Diversity in voice and opinion is what makes the university experience so special. For this subject, our UTS study buddies were the Faculty of Research and the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF). By taking into account the many voices and needs of their staff, students and corporate partners we would showcase the benefits and success of their work, attract new corporate partners and achieve their goal to “Demonstrate UTS as a research intensive university”.

UTS & ISF knew that to make their offering clear, they’d need to talk to their students, staff and corporate partners to understand their needs. We worked with the ISF and Research teams and began speaking to their audiences so that we could help them provide that clarity of message. Through a number of workshops, containing staff, students and corporate partners, we helped them prioritise their services, understand their audiences and articulate their value proposition - everyone had a voice - and by listening to the voices of others, we were able to go beyond the academic and put our learnings into practice.

Our theories were then put to the test with a wider group of users of the site. We underwent further recruitment of students and corporates to validate if what our studies had taught us was right and our Jobs to be Done were accurate. Our hard work during the semester had paid off and we were ready to graduate to design

Pollen is used to working with multiple stakeholders and this project was no exception. Our user-first approach helped to build the IA, page models and content relationships that UTS’ content partner, Chello was able to harness to form the backbone of their work. Needless to say, this is foundational work for us too and comes to life through our design. Working with the UTS design department, we were able to take their current brand and help bring it to life further for the web. We took stock of the legacy design and created a design system that was modern, inclusive and representative of the sophisticated work UTS does.

With the completed designs we tested once again. Further user validation made sure that we demonstrated the excellence of Research & ISF, the engagement of their people as well as the impact they strive to achieve through social change.

While the site has passed all tests throughout our design process, UTS knows that learning is a lifelong pursuit and as such, aim to continue their learning on the site. Once live, Pollen will undergo a regular cadence of testing to ensure the site functions under the stresses of university life and is able to provide access to information for all of their audiences.