Sector(s)
Team Members
Project Team
Chris Airey
Garrett Levy
Justin Rokisky
Eric Gottlieb
Will Cooper
Joseph Ezeh
The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) is a unique partnership of nine University System of Maryland universities, through which each institution administers its accredited academic programs from one, centrally-located campus in Montgomery County, Maryland.
USG selected Mindgrub for a complete website redesign for the purpose of building a strong and sustainable web presence. Their goals were to amplify the institution's mission and core values, reflect the quality of the institutions’ offerings, and provide information and services to its diverse audience.
About the project
Goals
USG sought to build a strong, secure, and scalable web presence with Drupal. They wanted their website to drive student recruitment and deliver content to an array of stakeholders (including students, faculty, staff, and community members).
Discovery
Mindgrub engaged the IT and marketing teams at USG to reimagine the future state of their online presence. The discovery process revealed opportunities to tell the unique story of the campus through one-of-a-kind student photography.
Visually engaging templates were created after a process that involved industry research, a set of mood boards, style tiles, and design concepts driven by key tenants of USG’s brand. In addition to being visually appealing, the content templates are configured in a way that supports future customization by several different types of users.
Approach
The information architecture process streamlined complex content issues (including the existing layered side navigation) and informed the reorganization of the website with bold color logic and intuitive sectioning. In addition to web design and development, Mindgrub directed photoshoots, crafted content for 25 key landing pages, and established complex content management and migration logic to support USG’s operational needs.
The wealth of information collected from stakeholder interviews, focus groups (conducted with representatives of all key user personas), usability tests, and campus visits enabled our team to craft a compelling, cohesive, and relevant story that came together throughout the site.
Technical and functional achievements
We were able to improve the usability of the website by creating a site that is compliant with all accessibility standards, easy to navigate, and quick to load. Some other accomplishments include:
- A robust user experience that is seamless in its use of technologies appropriate for the task
- Migration of content from the old site to the new one
- Drupal workflows for faculty/staff content and bio pages so that non-technical users can easily edit their own pages at any point in time
- Resolution of technical limitations of the old website and development of custom page options
Through a comprehensive, strategic, and consultative approach, Mindgrub listened to what USG sought to accomplish on the website redesign project and offered guidance on next-level branding, creativity, and development. Through getting to know USG’s brand values and meeting often with key stakeholders, Mindgrub was able to create a strong sense of campus identity supported by a full photoshoot to make sure we had images that best reflected the organization.
Why Drupal was chosen
Drupal is USG's content management system (CMS) of choice. Their previous website was in Drupal, the IT team supports Drupal, and the staff training focuses on Drupal.
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
Key modules/theme/distribution used:
The listed modules allowed us to craft a customized user experience and contributor workflow for the multiple departments of The Universities at Shady Grove without a monumental custom development effort.
