Vanderbilt University

Finding critical safety and transportation information quickly matters — especially in an emergency. But for Vanderbilt, outdated web design made that harder than it needed to be. As one of the country's leading research universities, Vanderbilt's safety and transportation information was spread across multiple disconnected websites, each managed by a different department. For thousands of students, faculty, and visitors, that meant confusion at exactly the moments clarity mattered most.

Oak Theory partnered with Vanderbilt's Digital Strategies team to fix this: consolidating fragmented content into a unified, accessible digital experience built on higher education web design best practices.

Vanderbilt's safety and transportation information lived across multiple disconnected web pages, creating a confusing, inefficient experience for the people who needed it most.

• Critical resources — police services, emergency preparedness, transportation schedules — were scattered across unrelated pages.
• High site traffic didn't translate to engagement; poor structure meant most visitors only ever found a handful of pages.
• 15+ stakeholders, including the university's police chief, had a hand in managing different pieces of the site.
• The university needed one unified platform that reflected modern educational website design standards — without losing any department's critical information.