Note: This article was last updated on May 20, 2021 and may contain outdated information.
We’ve launched a new platform for Arts University Bournemouth, a creative institution with over 140 years of history teaching the next generation of artists, designers, and creative practitioners.
The project was a collaboration with Bond + Coyne, university staff, students, and internal marketing teams. Building a website for a creative institution means working with people who have strong opinions about design and high standards for execution. The platform needed to represent the quality of work happening across the university while meeting rigorous accessibility and user experience standards.
We built the site using Craft CMS and React, with accessibility optimisation as a core requirement rather than an afterthought. The result saw AUB become one of the most accessible university sites in the country, ensuring prospective students, current students, staff, and visitors could all use the platform effectively.
When the pandemic struck in 2020, the platform’s flexibility proved valuable. We rapidly adapted the system to host student end-of-year exhibitions online for the first time in the university’s history, ensuring graduating students could still showcase their work despite campus closures.
Post-launch, we’ve continued expanding the platform with enhanced tools for schools administration and internal reporting dashboards, supporting the institution’s evolving needs as their digital requirements grow.