Work carried out
Website development
Design & UX
Visit
https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk
A DESIGN REFRESH WITH ROBUST & STRAIGHTFORWARD UX

Working alongside academic excellence

Saïd Business School is the esteemed business school of the renowned University of Oxford. It stands as a beacon of excellence in management education and maintains a consistent position among the world's leading business schools. 

Notably, their Oxford MBA programme has garnered significant acclaim, especially in the fields of entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship.

Mockup of Said Business school course page

Saïd Business School’s requirements

Versantus is a strategic digital partner for Saïd Business School, having worked together over a number of years on key projects. This includes the development of their Drupal based coursework submission platform (SAMS), and collaborating with their in-house teams on a Drupal 7 to 9 migration.

Saïd Business School approached Versantus to help with establishing a robust online presence for their online digital courses and courses. 

They had two key objectives here, with the first being to create a way of presenting and highlighting their new range of courses effectively. Equally important was their desire to engage users and encourage interaction in order to improve course enrolment.

Mobile view of Oxford Saïd Business School’s ESG and Sustainable Financial Strategy course

The requirements

The project presented several challenges that required innovative solutions. One of the primary hurdles was to ensure a user-friendly experience for visitors to the website, without detracting from their existing offerings. This encompassed designing a navigation flow that allowed easy exploration of the courses, making sure users could effortlessly find the information they needed.

Versantus focused on optimising the integration of Form Assembly with the newly designed pages to enhance user experience and streamline the enrollment and information request processes. Their design approach aimed to maximise the form's utility by seamlessly incorporating it into the web page, ensuring a cohesive user experience and efficient data flow into Salesforce for follow-up actions.

Bringing together the project team

This project was a high priority for the school, had a tight deadline and involved a number stakeholders. Having collaborated on a number of projects with the Oxford Saïd team before, we were able to move quickly and effectively, whilst managing stakeholder expectations

Dan, our lead designer, dissected the design into components for detailed analysis and effective implementation. Regular planning and review meetings ensured alignment and quick issue resolution to challenges.

By offering our technical skills in design, development, and user experience, we were able to both meet, and exceed Saïd Business School's project requirements, completing on time and to budget.

Mockup of Said Business school course page

Outlining project scope

The project encompassed several phases, including:

  1. Crafting course pages: Developing a fresh way to showcase the courses.
  2. Improving user experience: With UX consultation and smooth integration.
  3. Making it look great and perform well: Enhancing the user experience with style and interactive features using JavaScript.
  4. Gathering feedback: Collaborating with stakeholders to fine-tune and ensuring a successful launch.

 

Ensuring clarity through discovery

We took the time to become fully acquainted with their website, diving into the technical details and context that would guide our approach. 

Saïd Business School hosts their site with Acquia, who are global industry leaders in Drupal Enterprise hosting. Our expertise and preferred partnership status with Acquia meant that we were familiar with the underlying technology and how to leverage the power of both Drupal and Acquia successfully.

 

Delving into the technical details

The project involved developing a page layout – specifically, a new type of content layout. This layout was designed to enable Saïd Business School website editors to generate and upload their new online courses.

This process involved:

  • Configuring the new page type in Drupal.
  • Implementing adaptive templates for distinct displays.
  • Ensuring code and data is formatted accordingly.
  • Integrating UX enhancements for improved site performance
Desktop view of Oxford Saïd Business School’s Online ESG and Sustainable Financial Strategy course page

The results speak for themselves

The final product met Oxford Saïd’s UX and technical requirements, and was delivered on time. The newly designed pages effectively highlighted the courses, offering users a straightforward and user-friendly experience.

 

Opportunities on the horizon

After wrapping up the first phase of the project successfully, exciting opportunities to make the digital experience even better are on the horizon. This includes cross pollinating design enhancements across programme pages, to improve user experience. This move would take the cross platform's capabilities and impact to the next level.

 

Value in collaboration

Working alongside Saïd Business School on this project has been a rewarding experience. We're proud of what we've accomplished together. From conceptualising the online programme pages to successfully launching it, our partnership has shown what can be achieved through teamwork and dedication. 

At Versantus, we thrive on bringing our skills to projects that drive digital progress. Our strategic partnership with Oxford Saïd and collaboration between our teams has resulted in a platform that not only meets goals but also offers an excellent user experience for online courses.

 

Versantus excels as a strategic partner, demonstrating responsiveness and a genuine commitment to every client project. 

Their collaborative approach is impressive, and they are consistently challenging the status quo, ensuring accessible and innovative solutions for our needs

Saïd Business School, University of Oxford