From Outdated to Outstanding - Humanitas University Website Redesign for Better Business Results.

The Client

The Humanitas University in Sosnowiec was established in 1997. It offers 11 fields of study, numerous specialties, and a rich postgraduate study program including MBA, LLM, as well as doctoral seminars with the possibility of conferring Ph.D. and habilitation degrees. It operates two foreign branches in the Czech Republic - in Vsetín and Prague. Humanitas’ mission is to build a strong academic center in the Zagłębie and Śląsk regions, ensuring knowledge transfer into practice and fostering regional and local development. The institution aims to play a culture-forming role locally and regionally, stimulate entrepreneurship, and support various scientific and social activities.

The Challenge

Humanitas University, recognizing the need to enhance its service sales, approached us to create a new website. Previously, they had worked with freelancers, but given the project’s complexity and scale, a more comprehensive approach from planning through execution and implementation was essential to significantly improve efficiency and ROI.

Seeking to boost its visibility and accessibility within the European Union for student recruitment, Humanitas realized that a completely new and modern website was crucial. The old site was outdated, underperforming in sales, and not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which are key to ensuring online accessibility. The project’s demands exceeded the capabilities of sporadic freelancing, necessitating a strategic and well-conceived approach to align with business objectives. With only an IT administration department to support its ongoing needs, Humanitas lacked the in-house teams necessary for such an ambitious undertaking.

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Why Boldare?

After several attempts with freelancers, Humanitas realized that outsourcing the entire task to one service provider would save more time and effort. Boldare emerged as the perfect one-stop-shop, offering to take the project from concept to implementation. We relieved the client from the burden of integrating each subcontractor into the project, which can be difficult and lead to complications. Typically, the client needs full project management competencies, coordination, and knowledge transfer - a significant additional workload that prolongs execution and increases error risk. Boldare’s comprehensive service offerings perfectly met the client’s needs and requirements.

Solution

We developed an entirely new web service for the client, covering project planning, design, UX, and implementation. Our collaboration began with a strategic step during the Product Discovery Workshop and requirement gathering. We started by redesigning the site’s architecture to logically connect the extensive content. We then moved on to mockup preparation and design, proposing a moodboard round. Within Boldare, we organized a design challenge to select the best moodboard, involving three Product Designers. The client chose one design for implementation. We also recommended conducting post-implementation user tests.

Collaboration

Key decision-makers and responsible individuals on the client’s side were the marketing department staff and the chancellor. High standards were required due to the educational industry’s requirements and the demanding target audience for the new web service. The collaboration demanded our significant involvement, continuous communication, and contact until all assumptions and requirements were met to the client’s satisfaction. We introduced the client to agile work methods and implemented Scrum as the work methodology. Our team consisted of a Scrum Master, Delivery Lead, and Customer Success roles, focusing on product cooperation, team, and business strategy. The development area included a Product Designer and Front and End Developer.

Conclusion

The collaboration with Humanitas exemplifies how finding a service provider offering a full range of services can reduce costs by shortening execution time, minimizing complications and errors, and allowing the client to delegate full task responsibility without engagement. Boldare proved to be the perfect one-stop shop for Humanitas, making the work process faster and translating into a much higher ROI compared to seemingly cheaper services requiring coordination, competencies, and time, which ultimately could be more expensive.

Disclaimer: The new Humanitas Academy website will be rolled out at the start of the new academic year late autumn 2024 to support the institution’s marketing efforts.