Quantum Matter Institute needed a way to showcase their research and investigators, while also highlighting the Grand Challenges that are important to their story. No small task, especially when sharing important guidance around infrastructure, training programs, and how they assist students are all added to the mix.
Our goal for this website redesign was a complete reshape of content structure into a custom WordPress CMS. This would have the added benefit of improving ease of use for staff members publishing time-sensitive research news.
We took our design lead from QMI's photography assets showcasing shining equipment and friendly faces. Subtle background colours give an extra emphasis and clarity to direct calls to action, while still allowing for the unique character and story of QMI to be reflected in students' and staff members' personalities. Classic blues with appealing red highlights lend a warm and friendly yet authoritative look, calling out to QMI's professional yet amiable reputation.
The new QMI website really showcases their work – and their team. It includes a dynamic scrolling banner linking directly to research news items, visually intriguing callouts to Grand Challenges, and clear paths to study programs. Investigators are now easily found through a powerful search function, and were given individual landing areas with contact information and links to their research. With training on how to best use their custom WordPress CMS, QMI is equipped to easily share their exciting and mind-bending research with the world.
Forge and Smith is a small, agile web development company and I appreciated their flexibility and creativity as we worked to launch a new website for the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute. We were working with a large amount of content and very small team on our end, and their team did an excellent job of making our content accessible, navigable, and SEO-friendly. I was initially drawn to working with F&S for their experience developing sites for university-based research institutes and organizations, and found that they were very competent in collaborating with university IT teams. I appreciated Shawn's expertise; he was communicative and understanding as we planned the project, and proposed a project that met our needs while keeping costs reasonable and fair. Overall, I am pleased with the outcomes of our collaboration and would recommend F&S!
