SharkLink is NSU’s central portal, designed to provide streamlined access to key services and resources for over 30,000 users annually. The project replaced an aging system and focused on enhancing user experience through a modern, customizable platform.
• Lead UX Designer
• Strategic Planner
• Design System Architect
• Facilitator and Communicator
• Innovator and Problem Solver
This project is a proud initiative of NSU’s Office of Innovation and Information Technology (OIIT). The project was expertly directed by Mack Malo, whose guidance was pivotal in driving the project forward. I worked under the supervision of James Drew, Director of Innovation, ensuring that innovative solutions were at the forefront of our efforts. All of this was achieved under the overarching leadership of Greg Suarez, whose vision and support were crucial to the project’s success
SharkLink was developed to address the growing needs of the NSU community by replacing a seven-year-old portal that was becoming obsolete. The new platform aimed to offer a centralized hub for essential services like email, class schedules, and account management. As one of the largest projects undertaken by NSU’s Office of Innovation and Information Technology (OIIT), the platform’s goal was to resolve long-standing usability issues while providing a modern, flexible, and customizable experience for its users.
• Lead UX Designer
• Strategic Planner
• Design System Architect
• Facilitator and Communicator
• Innovator and Problem Solver
This project is a proud initiative of NSU’s Office of Innovation and Information Technology (OIIT). The project was expertly directed by Mack Malo, whose guidance was pivotal in driving the project forward. I worked under the supervision of James Drew, Director of Innovation, ensuring that innovative solutions were at the forefront of our efforts. All of this was achieved under the overarching leadership of Greg Suarez, whose vision and support were crucial to the project’s success
The platform, Pathify, was chosen for its flexibility and customisation features, and the project had a strong foundation with capable teams in engineering, internal QA, and business analytics. By the time i got to the project, we had a nice backlock, data collection, and a good recollection of the main technical challenge However, the real challenge was not just transitioning to a new system but enhancing the overall experience for students and faculty. This case study explores the challenge we faced, the solutions we devised, and the actions taken to deliver a human-centered, product-driven solution that exceeded the expectations of the NSU community.
As soon as we started reaching out to stakeholders, interviewing students and employees, collecting surveys results, and working with various university departments, my supervisor and Director of Innovation, James, and I realized that, over a functionality checklist; the success of this project would depend more on delivering an engaging User Experience that
•Fully leveraged the new capabilities of the new platform
• Improve on several pain points that has been accumulating over the current 7 years old portal
• And provide an smooth transition for a community of thouthen of users than relay on this platform for their daily task.
The previous portal was already 7 years old, and suggestions and wishlists were abundant. Additionally, most of the functionality and integrations were already in place within the older portal, the big challenge was UX.
This feedback highlighted the need to shift from a functionality-first approach to a human-centric one, aligning user and business needs with the platform’s enhanced capabilities.
Design had a single task, design the portal. That was the extend of design when I got to the todo list. We had to navigate a delicate balance between adhering to the tight timeline and implementing necessary changes that would elevate the user experience. The initial project plan, based on what was described as a "scrumfall" model, wasn’t designed for flexibility. I worked closely with the product team to reevaluate the plan, ultimately introducing a dual-track system that allowed us to focus on both discovery and development simultaneously. This provided room to incorporate feedback while maintaining momentum.
I introduced a dual-track, and advance process to run both discovery and development track simultaneously. This allowed us to continuously gather user feedback, iterate on design, and test prototypes while the development team built out the core functionality.
Documentation and a close collaboration with developers became a vital part of the process. In Addition, regular communication, presenting the progress and findings to the stakeholder committee helped to bring transparency and focus on a student-first optimisation process.
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Early in the project, we identified a major challenge. While the platform had some predefined styles and a few pre-builded widgets, it lacked a structured way to build new custom widgets that were consistent, follow the dynamic branding, and will be easy to maintain. This gap in the system meant that every new widget had to be built from scratch, leading to inconsistencies and inefficiencies in both design and development.
To solve this, I led the creation of a component library, an essential resource missing from the vendor’s toolkit. Using design thinking, system thinking, and close collaboration between design and engineering, we analyzed the platform’s existing widgets to break down their key behaviors, interactions, and styles. Through a series of workshops, we identified what was working, what needed improvement, and how we could develop a scalable approach to widget creation.
Our solution was a flexible modular widget structure that allowed us to build all necessary custom components while improving development speed and reducing QA time. With a new shared language between design and engineering, we established three core building blocks that served as flexible, reusable components:
• Module A (Wrapper) – The foundational structure that made widgets responsive and housed the other two modules.
• Module B (Content Container) – Provided different layout options to adapt to various content needs.
• Module C (Actions Module) – Allowed for 0, 1, or 2 call-to-action buttons depending on the use case.
Developing and testing these modules took longer than expected, as we needed to ensure they worked seamlessly with real content under different conditions. However, the investment paid off—this component library became one of the team’s biggest wins, dramatically increasing the speed of custom widget development while ensuring flexibility, customization, and visual consistency.
This new system transformed the way we built UI components, providing a scalable and maintainable framework that streamlined design, development, and QA processes across the project.
By shifting the focus from a traditional software implementation to a product-driven approach, we helped turn SharkLink into a better product: a student first platform that not only works, but works for "them". Solved real, long-standing issues and created a more intuitive and engaging way for the NSU community to connect and navigate digital campus.
Adopting a product mindset meant stepping off the usual path of building just for functionality. Instead, we aimed higher. We built something that was not only usable, but meaningful. Both students and NSU leadership responded with enthusiasm and support.
It took some friction, at the beginning, while we were working out as a team, what was important. But we manage to come together to build an effective and efficient team, that tackle one by one all the mayor challenge that we faced; learning, adapting and growing to build a collaborative environment that owned every step
Through close cross-functional collaboration, a strong shared strategy and vision, and deep research, we delivered within the original time and budget the miningful product that our user where expecting. Post-launch surveys showed an overwhelmingly positive response, with over 95-97% of user satisfaction, and where prace by stakeholder and NSU lidership team.
Numbers aside, the real win came from a team willing to take a leap of faith, and leadership that believed in the change we where aiming to produce. Most of all, they believed in making our students expereince, and better and simpler
The customizable widgets were a standout feature of the new platform. These widgets allowed users to tailor their dashboard to their needs, with options for real-time data, course schedules, and quick links to campus resources. This flexibility was made possible by the component library, which ensured a consistent visual language across the platform.
The final interface was designed with a focus on simplicity and ease of use. Extensive user testing ensured that the platform was not only functional but also intuitive and efficient. Feedback from these tests allowed us to iterate quickly, refining both the design and the underlying code to deliver a product that met the high standards of the NSU community.
