University Case Studies from Squiz and Funnelback Search

Squiz and Funnelback Search are looking forward to exhibiting at the IWMW once again this year. Last week, Squiz held a pre-IWMW seminar in London featuring a number of talks on Web Experience Management Solutions, including two case studies from universities which may be of interest to IWMW2011 blog readers.

Daniel Jackson, Development Manager at City University, presented a case study of their recent web project to redesign and rebuild the university’s two corporate websites and create a new intranet for staff and students. This huge undertaking incorporated a new CMS (Squiz Matrix), new search engine (Funnelback Search), new servers, new network, new content, new IA, new design, new business processes… the list goes on!

Dan’s talk took us through the project process from inception to completion and delivered a lot of useful information and advice along the way, such as their use of domain driven design to determine appropriate focus areas for their site content. Dan also showcased their course finder – a user-friendly tool, powered by Funnelback Search, which makes the university’s course information easy to access and navigate. You can view a summary of the case study, along with the presentation slides, on the Squiz Blog.

The second case study, presented by Kris Collins, the University of Bedfordshire’s Online Marketing Manager, detailed their ongoing project to completely redesign and rebuild their website – it’s due to go live at the end of July. The overhaul includes migrating from their old CMS, which was too technical for content-editors to use and was no longer able to meet the demands of the site, to Squiz Matrix – a much more user-friendly and powerful CMS.

A key requirement for the new site was that it had to take into account the constantly increasing number of users who access the site from mobile devices. The solution was to build the site with a responsive web design which adapts according to the width of the user’s browser, making it equally usable on a desktop computer or mobile device. The responsive design is a great way to meet the needs of the mobile users without requiring additional resources for maintenance of a separate mobile site or application.

Again, there is a summary of Kris’s presentation and his presentation slides, on the Squiz blog.

Squiz and Funnelback work with a large number of clients within the Education Sector to help them to achieve their business objectives through tailored web solutions. We’re exhibiting at the IWMW this year, so pop by our stand to find out more about our work with the higher education institutions. In addition, don’t miss Funnelback Chief Scientist David Hawking’s plenary session “Search Engines in the Fight Against Institutional Impecuniousness” in which he will be discussing ways in which search can be used to increase efficiencies and income.