QUADWORK

Higher-ed digital studio

Design systems for the modern campus.

We designed, built and ran the University of Maryland's design system. Now we help universities ship sites their own teams can keep consistent, accessible and fast, long after launch.

Read the UMD case study How we work

One token. Every site.

Change the brand color 
--brand-primary: #A6192E;  /* Crimson */

Pick a color. Four unit sites update from one change, the way design tokens work on a real campus.

90%+
accessibility scores on UMD adopter sites, up from under 40%
400%
increase in design velocity at UMD, per its marketing office
50+
accessible components, shipped as 9 packages that work on any stack
11
Addy and WebAward wins for national and federal clients, seven of them Gold
Why now

A one-off redesign won't hold up on today's campus.

Apr 26, 2027

The ADA Title II deadline

The Department of Justice requires public universities in larger states and localities to meet WCAG 2.1 AA by this date. The school carries the liability, even when a vendor built the site.

1,680+

Web properties at one university

Colleges, divisions and departments each build on their own platform. That is the count we inherited at UMD, spread across WordPress, Drupal, React, Angular, Java and static HTML.

12 reds

Brand drift, measured

Without shared parts, consistency erodes quietly. UMD's audit found twelve different hex codes for its signature red and more than 100 button styles.

Services

Strategy, design, code and accessibility from one team.

  • Strategy & content

    Discovery, analytics and content audits, information architecture and content models built around your audiences.

    Discover

  • UX & visual design

    Research, wireframes, prototypes and usability tests, with design that stays true to your brand guidelines.

    Design

  • Design systems

    Design tokens, component libraries, living documentation and the governance that keeps them in use.

    System

  • Engineering

    CMS builds, Web Components, content APIs, CI/CD and performance budgets that fail the build when they slip.

    Build

  • Accessibility

    WCAG 2.1 AA builds, audits, remediation, conformance reports and training for the people who publish.

    WCAG 2.1 AA
Selected work

Proof at campus scale and national scale.

Illustration: scattered, mismatched web page fragments on the left snap into an orderly grid of consistent pages on the right.

University of Maryland

One system for a campus that never had one

How shared tokens, accessible components and three ways in brought a decentralized university onto one design language, without a mandate.

Read the case study →
Illustration: a Blue Ridge overlook at golden hour with a translucent trail-map interface floating over the landscape.

National Park Service · U.S. Treasury · EXIM

A decade of public work, held to federal standards

Award-winning park and trail sites, plus multi-year Treasury work that was Section 508 compliant, plain-language and usability tested.

See the public-sector work →

See all four case studies

Approach

Four phases that end with a system you own, not a site you rent.

  1. Phase 1

    Discover

    • Stakeholder interviews and workshops
    • Analytics, content and accessibility audit
    • Audience research and journeys
    • Technical and CMS assessment

    You getDiscovery report, KPI baselines and sitemap

  2. Phase 2

    Design

    • Information architecture and content model
    • Design tokens drawn from your brand
    • Wireframes, prototypes, usability tests
    • Component library design

    You getApproved designs and a clickable prototype

  3. Phase 3

    Build

    • Accessible component library
    • CMS templates and integrations
    • Content migration
    • Automated testing in CI

    You getA working site on staging

  4. Phase 4

    Launch & sustain

    • Accessibility and performance QA
    • Editor training and documentation
    • Launch and hypercare
    • Governance and roadmap

    You getA live site, docs and a trained team

The website

Responsive templates on your CMS, WCAG 2.1 AA, with analytics and SEO in place.

Your flagship site, live.

The design system

Tokens from your brand, an accessible component library and documentation people actually read.

Reusable by any unit, on any stack.

The capability

Training for editors and developers, a governance model and a roadmap for what comes next.

Your team runs it after we leave.

Team

The people who built a university-wide system and ran it in production.

On every project

A senior lead, from discovery to launch

Every engagement is led by someone from the team that architected and ran the University of Maryland design system: 50+ accessible Web Components in 9 packages, plus content APIs that cut duplicate content by 85% and sped up publishing by 60%. Before that, award-winning National Park Service and federal work at ALEX+TOM.

Around that lead, a bench of senior specialists chosen for what your project actually needs.

  • UX & visual designResearch, design, prototypes
  • AccessibilityAudits, testing, training
  • Content strategyAudits, IA, content models
  • EngineeringCMS builds, components, CI/CD

Start a project

Have an RFP on your desk, or a campus that's drifting apart?

Send us the solicitation or the problem. We'll tell you plainly whether we're the right fit and what we'd do first.

Email hello@quadwork.systems