Community is always the answer
Tzibur Harlem Website
Brief
Tzibur Harlem is a Jewish community-building organization in Harlem, New York. While interning at Loyal Design, I was tasked with building their website from the ground up. I carried out the project independently, with guidance and feedback from my supervisors, and worked directly with the client—leading Zoom meetings and managing most email communication—to ensure the design aligned with their vision and needs.
Team
Loyal Design
Focus
Web Design, Client Interaction
Duration
4 months
YEAR
2025
Discovery phase
The Challenge
For over a decade, Erica and Dimitry have been working to build Jewish community in Harlem, New York. Recently, they've wanted to formalize these efforts, requiring a site to match. They came to Loyal Design hoping to build a website that achieves a few goals: the site would have to be modern while also feeling elegant and warm — a reflection of the inclusive, community-centered spirit the couple was working to create.
The site would need to clearly communicate what the organization strived to do, as well as clearly communicate upcoming events, and create an easy way for site visitors to get involved. Working under the guidance of the Loyal Design team, I was responsible for designing and building the site, translating these goals into a visual experience that feels not only contemporary, but personal and intuitive.
Design Approach
Colors and Typography
Many Jewish organizations lean on predictable visual conventions—blue palettes, stark white space, and traditional motifs meant to evoke stability and heritage. For Tzibur, the goal was different. The site needed to appeal to young adults in Harlem, especially those who may identify as Jewish but don’t have a strong connection to Jewish practice or institutions. Rather than focusing on a “Jewish look,” the priority was to create a feeling of warmth and openness that could invite curiosity and belonging.
The palette centers on rich, earthy reds and soft neutrals, evoking comfort and intimacy rather than solemnity. A friendly serif typeface complements these tones, offering a elegant, but not too serious character that feels approachable and human. Together, the color and type choices position Tzibur as both rooted in tradition while also distinctly contemporary—a community that welcomes people in, wherever they’re coming from.
Assigned Readings Flow
Assigned readings in Canvas are often overlooked because they don’t appear in the “To-Do” page alongside other assignments. Since Canvas doesn’t treat readings as their own assignment type, they’re typically buried in the syllabus, forcing students to actively seek them out. To make matters worse, the associated files are usually stored in a separate section of the app, requiring students to remember details like page numbers or file names while switching between disconnected parts of the interface.
In our redesign, we introduced a dedicated assignment type for readings, allowing professors to attach files and specify assigned pages. The app now opens readings directly to the correct page, and when students reach the end of the reading, they’re notified inline and can mark it as complete and exit the file in a single tap. We also added a mobile-friendly reader mode that converts PDFs to plain text with images, along with built-in annotation tools, making completing readings on the mobile app easier than ever.
Select a reading—in this case "Chapter 12 Reading."
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Tap "Open to Assigned Page" to be taken directly to the first assigned page of the file.
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Tap the reader icon in the top right to quickly enable reader mode, improving accessibility.
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A large "Mark Reading as Complete" button appears after the final assigned page.
Assignment Submission Flow
Competitive Analysis
Before redesigning the turn-in flow, we analyzed top competitors like Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams for Education to understand how their submission processes differ from Canvas and identify best practices we could apply.
Strengths of Google Classroom
Simple chronological feed "Stream" makes navigation quick
App doesn't offer many features beyond assignments, files, and quizzes, making the app intuitive across classes.
Weaknesses of Google Classroom
"Stream" page could be overwhelming
Strengths of Teams for Education
Files are easily accessible from anywhere
Lots of sorting options
Weaknesses of Teams for Education
File often unorganized and in one huge list
Lengthy scrolling can make it easy to miss important readings
Turn-in Flow
The current turn-in flow in Canvas lacks key features that encourage user confidence and clarity. Students can only upload one file at a time, with no option to preview what they’ve attached before submitting. This often leads to frustration and uncertainty; users aren’t sure if they uploaded the correct file, or whether the submission was successfully completed.
In redesigning the turn-in flow, we prioritized transparency and ease of use. We introduced support for multiple file uploads at once and added a clear preview step before submission, giving students that last bit of peace-of-mind right before they hit 'submit.'
Select an assignment—in this case "Zero G Flying Practice Worksheet."
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Choose a submission type—in this case File Upload. You can now select multiple files at once.
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You can preview your uploads before submitting, so you know you uploaded the right files.
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A fullscreen animation and a toast pop-up make it 100% clear that the assignment is complete.
Storyboarding
Creating a Narrative
To help ourselves and our peers better understand our proposed redesigns, we created both narrative and technical storyboards. The narrative storyboard followed a fictional student, allowing us to explore the user’s actions and emotions throughout the redesigned experience while the technical storyboard gave us a better sense of how the redesigned flow might actually function.
