From the Nominator

Our call to action for this comprehensive overhaul of our college web ecosystem was simple: design an online movement that others want to join.

 

The Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences maintains a web ecosystem of our flagship and nearly 60 unit, school, and department websites that from 2012-2019 existed in a difficult-to-maintain multi-theme Drupal 7 environment that siloed content and did not align with our new visual identity and messaging strategy. Our Web Ecosystem Rethink Project dared to re-envision what a college web ecosystem could be, and rebuilt the system in Drupal 8 under new guiding principles.

Those principles included the following:

Articulate clear values and propositions that are identifiable and relatable for those not yet engaged with us; Craft tangible calls-to-action around which diverse individuals and institutions can rally to advance these values; Help prospective students picture themselves in our world, especially Gen Z applicants who desire a college experience that aligns to their passions and interests; Express our creative vision through innovative and responsive design, meeting WCAG 2.0 accessibility standards; Increase our ability to aggregate content in user-centric ways to break down info silos and drive automated updates across the system, reducing manual cross-posting; and Adopt a modular design to condense themes into a single codebase, allowing for a more flexible layout and easier back-end maintenance and development.

We completed our flagship site in early 2020, and since have migrated 11 out of 60 department and program subsites.

From the Judges

The website was a great blend of informational and inspirational content that was well-designed with photos, video, and illustrations. The storytelling was easy to read and understand, while the website was fun to interact with. The site was interactive, innovative and easy to navigate. Accessibility was strong, and the resulting stats were impressive. Overall, an excellent nomination.