University of Minnesota - Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication

The Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota needed an experienced web agency to redesign its website into a dynamic, accessible, and user-friendly Drupal platform. The school chose Nighthawk because of our experience in higher education website design, Drupal CMS development, UX research, accessibility, component-based design, content strategy, and long-term website support.

The Need
The Solution
Highlighted Services

University of Minnesota Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication website desktop and mobile

UMN Hubbard School Website

The Hubbard School is a nationally recognized journalism and mass communication school within the University of Minnesota. The school needed a website that could better reflect its leadership in journalism, media innovation, academic excellence, research, and student engagement. The redesigned website needed to serve a wide range of audiences, including prospective students, current students, faculty, staff, alumni, partners, and the broader community.

The Need

The Hubbard School needed a modern website that could elevate its web presence, improve usability, support stronger content organization, and reflect the school’s new “Trailblazing” brand identity. The project required more than a visual refresh. It needed a user-centered redesign process that included discovery, UX research, design, Drupal development, testing, training, launch, and post-launch support.

The school also needed a scalable and flexible Drupal website that would be easy for staff to manage over time. The new website needed to support key higher education content needs, including faculty profiles, research hubs, customizable content feeds, student-focused pathways, brand storytelling, and content structures that could grow with the school.

The Solution

Nighthawk led a comprehensive website redesign process for the Hubbard School, beginning with discovery, stakeholder engagement, UX research, and current site analysis. This early work helped define the school’s website goals, audience needs, user journeys, and opportunities to improve the existing digital experience.

The design process translated the Hubbard School’s “Trailblazing” brand identity into high-fidelity wireframes, visual designs, mobile-first layouts, and interactive prototypes. Nighthawk used a component-based design approach to create a flexible website system that could support consistent, reusable, accessible page sections while giving editors the ability to build and maintain content-rich pages over time.

The website was built on Drupal with a focus on scalability, accessibility, performance, and long-term maintainability. Nighthawk developed the front-end and back-end structure, configured the Drupal environment, implemented the approved design system, supported content migration, and created key features such as faculty profiles, research hubs, and customizable content feeds.

The project also included UX testing, cross-browser testing, accessibility reviews, quality assurance, training, deployment support, launch stabilization, and ongoing maintenance. The result is a modern Drupal website platform designed to support the Hubbard School’s academic mission, brand identity, audience engagement, and future growth.

Highlighted Services

Discovery, UX & Research

Nighthawk began the project by gathering insights from key stakeholders, reviewing the current website, and conducting competitor and current site analysis. The discovery phase included stakeholder interview summaries, user personas, journey maps, a project roadmap, and planning for the integration of the Hubbard School’s “Trailblazing” brand identity. This foundation helped align the project around audience needs, school goals, website challenges, and opportunities for improvement.

Information Architecture

Nighthawk used UX research and information architecture planning to help make the website easier to navigate, understand, and use. The process focused on identifying website and organizational goals, understanding key audiences, developing measurable goals, and creating a more user-centered structure. This work supported improved findability, usability, credibility, accessibility, and content organization across the redesigned website.

Wireframe & Design

Nighthawk created high-fidelity wireframes and designs for key page templates, along with interactive digital prototypes and a mobile-first design strategy. The design work incorporated the Hubbard School’s “Trailblazing” brand identity through typography, color, visual elements, and page layouts. Key design areas included the homepage, faculty profiles, research hubs, and other content templates that support the school’s academic and communications goals.

Drupal CMS

The Hubbard School website was developed on Drupal to provide a robust, scalable, and flexible content management system. Nighthawk configured the Drupal environment, developed the front-end responsive theme, built the back-end content structure, and implemented Drupal components that support reusable, consistent, and accessible page layouts. The Drupal build was designed to help the school manage a complex, content-rich higher education website over time.

Content Migration

Nighthawk supported migration of the Hubbard School’s website content into the new Drupal environment. The work plan included migration of more than 1,000 pages, 600 or more images, and 20 or more documents. This migration approach helped preserve important content while moving the school into a more modern and manageable Drupal website structure.

Accessibility & Quality Assurance

Nighthawk performed quality assurance and testing to help ensure the website worked across major browsers, devices, and screen sizes. The testing phase included UX testing, functional testing, browser testing, mobile responsiveness checks, performance optimization, and accessibility testing for WCAG 2.1 AA and University of Minnesota accessibility standards.