Website redesign for international university

The project started with the discovery phase. Since the website’s backend was built on Drupal 9, which was coming to its end of life at the time, it was decided to migrate to Drupal 10 and use a new Drupal theme. Once the website was transferred, our team initiated Drupal 10 custom theme development with a focus on a mobile-first approach.

Our objective was to make the website mobile-friendly and ensure its smooth performance on every device, so we relied on the PageSpeed insights (Lighthouse) tool in our work. By introducing responsive images and videos, improving banners for better performance on mobile devices, and using other mobile-first design best practices, we managed to receive high website performance scores and pass the Core Web Vitals assessment.

The biggest changes were introduced to the homepage. We decided to make it more marketing-oriented to help the university better recruit students and improve their user journey. Namely, we eliminated excessive elements, created clear CTA buttons and placed them prominently across the page, and added interactive elements for visual appeal. This resulted in a neat-looking homepage with straightforward navigation that offers a seamless user journey.

To improve the user journey even further, we introduced UI & UX improvements to the search engine. Now it works smoothly and suggests relevant information for search queries, ensuring students and applicants can find what they are looking for. We also managed to resolve the issues with YouTube video restrictions. More specifically, we built the video paragraph that allows the university to add videos to its own server instead of embedding them from third-party platforms. As a result, the videos are now accessible from any location.

To simplify the working routine of content managers, we switched several pages to a paragraph-based structure, allowing them to edit these pages independently. We also rebuilt several pages and content types to avoid the mixing of layout and content elements in HTML editors.

To streamline the work with the modules, updates, and code libraries, it was decided to transition the website to a composer-based architecture. Our team installed and configured Composer, facilitating package management, dependency resolution, version control, website updates, and other dependency management processes. Now instead of time-consuming and error-prone manual management, the Wittenborg team can rely on a valuable tool that simplifies and automates these critical website maintenance tasks.

The joint effort of our team resulted in a quality website that fully meets the university’s needs and requirements. Peter Birdsall, the president of the university, was personally involved in the project and praised the exceptional quality of work and dedication of our team.

As a result of our efforts, the Wittenborg team received a website with:

• Improved mobile UX and smooth performance on desktop and mobile devices confirmed by high scores in Lighthouse.
• Accurate search engine that provides relevant information, helping students and applicants quickly find the information they are interested in.
• Composer-based architecture that simplifies and automates dependency management processes.
• Marketing-oriented, attractive, and interactive homepage that converts visitors into students.
• Simplified content management without issues.
• Good performance in every target country.

AnyforSoft continues to work on this project, providing maintenance and support services.