Grateful Dead: UX Strategy and Redesign for a Legendary Archive

A scalable design framework powering one of music’s most iconic digital destinations — then and now

Challenge

The Grateful Dead’s official site, Dead.net, is a living archive of cultural history, community, and commerce. In 2017, I led the UX strategy behind a full redesign, restructuring a massive content and shopping experience to serve both loyal Deadheads and new fans alike.

My Role

UX Strategy, UX Researcher, UX Designer, Production Designer



My Approach

I led discovery, research, and audience segmentation to guide a user-first content and commerce strategy. We mapped and wireframed the entire site experience, focusing on mobile usability and scalable architecture.

I also partnered with designers and developers to implement a flexible design system that could grow over time and built in-house UX tools, templates, and campaign patterns to streamline future site refreshes and product drops.


Result

The system we built proved durable; it's still powering the experience years later. In 2025, I returned to the project to oversee another full re-skin. This time, I adapted the new design to the Shopify design system I helped establish across our enterprise, ensuring creative flexibility and front-end consistency.

That second evolution meant taking on a more hands-on role: applying high-fidelity design updates, optimizing production assets, and aligning our work with both internal tools and external creative direction.


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