Faculdade Phorte: Complete Redesign

Faculdade Phorte is recognized for its academic quality and influential faculty, but its digital presence no longer matched that level of excellence. The old website had confusing flows, outdated language, and little clarity about the courses, making it difficult for people to reach the information they wanted.

As digitization advanced and the post-pandemic context took shape, the need to offer a modern, accessible, student-centered experience became urgent. The most revealing data appeared at the start of the research: 80% of visits came from mobile devices, but the previous website was not responsive. Most visitors clicked only the “Talk on WhatsApp” button, overloading the support team.

The institutional language was not empathetic or current.

Central goal: transform the Phorte website into an efficient, welcoming, and scalable digital ecosystem—reducing friction and strengthening the brand.

During the UX audit, we identified several critical issues:

• Outdated layout with poor scannability.
• Confusing navigation and disorganized information architecture.
• Lack of clarity in the value proposition.
• Slow loading and serious SEO failures.
• Institutional language that was not empathetic or current.
• Lack of compatibility with modern technologies, requiring heavy technical maintenance.

Key data: the mobile bounce rate exceeded 90%, showing the urgency of the redesign.

The UX Research phase combined qualitative and quantitative methods:

• Interviews with internal teams (marketing, support, and IT).
• Conversations with current and former students to understand frustrations and expectations.
• Benchmarking against national and international institutions.
• Mapping personas, navigation flows, and friction points.

We created key goals, proto-personas, stakeholder maps, and optimized navigation flows using in-depth interviews and focus groups.

Alongside the redesign, we carried out a strategic brand repositioning. Phorte needed to communicate its essence clearly: “Transformative education within everyone’s reach.”

The new strategy combined:

• Updated visual elements (palette, typography, and iconography).
• A human, close, and inspiring tone of voice without losing credibility.
• SEO optimization to expand organic indexing and strengthen the digital presence.

Based on the research findings, we redesigned the entire information architecture with a focus on clarity and visual hierarchy. New flows were created to reduce steps and make course discovery easier.

The process began with paper sketches, evolved into low-fidelity wireframes, and then into interactive prototypes tested with internal users.

The interface stage consolidated the vision for Phorte's new digital ecosystem:

• Implementation of an Atomic Design-based Design System to ensure consistency and scalability.
• Development of reusable Figma components integrated with modern UI practices.
• Technical build in WordPress with Elementor and JetEngine, using HTML, CSS, and custom Query Loops.
• Multi-level access for stakeholders and greater content-management autonomy.

Technical results:

• 91/100 performance score on Google PageSpeed.
• Average load time reduced to 3.8 seconds.

The technical implementation focused on performance and usability:

• Image compression, lazy loading, and file-format optimization.
• Script minification and cache optimization, with CDN implementation planned.
• Semantic structure focused on SEO, Open Graph, tags, pixels, and campaign optimizations.
• Testing across multiple devices, screen sizes, and network speeds.
• Continuous heatmap monitoring.

The new digital ecosystem created immediate impact:

• 30% increase in average time on site.
• 45% reduction in mobile bounce rate.
• 25% increase in online form and enrollment conversions.
• Greater social media engagement and integration with media campaigns.

Sharing the Design System also allowed the new social media team to use global assets quickly while maintaining consistency across the website, posts, and campaigns.

The project reinforced the importance of a data-informed, user-centered design process.

Key learnings:

• Strong research saves rework and supports confident decisions.
• A Design System is essential for scaling while maintaining consistency.
• Education projects require empathy and clarity in communication.

“A UX project in education is not only about interface—it is about translating the value of learning into a meaningful digital experience.”