Three teams, an elite brand, one shared vision to redesign UW–Madison’s web theme
6,500 public-facing websites. An elite brand, recognized globally. And an aging website editor and theme that needed updating.
After 10 years with our original web theme, known as UW Theme, it was time to create a new one. That was the enormous task facing a small but mighty team of talented, curious and thoughtful creators.
Recognizing the project was going to require expertise in a variety of areas, staff from the Office of Strategic Communication (StratComm) and the Division of Information Technology’s (DoIT) WiscWeb and Center for User Experience (CUE) teams came together to form the project team.
For over two years, they worked together to design and develop a new web theme — UW Theme 2.0. The result is a thing of beauty: a web theme that represents and strengthens the UW–Madison brand and reputation online, supports accessibility and strengthens the user experience.
The end product is only part of the story. The real magic lies in the process: people with different perspectives coming together to create a web theme that integrates into thousands of websites. It’s also in the day-to-day work, sprint planning, problem-solving and conversations (and hopefully some laughs along the way).
So how did they do it? Where did they begin? What lessons did they learn along the way? While there may not be a guaranteed blueprint for success, we can learn a lot from this team’s partnership.
The push for a new web theme
Staff from University Marketing (now part of StratComm) and DoIT’s WiscWeb team co-led the design of the original UW Theme, with developers and website creators across campus contributing in big and small ways. The original theme launched in 2016. Web technology and accessibility standards continued to evolve over its 10-year lifespan. Over time, university communicators wanted more customization and layout options, and WordPress’ new block editor, Gutenberg, generated excitement about what was possible.
Additionally, a new federal rule on digital accessibility is scheduled to take effect in April 2027. The team had a valuable opportunity to embed accessible components, patterns and guardrails into the web theme, making it easier for units and departments to build accessible websites and web pages.
A firm foundation
Designing a new web theme was an enormous undertaking that required careful planning, frequent communication, thoughtful problem-solving, and a genuine commitment to a shared goal. Before design and development could begin, the group spent considerable time on research, discovery and alignment.
To start, the group established a charter and project plan outlining roles and responsibilities and a decision-making framework. These documents provided a structure for the team to build upon as they began their work. While they played an important role in laying out the project’s foundation, documents only go so far. A shared sense of purpose and strong relationships among the team made the structure work in practice.
Listening far & wide
Because the web theme is so widely used across the university, the project team recognized that this is bigger than just them. To gather ideas and feedback from everyday users, they surveyed over 200 people across 40 campus units and conducted stakeholder interviews, used research to build personas, reviewed feature requests, and hosted lunch-&-learns and demos. These conversations and engagements gave the project team a better understanding of others’ goals, wants and needs when it came to a new web theme.
Open hearts & open minds
Creating UW Theme 2.0 required staff with a variety of roles and specialties were needed to create UW Theme 2.0. StratComm and WiscWeb built on their long-standing partnership, while bringing CUE’s unique expertise into the fold. Each team member brought their own flavor to the project. They recognized and respected one another’s expertise and saw themselves as one team.
We had multiple teams coming together for a major project that was really stressful. A key part of our success was looking at it as one team instead of us and them. I think shifting how you see everyone working together makes a huge difference.
That same trust made it seamless to bring in new partners. The team saw a key opportunity to embed more accessibility into the theme, so they partnered with Leah Bowers, Digital Accessibility Architect in CUE. Leah brought a wealth of experience to the project, testing blocks, patterns, and features to ensure accessibility. The entire group embraced this goal, genuinely wanting the web theme to serve everyone.
When reflecting on how the team built such a strong foundation of trust, Leah noted a unique dynamic within the group:
The group had worked together before, and everyone is so good at their job. With accessibility, they always came with open hearts and open minds. I never encountered any distrust. I think there was a little magic in the group, too.
Leaving space for fun & whimsy
As you can imagine, this project was long and detailed; it required a lot of endurance to keep the work moving. The group made room to laugh and be silly; to celebrate milestones, express gratitude for one another, and occasionally get together at the Terrace. They even made space for a few whimsical activities when everyone needed a mental break. Those moments of fun weren’t separate from the work — they helped sustain them through it.
Navigating decisions together
When it came to decision-making, documents such as the project charter and decision-making framework provided a solid structure. They also sought out peer institutions to understand what they did and why, reviewed notes from conversations and engagements, and discussed risks and benefits. These efforts helped the team make data-informed decisions. The project team brought in leadership when a decision had broader strategic or institutional implications, but the core team had room to work through most decisions together.
“The team did a great job leading with kindness. We had some hard decisions to make. There was never any finger-pointing or us-versus-them. We came together and looked at the facts to make the decision we thought was best.” —Jenna Klinner
Danielle Cranmer, Director of Digital Strategy in the Office of Strategic Communication, noted that they didn’t shy away from difficult conversations. They could challenge one another’s ideas, work through disagreements respectfully and remain focused on the shared goal in making decisions.
It also helps that this is a group of exceptionally thoughtful, self-motivated, mission-driven and high-performing people. Everyone cares deeply about the people who build and use UW websites, and that shared commitment gave us common ground even when we approached a problem from different perspectives.
Added ingredients for success
Project team members noted a few other key ingredients that led to success. They had ample time to do the work, and they thoughtfully sequenced tasks so team members could make progress on work simultaneously. The team also held retrospectives and gathered feedback, which they used to guide how they worked together.
The here & now
This project started in June 2024. It’s hard for those of us on the outside to imagine the time, energy and work they’ve put in over the last two and a half years that brought us here today. The deadline to migrate websites to the new theme is fast approaching, but even after the deadline, the work doesn’t stop; it just takes a different form.
Today, a subset of the project team meets quarterly to review feature requests and to map out what they want to pursue in the next quarter, including creating an effort/impact matrix to identify top priorities. They continue to maintain the theme together, actively reviewing feature requests and building new components. Accessibility testing continues as well.
Project team members look back on the experience fondly. “Mostly, I’m just incredibly grateful for this team. This was a huge undertaking, and everyone brought extraordinary care, expertise and generosity to it.” —Danielle Cranmer
Leah captured the sentiment simply: “It was a really lovely thing to be a part of.”
Lessons in collaboration across the IT community
Now that we’ve gotten a behind-the-scenes look at the project and the cross-functional team that made it happen, we can draw out valuable lessons for others who are looking to build or strengthen cross-team collaborations. These lessons apply to individual service journeys as well as the university-wide efforts of the IT Federation Program, which seeks to build an environment where all IT providers across the university can easily collaborate.
A strong foundation matters. Establishing roles and decision-making processes early creates clarity, while taking time to build trust and approach problems with open minds helps teams navigate moments of differing perspectives. And making space for some lighthearted fun and laughter goes a long way to reenergize a group.
The project team showed that trust shouldn’t exist only within the working group — it must extend to the community being served. Through lunch-&-learns, tool demos and an open feature request board, the team kept campus communicators, web designers and developers front and center. These touchpoints ensured colleagues across UW felt heard, valued and included as partners in the process. Meanwhile, retrospectives gave the core team a structured space to reflect, adapt and continually refine how they serve the university going forward. Looking ahead, we have a clear opportunity to bring these same engagement and feedback habits into our future work together.
As we think about how we can apply these key lessons and takeaways to IT Federation, Danielle shared a perspective on starting small:
One of my favorite quotes is from John Gall: ‘A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.’ That feels especially relevant to the IT Federation Program. You don’t necessarily begin by designing the perfect, comprehensive model for collaboration. You begin with a meaningful shared problem, clear roles and people who are willing to work together. Then you learn, strengthen the relationships and build from there.
The path ahead for the IT Federation Program will bring big decisions and continuous evolution. But if we bring these same habits — clear foundations, open minds, mutual trust and a willingness to laugh along the way — we’ll build systems that last. We will revise, iterate, adapt and grow. And we’ll do it together.
Recognizing excellence
We’d like to recognize the full project team, without whom this project would not have been possible:
Office of Strategic Communication
- Cheyanne Lynch, Web Project Manager, Digital Strategy
- Danielle Cranmer, Director of Digital Strategy
- Danielle Lamberson Philipp, Art Director, Creative Strategy
- Josh Ciolkosz, Web Developer, Digital Strategy
- Julie Schroeder, Web Designer, Digital Strategy
- Kate Price, Web Designer, Digital Strategy
- Kedar Joyner, UX/UI Architect, Digital Strategy
- Nate Finch, Application Architect, Digital Strategy
- Nick Gonzales, UX/Content Strategist, Digital Strategy
- Nick Weaver, Web Developer, Digital Strategy
Division of Information Technology
- Andrea Roenning, Web Developer, WiscWeb Team
- Andy Summers, Web Developer, WiscWeb Team
- Jenna Klinner, Service Coordinator, WiscWeb Team
- Jose Valdez, General Help Desk Technician and liaison to the WiscWeb Team
- Leah Bowers, Digital Accessibility Architect, Center for User Experience
- Matt Goins, Client Engagement Specialist, WiscWeb Team
- Scott Berg, DevOps Engineer, WiscWeb Team
In May 2026, the UW Theme 2.0 Project Team received the Team Achievement Award as part of the annual UW–Madison IT Recognition Awards. Read more about the team and fellow award recipients: Meet the recipients of the 2026 UW–Madison IT Recognition Awards.