Creative freedom: Anyblue

Unique situations call for alternative approaches

The starting point for the project was clear and very familiar to us: The university’s website was outdated and no longer adequately represented the university as a modern scientific and educational institution. Furthermore, streamlining, restructuring, and a contemporary redesign were urgently needed. The relaunch was intended to create a digital presence that builds on the existing corporate design, better appeals to the primary target audience, is search engine optimized, and is accessible. So far, so clear.

But the project also coincided with the start of the first COVID-19 lockdown, and all educational institutions faced entirely new challenges and issues. Traditional processes, workshops, and brainstorming sessions were out of the question. Tasks had shifted, priorities had been turned upside down, and communication channels had changed.

To avoid jeopardizing the project and to be able to work productively, we completely flipped our approach and worked as agilely as possible. We took on the analysis of all content, links, and functionalities, built prototypes, and gathered concrete suggestions, decisions, and feedback through dialogue. Of course, this meant that topics were constantly re-examined and optimized, but it was the right decision. Step by step, we worked on individual aspects and created new perspectives.

When is the right time to productively involve the client in the process? We believe: as soon as possible. Only when you work with a system can you assess whether it works, whether anything is missing, and get to know the new possibilities.
To save time, we therefore involved the FHP team very early in the development process. This allowed the editorial team to begin revising the content early on and proactively develop proposals for the organizational units. It was work that more than paid off: the quality of the content was maintained at a high level, a consistent content structure was ensured, and the university’s staff and professors were able to focus on their core tasks.

Through this close, systematic, and constructive collaboration with the university communications team, we were able to launch the website as planned with only a minor delay.

Maximum flexibility and maximum consistency

What sounds like a contradiction is not one. The content management system (Drupal) was designed and configured to ensure a consistent appearance despite a wide variety of content types and modules, while providing sufficient space for the various departments and service units to present content appropriately according to their areas of focus and target audiences.
Linking, tagging, and central modules make it easier for decentralized editors to build target-group-specific pages and avoid duplicate content maintenance.

This was also the decisive reason for merging the intranet and the public website. After logging in with the campus account, the internal target audience is presented with expanded content. This content complements and merges with the public content. The advantage: Users no longer need different platforms but can access information through a single one: the website.

fh-potsdam.de

Sometimes, however, the website isn’t the right medium

The course catalog is one of the most important resources for FHP students. To ensure quick access, students could already view the courses in a table format on the old website. This feature is, of course, still available on the website.

But we asked ourselves: Is this really the right medium? In what situations do students look at the course listings? What is the use case?
And then it became clear: We need an app. Not one that requires installation or registration. But a web app that you can quickly save to your phone. Easy access by department, program, and semester, and you’ve got the latest overview right in your pocket.
No sooner said than done.

Fortunately, college life isn’t just digital

Especially after the pandemic, life has returned to campus, and entirely analog media complement the university’s visual identity: flyers, posters, roll-ups, and much more. University media are diverse.
And we’re very pleased that there was a desire to adapt these to the website’s new design as well. In a follow-up project, we’ll therefore be revamping traditional media, social media templates, and media walls.

We’re very excited to see what’s next!