Häme University of Applied Sciences
We began our collaboration with Häme University of Applied Sciences in the spring of 2023. Based on the branding work and template pages created by the advertising agency Kuudes, we set out to develop a modern WordPress website that would meet the needs of both current and future students. The primary purpose of the Hamk.fi website is to gather and present educational offerings to customers while also providing an overview for internal use.
Starting points and objectives
The HAMK team wanted to create a new, clearer way to discover the educational offering. The challenge was the fragmentation of study options across various external and internal systems. Content-wise, the goal for the education pages was to provide essential information to potential students and guide them to register via an external system.
Additionally, HAMK’s renewed brand required new ways to showcase the brand online. The user interfaces needed to highlight the modern colors and shapes of the new brand while also adhering to accessibility standards.
“In 2023-2024, we undertook an ambitious website project to create an excellent university site from the users’ perspective and a new way to search for suitable educational offerings. We needed to find a partner who could bring our vision to life, provide comprehensive guidance, and challenge us to improve. We wanted a partner with outstanding technical expertise and a holistic understanding of websites and supporting sales. The partnership established with Evermade exceeded our expectations, and we are extremely pleased with the collaboration and its results.”
Taru Kosunen
Marketing Manager, HAMK
Smoother presentation of the educational offering
The current website integrates HAMK’s own education databases with degree information from the Finnish National Agency for Education’s Opintopolku portal. Based on this data, a versatile search engine was implemented, enabling prospective students to explore various degrees, open education courses, study modules, and continuous learning courses. The search allows users to filter studies by location, teaching method, field of study, degree type, and other criteria, helping them quickly find subjects of interest. Categorization also makes it easy to feature different study modules on the overview pages of various fields, supporting the user journeys identified on the site.
An improved understanding of users with keyword research
In the early stages of the website renewal, we developed a measurement plan based on target groups and identified the most critical tracking points for the site. Through keyword research, we investigated what potential HAMK customers were searching for on search engines. This analysis guided the HAMK team in updating content and identifying key pages. Moreover, the insights from the analysis played a vital role in the site’s development by uncovering what users are searching for and how they are looking at HAMK’s educational offerings and services.
After the website renewal, we set up metrics in Google Looker Studio to continuously track visitor behavior. These dashboards allow the monitoring of user movement between pages, assessing how well key content is engaged with, and evaluating the time spent on reading. This data ensures ongoing improvements and optimization of the website.
Easy content management with the Gutenberg editor
The HAMK website was built on the WordPress platform using the Gutenberg content editor. This enables content creators to quickly create new pages and manage content effortlessly. Instead of rigid templates, the pages are constructed using custom blocks tailored specifically for HAMK, allowing even extensive changes to be made without external assistance. These blocks can be placed almost anywhere on the site, providing flexibility and efficiency in content management.
Accessibility as a core objective
Accessibility was a key technical goal, addressed from the design phase onward. The user interface design ensured multiple navigation options, logical site navigation, and compatibility with screen readers. The success of these efforts was evaluated through an accessibility audit conducted after the project.
A unified presentation of educational offerings
Presenting educational offerings in a unified way required implementing three different integrations. Educational data is drawn from three separate systems, with contact details fetched from the Azure system. Despite this complexity, the user experience remains seamless, as all educational offerings can be searched and filtered through a single search engine.
All four integrations follow a uniform framework. The system connects to a third-party API, and during data processing, it can quickly detect whether the data has changed since the last run. Each run is monitored, and statuses are visible in the WordPress admin panel. If a run fails, notifications are sent immediately.
A deletion logic was also implemented for these integrations: if courses A, B, and C were imported yesterday, but today only A and C are received, course B is flagged for removal. On HAMK’s end, flagged courses are set to draft status for 30 days before being permanently deleted. Courses can also be restored to the API if needed.
Continuous development and future steps
Following the keyword research, we organized an SEO training session for HAMK. From there, we transitioned to a model of continuous development, focusing on optimizing HAMK’s search engine visibility over the long term. Additionally, we manage HAMK’s search engine advertising, ensuring a comprehensive approach to improving visibility. Advertising campaigns provide quick visibility boosts, accelerating organic traffic growth and increasing conversions — helping HAMK reach potential students and clients effectively.
The Hamk.fi site is a large-scale entity requiring ongoing development. It is now under the care of our Care maintenance service, ensuring active support and evolution of the website. For the client, having all services under one roof simplifies operations and guarantees a dedicated team for ongoing website development.
