State Health Access Data Assistance Center - SHADAC

The State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), a health policy research center at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, needed an experienced web agency to upgrade and rebuild its website from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 (now Drupal 11). SHADAC chose Nighthawk because of our experience in Drupal CMS development, higher education websites, user experience planning, accessibility, responsive design, content migration, information architecture, and website development for complex content heavy organizations.

The Need
The Solution
Highlighted Services

State Health Access Data Assistance Center Website

SHADAC provides research and policy information to funders, organizations, policymakers, researchers, reporters, and other stakeholders. As a research center within the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, SHADAC needed a website that could support a large library of research, publications, resources, state profile information, staff content, news, events, and other policy-focused materials.

The Need

SHADAC’s existing website was running on Drupal 7 and had not gone through a full website design and build process since 2014. With Drupal 7 approaching end of life, SHADAC needed to rebuild the site on Drupal 10 and move the website onto the University of Minnesota server environment.

The existing website included an estimated 2,680 content pages, more than 1,750 PDFs, and approximately 16 content types, including About Us, Articles, Awarded Grants, Basic Pages, Book Pages, Employment, Events, Expertise, Grant Investigators, News and Blog, Publications, Resources, Spotlight Interviews, Staff, State, and Webforms. SHADAC also needed to maintain its existing brand, migrate content from Drupal 7, streamline content types and backend workflows, improve the user experience where appropriate, and coordinate with the previous web vendor and the University during the rebuild process.

The Solution

Nighthawk rebuilt the SHADAC website from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10, creating a modern, maintainable website foundation within the University of Minnesota environment. The project included discovery, content inventory, content audit, migration strategy, wireframes, design, front-end and back-end development, quality assurance, testing, launch, training, knowledge transfer, and post-launch maintenance.

The new Drupal 10 website was designed to preserve SHADAC’s established brand while improving the long-term stability, maintainability, and usability of the site. Nighthawk worked through the site’s large volume of content and documents, including thousands of pages and more than 1,750 PDFs, to support the migration from Drupal 7 into the new Drupal CMS structure.

The rebuild also focused on streamlining the backend experience for SHADAC’s content editors. Nighthawk reviewed the site structure, content types, libraries, taxonomies, templates, views, and blocks to create a more organized and manageable Drupal environment. The project also included frontend responsive development, cross-browser testing, accessibility and quality control testing, launch support, analytics connection, search engine indexing support, formal training, and documentation.

Discovery

Nighthawk began the project with discovery to understand SHADAC’s goals, existing website structure, content needs, migration requirements, technical constraints, and stakeholder priorities. This phase included roadmap planning, requirements formalization, content review, migration strategy, planning for small user experience updates, and coordination needs related to the previous web vendor and University environment.

Content Inventory, Audit, Mapping & Strategy

Because SHADAC’s website contained thousands of content items and files, content inventory and migration planning were critical parts of the project. Nighthawk reviewed the existing site content and documents, developed a content governance plan, and created a strategy for moving content from Drupal 7 into the rebuilt Drupal 10 site. This work helped ensure that pages, PDFs, resources, publications, and other content were organized and prepared for the new website structure.

Highlighted Services

Wireframe & Design

Nighthawk created wireframes and design concepts to support a refreshed website experience while maintaining SHADAC’s existing brand. The design process included mockup wireframes for the homepage and key content types, along with page layout concepts for desktop and mobile views. The goal was to improve clarity, usability, and content presentation without requiring a complete or drastic redesign.

Drupal CMS

The SHADAC website was rebuilt in Drupal 10 to replace the legacy Drupal 7 site. Nighthawk developed the front-end responsive theme, back-end structure, content types, library structure, taxonomies, views, blocks, site configuration, and modules needed to support SHADAC’s content-heavy website. The new Drupal CMS gives SHADAC a more current, stable, and maintainable platform for managing research, publications, resources, staff content, events, news, and other website materials.

Responsive Design

The rebuilt SHADAC website was developed with responsive front-end templates for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. This helps users access SHADAC’s research, publications, resources, and organizational information across screen sizes and devices.

Content Migration

Nighthawk supported the migration of an estimated 2,680 pages and more than 1,750 PDFs from the legacy Drupal 7 website into the rebuilt Drupal 10 website. The migration required careful planning around content types, documents, files, links, page structures, and backend organization so SHADAC could preserve important research and policy information while improving long-term content management.