UX Design Students Help Redesign City of Kingston’s Grant System

Submitted by Sherri Taylor, Professor & Program Coordinator, School of Arts, Media & Design 

In the second semester of the User Experience Design (UX) program, students take on a culminating, client-based challenge. This year’s collaboration with the City of Kingston invited them to dive into a complex, real-world issue, pushing them to think deeply about systems, collaboration, and community impact. 

The City brought forward a timely challenge: while it distributes millions of dollars in grants each year, processes vary widely across departments and community members are not always aware of what grants are available or how to apply for them. The idea of a more integrated, user-friendly grants portal became the foundation for the students’ semester-long work. 

Working in two teams, students approached the project from complementary perspectives. One team focused on the external experience—community members and applicants navigating the grant system—while the other examined internal processes for City staff and partners such as the United Way. 
Over the course of the semester, they progressed through three key phases: analysis, design, and evaluation, steadily building both research depth and design maturity. 

During the analysis phase, students explored the current state of grant administration at the City while also examining practices across municipalities in Ontario. They uncovered key pain points and opportunities, creating a strong evidence-based foundation for their work. 

In the design phase, teams translated their insights into low-fidelity wireframes, creating a streamlined and intuitive grants portal design concept from both user perspectives. Iterative feedback sessions with stakeholders helped refine these ideas into more cohesive and practical solutions. 

Finally, in the evaluation phase, students tested their prototypes with internal and external users, gathered feedback, and iterated further. The project culminated in a comprehensive presentation and a client-ready package that included detailed research findings and a demonstration of their proposed portal. 

As Craig Desjardins, Director, Office of Strategy, Innovation, & Partnerships at the City of Kingston, noted, “The City of Kingston was very pleased to collaborate with the St. Lawrence College User Experience (UX) students on the research and design of a new approach to an online grant funding portal. From the City’s perspective, the value of this work was not only in the quality of the final concepts, but in the thoughtful process the students used to understand the real experience of staff, partners, and community applicants.” 

Accessing key stakeholders—particularly external applicants—was one of the project’s greatest challenges. Despite this, students demonstrated resilience and adaptability, ultimately delivering thoughtful, well-supported design solutions. 

The impact of their work is already being felt. The City has brought forward the students’ designs to senior leadership as part of efforts to secure funding and move the project ahead. Seeing student work contribute directly to municipal decision-making reflects the power of applied learning in action. 

This demanding project showcased our students’ ability to navigate ambiguity, engage meaningfully with community partners, and produce strategic, actionable work—delivering value not only as learners, but as contributors to the broader community.