Wisconsin Union
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Since 1928, the Wisconsin Union has been the heart of student life at UW–Madison.
The Union offers dining, events, recreation, and cultural experiences for students, alumni, and the public. Its website serves as the central hub for all of these offerings.
The Union partnered with Electric Citizen to rebuild its website on a modern, widely supported CMS—Drupal—ensuring easier content management, improved workflows, and a sustainable platform for future growth.
The Union’s marketing director wanted to replace their existing CMS with Drupal, but internal capacity was limited. The in-house developer only had so much time available apart from other duties, and the team as a whole had limited experience with large-scale migrations or best practices in working with Drupal..
They needed an experienced partner in higher ed who could guide the migration, share best practices, and deliver a customized, functional site on a tight timeline. As a preferred vendor for the UW system with a track record of successful campus projects, Electric Citizen was ready to help.
Establishing Development Operations (DevOps)
One of the more important things we bring to the table in every client project is our process.
We began by setting up a dedicated development environment, allowing our team (and the Union’s developer) to work on code and configuration in parallel without affecting the live site. Using Git version control and a shared development server, we ensured smooth collaboration, quality assurance, and transparent progress throughout the build.
Through sharing best practices and our process, we are able to help “level up” client teams who wish to contribute to the project, and those who wish to take over managing the site once our work is done.
Content Migration
Moving a website from one CMS to another is no simple task. But neither is the prospect of manually cutting and pasting hundreds of pages, images and documents from one site to the next.
Rather than manually transferring hundreds of pages, media items, and user accounts, we scripted an automated migration from the old CMS. This involved mapping existing content types, permissions, and media to their new Drupal counterparts, testing and refining the migration until it was accurate.
The final migration ran just before launch to capture the latest updates.
Custom Web Development
After establishing our DevOps and beginning the migration process, the next step was to assist the Union with a list of development tasks, coordinating work between our team and the Union’s own internal web developer.
Working alongside the Union’s developer, we rebuilt the site’s design in Drupal, implemented a new RSS events feed, configured recurring events and calendars, and set up editorial workflows. All features were tested for accessibility, performance, and browser compatibility before launch.
Our work was completed fairly quickly, with plenty of time for the client to review content and tools, and become familiar with the new CMS prior to launch.
Working with EC saved a lot of time on a critical project, allowing us to complete the site much sooner than if I kept working on it alone
The new Drupal site gives the Union’s marketing and editorial staff a more intuitive, efficient platform for managing content—no custom coding required for everyday updates. The improved workflows and training we provided empower the Union’s team to manage the site internally.
