CAAD : Brand Design Audit

An academic brand and communication audit examining how a design college presents its identity and information to prospective students.

The result was a strategic report and recommendations.

ROLE AND AUTHORSHIP

Six-person academic team / DES275 - Fundamentals of Design Management / American University of Sharjah / 2024. My individual contribution focused on improving website information hierarchy, navigation and hyperlink clarity, with recommendations for a more coherent and welcoming experience for prospective students.

Understanding the existing brand.

The team examined logo applications, typography, visual consistency, communication channels and promotional material. These are observations from the 2024 academic audit.

Collaborative brand design analysis / final report p.4 / 2024 audit observations

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From observations to priorities.

The collaborative SWOT brought together perceived strengths, inconsistencies across touchpoints, communication risks and opportunities to make student work and information more visible. Its claims remain the team’s historical assessment.

SWOT — collaborative 2024 audit, report p.5 — complete original figure

Collaborative work / final report p.5 / original research-board synthesis

Comparing how design colleges communicate.

The team compared CAAD with the University of Sharjah and Louisiana State University. The report used student-work visibility, visual consistency and navigation as reference points for recommendations; it did not establish measured usability outcomes.

Collaborative competitor benchmarking, final report page 6, University of Sharjah and LSU reference material

Collaborative analysis / final report p.6. LSU College of Art & Design - external benchmark reference, 2024. Not an original design. University of Sharjah imagery is also external reference material.

A prospective-student perspective.

The team-created profile board and constructed persona framed interests, aspirations and information needs. They are collaborative analytical tools.

Collaborative audience-profile board / original research supporting final report p.7

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Individual contribution: the website experience.

My individual contribution focused on improving website information hierarchy, navigation and hyperlink clarity, with recommendations for a more coherent and welcoming experience for prospective students.

INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION / FINAL REPORT P.12 / ALI AHMAD

The issue → direction pairs below synthesize the original recommendations. They are proposed directions, not measured findings or implemented improvements.

Information organization

Observed issue / The 2024 audit judged the digital experience insufficiently clear and coherent.

Proposed direction / Improve information hierarchy and group related content.

Navigation and discoverability

Observed issue / Prospective students needed clearer paths to relevant information.

Proposed direction / Clarify navigation and hyperlink structure to make information easier to find.

Brand communication

Observed issue / The audit judged the online presentation an inconsistent expression of the institution’s intended quality.

Proposed direction / Develop a more unified, welcoming presentation, informed by relevant benchmark examples.

LSU College of Art & Design — external benchmark reference, 2024. Not an original design.

External LSU website screenshots cited in Ali Ahmad’s page-12 recommendations; not an original CAAD redesign

SCOPE & EVIDENCE

The project produced a collaborative brand assessment, competitor benchmarking, audience-oriented analysis and practical recommendations. The proposed website improvements were not implemented or tested as part of the supplied work. Referenced website imagery belongs to the benchmark institutions.