SETARA Institute
SETARA Institute is a policy research and advocacy institute. This website revamp restructures its complex publication archive into a clearer, scannable format.
Background
SETARA Institute is an Indonesian research and advocacy organization. Its work covers five research pillars, from freedom of religion to business and human rights. Its existing website placed research topics, research products, and data systems at the same navigation level, and long document lists encouraged visitors to download a report and leave.
I joined this website revamp as a UI designer intern at Pameo (Jan–Apr 2026), working with a team covering project management, art direction, UI/UX design, and web development. The work moved from sitemap and information architecture to mockups and UI design.
Process
We started with a workshop with the SETARA team, then reviewed the old sitemap and proposed a restructured one. I co-prepared the sitemap document. Menus were grouped by what visitors want to do, such as finding data, understanding an issue, or seeing impact, and ordered from introduction to research, publications, advocacy, and engagement. The structure grew from six menus to eight: Impact, Programs & Activities, and Collaboration were added, Media and Publications were merged, and Research Area became Issues & Focus.
Publication types were regrouped into five categories based on reader need, such as indexes and measurement or issue reports. The old categories stayed as internal filters so the archive's history was kept. The sitemap was shared as a tree chart and as a plain table, so stakeholders without a design background could review it. After the sitemap and information architecture were approved in late January 2026, the mockup was refined through client feedback in February. Much of it concerned wording and how figures were shown: “SETARA in numbers” now shows concrete figures, and the map is reserved for the city tolerance index, explained with its 1 to 7 scale.
Outcome
The client approved the sitemap on 28 January 2026 and the information architecture on 30 January 2026. The first UI design draft went through a live review with the SETARA team on 12 March 2026. The plan then moved to a second draft, website development, and staff training.
I do not have launch data or user testing results for this project, so this case study covers the structural and interface design work, not measured outcomes. It taught me that structure has to be settled before visual design, because changing navigation after development starts affects both the technical work and the timeline.
