aalto.fi – a digital communications platform

The solution

Communications & content strategy

Aalto University wanted to ensure the successful renewal of aalto.fi into a best-in-class university communications and collaboration platform. Thus communication and content development played a major role in the project.

When the project started there was about 80 000 pages of content to edit, rearrange and update. We facilitated the content development project and worked closely with Aalto’s communications team as a strategic partner in digital communications.  

We supported Aalto's communications unit in project communication and internal marketing of the platform project.We also facilitated the content editing process during which we trained and sparred hundreds of Aalto’s content owners, creators and editors in communications best practices.

We then created a content strategy for the new platform based on the stakeholders’ needs in close collaboration with Aalto’s stakeholders and platform’s technical partner Siili Solutions and built the content hubs and stakeholder journeys  to the new content management system (CSM).

Design

From a visual perspective, we decided to develop a minimal UI style that would enhance the content while promoting the accessibility of the site. The approach to colors, spacing and typography is simple and bold in order to facilitate the content discovery across the many templates of the platform. Our main design aspiration was to give space for the content to shine. Visual design works on a contrast principle. While having elegance and spaciousness as the main design theme, it introduces strong brand elements. These elements carry a lot of visual weight and intensity. The features should maximize the visual effect and bring emotion and “wow”-experience to the layout. The main idea is to keep contrast and balance by providing enough brand elements to give people context and a sense of liveliness to the page. However, not to the point that it becomes a distraction.

The outcome

Since launching aalto.fi after the beta phase, we've succeeded in increasing page views by 54 %. The site's accessibility score is at 99/100! This achievement places aalto.fi the 1st in Scandinavia and 3rd in Europe in academic accessibility rankings. 

The project resulted in a significant improvement in the quality of the content: the site has up-to-date content that is more appealing to selected target groups, supporting the Aalto University international brand. 

Through stakeholder meetings, training, sparring and project communication, the new aalto.fi has been well received by the Aalto University staff. Content practitioners have been able to practice hands-on content production with the help of our communications experts to promote more effective communication and marketing.