Overview
Colonial Williamsburg is the world’s largest living history museum and a national landmark preparing for America’s 250th anniversary. The Foundation needed a modern digital platform that could unify multiple legacy sites, better serve its diverse audiences, and reflect the immersive, educational nature of the on-site experience.
Role
Front End Developer
React, JavaScript, SCSS
The Problem
Colonial Williamsburg’s web presence had grown fragmented over time, with separate sites for visitors, resorts, educators, and history enthusiasts. This created confusion for users and diluted the Foundation’s mission of civic education. The challenge was to deliver a unified, intuitive site that could handle practical visitor needs like booking and wayfinding while also presenting rich historical and educational content.
My Contribution
I was part of the front end team responsible for building out the new unified site. Working closely with design, I translated complex layouts into responsive, accessible code using semantic HTML, modular SCSS, and JavaScript for interactivity.
A major focus of my work was the MyCW experience, a logged-in section of the site that gave visitors personalized tools for planning and managing their trip. Within this platform, I helped developed the Trip Planner, enabling users to schedule activities, add events, and organize their visit. I built interactive components, navigation flows, and user-facing features that made MyCW feel app-like while still living inside the broader site.
My role also included ensuring front end performance and design fidelity across the rest of the site, from general page templates to audience-focused navigation and cross-promotional pathways that tied hospitality, history, and education together.
Impact
The new site transformed Colonial Williamsburg’s digital presence into a cohesive platform that supported both storytelling and practical visitor needs. My work on the MyCW experience and Trip Planner gave visitors new ways to interact with the museum online, bridging the gap between planning and discovery while strengthening the Foundation’s mission to make history accessible to all.