FUTURE ENERGY SYSTEMS WEBSITE DESIGN
Future Energy Systems (FES) is a research body that coordinates and provides grants for multidisciplinary research that develops energy technologies and examines possible consequences for society, economy and the environment. The Future Energy Systems initiative was developed as a result of a large grant provided by the Government of Canada to the University of Alberta.
FES required a website that showcased the work being funded and completed in an accessible manner to researchers, government officials and interested members of the public.
FES funds over 80 different projects across the University of Alberta campus and employs just one communications professional. In order for the site to contain up to date information across all projects, the website needed to integrate seamlessly with the University of Alberta’s research database to pull and categorize content. The large variability in the amount and types of content provided a unique challenge for the individual project pages as well as the project listing. Some projects would have short titles while others would have titles over 200 characters long. Details within the project - to name just a few - included summaries, research publications, awards, project status, principal investigators, graduate students and many more. It was also important for FES to be able to add in additional content to the pages for projects that gained media coverage or had specific stories written about them.
The project pages were organized by showcase information relevant to the general public or government officials first and then provide more detailed information about the individuals involved and then information for the scientific community including relevant posters, publications and awards. This organization allows for quick insights about the project and for deeper dives into the details.
The research conducted by FES is structured under four pillars. I developed a colour coding system and icon for each pillar that is used throughout the site.
To see the finished product, view the live site here: futureenergysystems.ca