With over 1,000 students from more than 50 countries, the University of the Arts Bremen (HfK) is a lively and diverse place of artistic creation. It is a place of education and a place of culture. Practice, teaching and research at the HfK combine art, music, design and science - a unique profile in Germany. The aim of the relaunch was to create a website that meets the requirements and use cases of the partially heterogeneous user groups and at the same time does not neglect the artistic aspects.
New Structure
The primary aim of the HfK website is to raise the profile and awareness of the university's programs, to inspire new prospective students from Germany and abroad to study and to attract them as students. It is also intended to enhance the university's image vis-à-vis other universities in Germany and Europe. The website appeals to very different target groups, including students, prospective students and potential visitors interested in culture. This broad range of target groups had to be taken into account with the relaunch.
The biggest challenge was to implement a new page structure, re-hierarchise the large number of pages and create clear and intuitive navigation, particularly on the homepage and in the menu. The departments and study programs were brought to the front, a clear event list was installed and the events of the two departments of Music and Art and Design were combined. With regard to the UX, the identical structure of the pages of the individual degree programs is particularly noteworthy. This simplifies orientation and navigation for (future) students, teachers and visitors alike.
The design agency Boros from Berlin provided the design template for the site.
Persons
An important element of the site, especially for students and teachers, is the organization and mapping of the people working at the HfK. Users can get an overview in two different, alphabetically organized list views, or use the Elasticsearch-based, powerful people search engine with advanced filter options for events, people, studies, news, and press. The data originates from the HfK's own administration software, which has been linked. The detailed personal view provides a clear overview of all relevant information, from CVs, departmental affiliation and contact details to teaching offers.
Instagram & Microsites
The new website of the HfK Bremen is not only intended to provide a quick and easy overview of the various offers of the university, but also to present and bundle the study results and artistic activities of the students. Much of what students and teachers create is also presented online. There is a wide range of microsites and Instagram profiles on which the artistic research work of the numerous studios, classes, experimental interactions and projects of the Music and Art & Design departments can be discovered. These are now bundled and made accessible via the new site. A special form was implemented in the backend for the editors of the site to enter the various channels and content. These are then displayed alternately on the page.
Summary
As part of the relaunch of the HfK Bremen, special attention was paid to the best possible user experience. The new website not only presents the university's wide range of offers for the various target groups, the site should also be an easy-to-use (research) tool for students and teachers in the context of their studies or work. It is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the many different courses on offer, people, artistic activities and events. To this end, all events and news from previous years have been imported from the old website and a calendar function has been implemented that also displays past events.
The use of REST APIs in conjunction with Nuxt.js enables efficient data processing and a smooth user experience. This combination of headless architecture and powerful rendering helps the website to achieve top marks in terms of performance and thus fulfil the expectations of a modern and effective online presence.
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Client
Hochschule für Künste Bremen
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Project
www.hfk-bremen.de
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Duration
10 months
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Go-Live
Autumn 2023
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Team
1 Project Manager
1 Designer
1 Frontend-Developers
1 Backend Developer
1 IT Operator -
Systemwelt
Python/Django (Webframework)
Nuxt.js/vue.js (Frontend Framework)
Elasticsearch (Onsite Search Engine)
Celery (Task-Management)
Sentry (Error Tacking)
