UCD - University College Dublin

Introduction

University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland’s largest university, engaged Arekibo to consolidate and redesign its digital estate, combining the corporate site with all of the individual College and School websites under a scalable information architecture and design.

The project was a key strategic initiative designed to enhance the online interaction between students, staff, researchers, and partners at UCD, creating a consistent and intuitive user experience across all websites.

Content Architecture

We began with a comprehensive stakeholder consultation process across the university, to:

• Audit and map the existing content architecture across the various websites with wireframes and rapid prototypes.
• Deliver discovery workshops with the Colleges and Schools and the University communication team.
• Define the core business and communications needs to develop the website consolidation strategy.
• Evaluate and create a scalable information architecture that would support a unified web experience.
• Develop a roadmap for rolling out the consolidation and redesign.

The result delivered a web consolidation strategy that would provide a redesigned web experience for all stakeholders.

Designed for scale

With a new information architecture in place, we moved to design. Our goal was to create a visual and UX design system that could be consistently applied across all UCD websites, while allowing flexibility for different departments.

• A modular design system was created to align with UCD’s brand.
• Accessibility, responsiveness and performance across all devices and browsers were core priorities.
• We created a suite of reusable web components and templates to support content teams, providing them with the flexibility to present content tailored to their specific needs.
• Designs were validated with stakeholders as we progressed.

We supported UCD's IT team in the development and integration of the new design into their CMS platform - TerminalFour.

Content Platform for All

The results delivered a scalable design and technology platform for all website management teams across the University, Colleges and Schools, with the ability to provide a cohesive, accessible and future-ready digital experience to their audiences.

A once-fragmented web estate has become a single, user-focused platform – reflecting the university’s global reputation and supporting its strategic goals for teaching, research, and engagement.