University of Essex Summer School Website

Data analysis. It tells us how the world works – what we do, why we do it and when it happens. Combine it with social sciences and you’ve got the code for cracking twenty first century life. That’s what they teach at the University of Essex Summer School, and they’ve been teaching it since 1963, with an emphasis on the kind of research which hones in on the data that matters. You need to be smart to attend, but you’ll be even smarter by the time you leave.

PPL Love Us

“Thank you to everyone on the OMdeSIGN team for all the excellent support and effort in the creation of our new website. We are now thanks to all your hard work, operating a site which is effective, efficient and modern – exactly as we requested. We have already received excellent feedback from existing and potential participants, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend OMdeSIGN to any company or organisation who need/want to develop a new site.”

- Melanie Sawers, Administrative Director, University of Essex Summer School

Challenge

Take their website, give it a shake, make it better. In other words, a complete redesign of their online presence, offering a site that was consistent in tone, simple to navigate and responsive to mobile devices. Lots of people might claim to be able to do that – what we offered as well was an understanding of the ethos of Essex Summer School. The people who make it happen, the students who benefit and the innovation on offer had to be right there on the screen, and that’s the kind of data that OMdeSIGN spend all their time dealing with.

Solution

We started with a logo, designing an image to appeal to doctoral, postdoctoral and masters students, through to researchers and university departments. You might think that’s a lot of work for a logo to do, but we think it’s the least our clients can expect. Then we lifted the bonnet of the existing site and, in time honoured fashion, shook our heads whilst sucking through our teeth. There were problems – inconsistent, frustrating navigation and the same information repeated multiple times. They were the kind of problems we love, however, because we’ve got all the solutions. We created wire frames and filled them with branding and imagery which was consistent, bespoke and, most importantly, a perfect fit. It hardly needs saying that the finished site was easy to navigate, simple to manage, consistent throughout and worked on mobile devices. It hardly needs saying, but we’ll say it anyway because we like showing off. Since its launch, reaction to the site has been hugely positive. How do we know? We’ve seen the data…..

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