Skip to content

Digital partnership and design system with Sheffield Hallam University.

A sustainable design system to underpin all digital projects

Test image
Sheffield Hallam University is one of the UK’s largest and most diverse universities and pride themselves on the applied nature of their courses, offering thousands of placements and real-world opportunities every year with guaranteed work experience on their degree courses. Sheffield Hallam wanted to stand out in the busy landscape of Higher Education as an education provider who add real long-term value to their students.
A woman looking over a view of Sheffield city centre at dawn.

“We transform lives. We shape our students’ futures, preparing them for whatever they choose to do, and create knowledge that provides practical solutions to real world challenges.”

Design system

An audit of SHU’s existing digital assets identified what was working, what needed refactoring and what could be consolidated. From that foundation, four design principles were established to guide all future component development. The result was the SHU Experience Library: a fully documented design system covering components, templates, design principles, accessibility rules, tone of voice and usage guidance, with HTML code for each component. Anyone designing or building for SHU, whether in-house or external, can get up to speed quickly from a single source of truth.

Accessibility

All components and templates were built to meet WCAG AAA, designed following the principles of progressive enhancement: starting with the minimal accessible experience and building up based on the capability of the user’s browser and preferences. Accessibility was a core design constraint from the beginning, not a compliance exercise applied at the end.

A girl holding a cardboard placard stating 'The Time is Now'. There is a painted picture of the earth in the centre of the placard

Clearing

A clearing hub was launched several weeks before the window opened, with a self-selection feature to surface more relevant content and a pre-application process that helped SHU fill 40% of their clearing places before clearing officially began.

a mockup of the Sheffield Hallam University website homepage
SHU Design system components

Open Day booking system

A full booking system integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365, handling multi-step booking flows with session selection logic, a staff-facing management portal, user accounts, reminder emails and SMS messaging, and downloadable booking itineraries.

Digital products and experiences

Across the partnership, Kind also delivered the student intranet experience, a WordPress theme for research microsites, prospectus design updates, and ongoing design and front-end support across the university’s digital properties.

Contact us

If you put purpose before profit and need some expert guidance on brand, strategy, or digital, we’re here to help.

Contact details