In the WED module, small groups of students are tasked with redesigning websites for real clients. This year, there were two clients: Our computer science student council (fachschaftinformatik.de; Group 1) and the Design Lab itself (this Website; Group 2). The Students formed groups and each group chose a client to create their best prototypes with the help of Adobe XD. Then two winning teams (one team for each client) were announced to implement the design on WordPress.
Group 1: „Before redesigning, the team conducted a competitor analysis, determined the target groups and created a suitable site map. The idea was to make the new website more modern and to present useful sections that were rather hidden. For example, the job offers can now be found on the start page. The darkmode was also an important point in the new concept. Students and prospective students should have the possibility to adapt the website to their needs and to find relevant links quickly. The basic color now is a lusher green and should also reflect the modern student council.“
Group 2: „By now the current website of the Designlab is a bit outdated and a lot has happened in the world of web design since the current website was created. So it was time to give it a new look. The goal was to modernize the website and implement current trends in web design. After all, this website is the flagship of the design department and should therefore always radiate creativity and reflect the know-how in good design. In addition, the structure of the website was to be restructured and thus also simplified in order to achieve better user-friendliness. The highlight of the concept is the full page scrolling and the 360° menu header.“
Group 1: „WordPress and Elementor Pro were used for the implementation. Responsiveness of the website was an important point in the implementation, as well as the white space, which makes the design look clean and more minimal. In the header you can see the login and different photos of the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, so that you get a first impression of the university. What distinguishes this website from others, is that the menu is below the login and the header. The idea was to make sure that the user logs in first, because some sections cannot be seen otherwise.“
Group 2: „For the basis of the implementation, we used the content management system WordPress and the extremely popular plugin or website builder Elementor Pro. We were also helped by knowledge of HTML and CSS, as this was the only way to implement all the planned functions. Furthermore, during the implementation, care was taken to ensure that later editing of the content as well as the creation of new posts is always easy and possible even without extensive programming knowledge. We didn’t let small technical obstacles and challenges stop us and are working hard to finish the website and present it to the public as soon as possible.“
WED (Webdesign)
09/2020 – 01/2021
Group 1:
Julia Danko
Vaceslav Klepzov
Group 2:
Lisa Narewski
Tobias Hoffmann
