Refresh of UCSB's Bren School's website on Drupal 8 sees immediate results
The Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara is a graduate institution focused on addressing environmental issues. However, their Challenge Bren website suffered from an outdated user experience (UX), disorganized content, and a difficult user interface (UI), which hindered prospective students from easily finding and applying to programs. Additionally, the old platform complicated updates and management for their small content team. To address these challenges, Bren enlisted Capellic to realize their vision for a revamped website. Capellic took a modular and iterative approach to development, beginning by deconstructing the site into various design and functional elements. They ensured that each visual component worked effectively and could be easily managed by the content editor. Implementation followed, with a clear emphasis on iteration to catch and resolve any issues early on. The new Drupal 8 CMS maximized functionality, allowing components designed for one page type to be effortlessly utilized across others. This method ensured consistent brand adherence; regardless of which components editors manipulated, UCSB Bren School's brand standards were automatically upheld without requiring additional actions from content creators. Notably, the process eliminated the need for developer support during content entry. As a result, once the new site launched, Bren experienced a significant increase in requests for information (RFIs), exceeding baseline levels by over 50%. In the following months, the number of enrollment leads generated from website RFIs doubled, contributing to a record number of applicants during the 2020-2021 enrollment cycle.