---
title: "Carnegie Mellon University"
url: "/our-work/carnegie-mellon-university"
type: case_study
date: 2017-08-11
updated: 2023-05-25
---

# Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University

#  Building a Cleaner, More Performant Site for CMUâ&#128;&#153;s Human-Computer Interaction Institute 

 [ View the site   ](https://www.hcii.cmu.edu/) 

                ![person looking at mobile phone](/sites/default/files/styles/promo_medium/public/cmu_hero_image2x_0.jpg.webp?itok=EQKaZfI9 "cmu_hero_image2x.jpg")  

 The Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is renowned for investigating the relationship between computer technology and humans through interdisciplinary research and education. HCIIâ&#128;&#153;s prestigious academic programs teach design, computer science, and behavioral/social sciences to help students understand and create technologies that benefit people and society.

 Service areas

- [  Design   ](/services/design)
 
 [  See all project services   ](#services) 

   

   

 ![CMU website screenshots](/sites/default/files/styles/wide_xs/public/assets/2017-08/cmu_screen_shots_-_wide2x.jpg.webp?itok=ryMYnv3S "cmu_screen_shots_-_wide2x.jpg")

As an institution with computer technology at its core, HCIIâ&#128;&#153;s website is a critically important and visible resource. Its visitors, including students, faculty, alumni, and the general public, are an especially tech-savvy bunch with high expectations for the siteâ&#128;&#153;s design, UX, functionality, and performance. While CMU was happy with the designs on the HCII website, they wanted to clean up the theme, revamp search and authentication, and improve overall site performance.

Working in close collaboration with CMUâ&#128;&#153;s Web Technology Services team, we successfully rebuilt www.hcii.cmu.edu in about nine weeks. HCIIâ&#128;&#153;s new website retains its original designs but now features faster performance, UX tweaks that improve the mobile and touchscreen experience, a better Panels interface for editors, improved search, authentication and accessibility, responsive images, and a Pattern Lab implementation on the front-end. It's now utilizing more of the foundational Drupal modules commonly used across CMU, leaving it well-positioned for future enhancements and updates.

> â&#128;&#156;This project has run super smoothly. You guys are a pleasure to work with, super organized, and do great work. The department is very happy with the product and itâ&#128;&#153;s going to be a very helpful tool for them going forward. And you taught my team a bunch of great new stuff that we'll use for a long time.â&#128;&#157;  
>   
> Jordan Harrison, Associate Director, Web Technology Services

 

 <a class="visually-hidden" name="services">Anchor to move to the services section</a>##  Services 

 We provided the following kinds of services to help this project succeed.

- Performance and Scalability
- Search
- UX &amp; Design

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