Editorial UX, digital storytelling, and newsroom production tools
My role
Chemical & Engineering News is an editorially independent news publication of the American Chemical Society. As its UX Designer, I work with editors, reporters, designers, developers, and producers to turn ambitious journalism into clear, dependable digital experiences for C&EN's science and industry audience.
This is collaborative newsroom work rather than ownership of the entire C&EN platform. I focus on the point where editorial intent meets production: shaping digital layouts and graphics, developing custom story experiences, building reusable implementation patterns, and removing friction from the tools the team uses every day.
I lead or support digital production for major packages including the Global and US Top 50, Year in Pharma, Year in Chemistry, World Chemical Outlook, the ACS Salary Survey, and C&EN's Nobel-season coverage, alongside weekly covers and feature stories. The work ranges from responsive page composition and data-rich graphics to interactive elements and scrollytelling that help readers navigate complex science and business reporting.
For stories that need to move beyond the standard article template, I build and maintain reusable patterns for charts, maps, games, quizzes, scrollytelling, full-width layouts, readable long-form typography, paywall-aware presentation, and front-end QA. These patterns give one-off experiences room to feel special while keeping accessibility, subscription behavior, and the surrounding C&EN experience intact.
I created a conversion workflow that packages Svelte-built graphics and scrollytelling exports into the separate HTML, CSS, JavaScript, metadata, and import files required by C&EN's Adobe Experience Manager environment. This lets the team use a modern prototyping workflow while producing consistent, reviewable assets for the publishing system.
I review digital story layouts across devices, troubleshoot implementation issues, and help establish visual and technical approaches with the wider team. The goal is not novelty for its own sake; it is a repeatable way to publish expressive work without sacrificing clarity, performance, accessibility, or editorial standards.
I developed an internal Chrome and Firefox extension around the actual shape of C&EN's publishing work. A persistent panel recognizes the page an editor is viewing and provides the relevant paths and actions across AEM authoring, preview, publishing, and the live site.
The extension can convert and copy environment-specific URLs, prepare batches for publication, normalize article paths, convert pasted article markup, realign AEM editing overlays, and keep common destinations close at hand. A homepage scheduler parses the team's linked planning document into article paths and fills open AEM component dialogs for daily hero stories, Editor's Picks, highlights, and pull quotes—while deliberately leaving the final review and save action to the editor.
It is a small product built for a specific team: it reduces context switching and repetitive copying, catches invalid inputs before they reach a publishing form, and automates mechanical steps without removing human editorial control.
My Nobel-season work includes a nominations database with filtering, compact visual summaries, pagination, and CSV export across more than 15,000 records, as well as an annual chemistry-predictions experience with search, moderation, and notification workflows. The nominations project is shared work with developer Nader Heidari; I present it as a collaboration rather than a solo build.
This collection separates what readers can experience from the systems work behind it. Each entry states the contribution type and preserves the published credit, making it easier for both design professionals and general visitors to understand what I actually worked on.
Showing all 12 featured projects
A four-stage scrolling explainer follows hard-to-recycle plastics through pretreatment, pyrolysis, upgrading, and conversion into new chemical feedstocks.
By Leigh Krietsch Boerner; scrollytelling graphic credited to Shea Murphy/C&EN.
A five-day visual notebook that turns meeting photography and short field reports into a paced, chronological experience rather than a conventional article gallery.
By Sara Cottle; digital experience credited to Shea Murphy/C&EN.
A hands-on flavor builder invites readers to combine three compounds, then scores the blend and visualizes its smoky, phenolic, roasted, and woody profile.
By Matt Blois; interactive experience credited to Shea Murphy/C&EN.
An interactive guide to the research, industry, funding, and start-up ecosystems that shape where chemistry careers can grow.
By Rowan Walrath and Shea Murphy.
A decade-plus interactive database lets readers search, filter, and compare the world’s largest chemical companies by year, financial metric, sector, region, and company while surfacing changes in rank and market concentration.
By Alexander Tullo; interactive data experience credited to Shea Murphy/C&EN.
A stepped infographic compares two ionic-adsorption-clay mining routes and helps readers follow how rare-earth material moves from clay deposits toward magnet production.
By Matt Blois; interactive infographic credited to Shea Murphy/C&EN.
A seven-step scrolling explainer introduces molecular geometry and chirality through coordinated 3D illustrations, concise text, and screen-reader descriptions.
By Rachel Brazil, special to C&EN; scrollytelling graphic credited to Shea Murphy/C&EN.
A custom full-width infographic traces how sulfuric acid is made, maps disrupted trade routes, and connects shortages to fertilizer, mining, batteries, and other industries.
By Matt Blois; custom infographic credited to Shea Murphy/C&EN.
A timed or endless recall game with persistent personal bests and a leaderboard, designed to make all 118 elements feel inviting rather than intimidating.
By Shea Murphy.
A coordinated annual outlook gives readers a consistent route through regional and sector reporting while keeping a large multi-author package coherent across screen sizes.
Collaborative C&EN package; Shea Murphy credited as UX designer.
An interactive analysis of compensation, employment, geography, and demographics that turns a dense member survey into an approachable visual narrative.
By Delger Erdenesanaa and Shea Murphy; graphics credited to Shea Murphy/C&EN.
A multi-round reader voting experience that turns C&EN's Chemistry in Pictures finalists into an evolving tournament.
By Manny I. Fox Morone and Shea Murphy.
The library is data-driven rather than hard-coded into this page. New work can be added with its publication date, link, summary, credit, and contribution tags; the page then sorts it automatically and makes every tag filterable. That keeps this case study current without sacrificing consistent attribution or presentation.
An interaction should reveal a relationship, support a decision, or make a difficult idea easier to hold. If a static graphic communicates better, I do not add motion simply to make the page feel more technical.
Readers get a useful headline and visual pattern first, then labels, notes, methodology, and deeper controls when they need them. The experience should work for a curious visitor without limiting an expert.
Production tools should remove copying and prevent avoidable errors, but consequential editorial actions remain visible and reviewable. My AEM extension fills and validates; a person still approves and saves.
Across a major annual package, a single explanatory graphic, and a browser extension, the same design problem appears: people need to understand what comes next. For readers, that means a complex subject presented with a clear hierarchy and useful interaction. For the newsroom, it means production tools that make the correct action easier, surface problems early, and preserve room for judgment.
That combination of audience-facing design and behind-the-scenes systems work is the most important part of my C&EN practice.
My work at C&EN draws on the UX research and development foundations I have built throughout my career. Read about my UX design approach, explore my web design practice, or see how I applied those skills end to end for the Washington Men's Camerata.