fashion Student Program
Choosing the Best Font
The careful selection of readable font plays a critical role in achieving accessible web design. The brand’s primary font Neue and Neue Display Type Families commissioned by Paula Scher from designer Peter Biľak as part of her rebranding of The New School in New York City, has unique attributes suitable for the school. Distinctive for an art school’s brand, its all-cap display styles and various widths, the “Random” style—which mixes proportions unpredictably—is not well-suited for accessible website design.
After examining the brand elements, the recommendation was to use the text version of the Neue font as the primary typeface for the site. This font offers a more conventional structure with three weights and italics. This recommendation received buy-in and consensus from leadership.
In essence, balancing aesthetics with accessibility is essential to ensure that the chosen typeface enhances the website’s visual appeal while remaining truly inclusive.
Website Structure and User Experience
Deliberate inclusion is crucial in dismantling barriers and fostering a sense of belonging for all people.
In planning the structure and user experience of the website, the agency team aimed to make the digital space inviting and genuinely user-friendly. The agency team focused on accessibility-led design considerations such as keyboard navigation, contrast, and font legibility. These elements are not mere checkboxes but integral parts of the comprehensive approach to fostering inclusivity.
Theme Sprint
A design sprint can help your team to work collaboratively, stay focused on the user, iterate quickly, and use data to inform decision-making. Concepts are created based on the discovery outcomes: project kick-off conversations included audience discovery, pain points, client goals and desired outcomes, and brand guidelines. Examples below were shared with client teams, design choices were rationalized, and stakeholder buy-in was secured.
Concept A
Concept B
Concept C
