ETIC Algarve: DESIGNED FOR A Successful User Experience

ETIC_Algarve is a reference point when it comes to creative education in Southern Portugal. The school offers high-quality, hands-on training in Design, Communication, Audiovisuals, Music, Technology and the Arts. It is a space for inspiration and creation, all the while preparing their students for the job market. So, how could their website not deliver an optimised user experience?

ETIC_Algarve’s decade-long experience in professional training in the arts, technology and communication grants it an undisputed reputation in the Portuguese creative schools market. KOBU Agency has nourished a close relationship with ETIC_Algarve for many years.

Not only do we have an internship protocol, but also some of our own team members are teachers at the school. Pretty cool, right?! So it was with great pleasure that we welcomed ETIC_Algarve’s contact for this website project, and also to help them diagnose a perceived brand misalignment in their communication approach.

An early brand consulting stage allowed us to understand that ETIC_Algarve’s visual imagery and language were misaligned. There was a lack of consistency throughout the brand’s digital channels. On the other hand, ETIC_Algarve’s intended positioning as a versatile brand was not being achieved due to an overuse of rigid, straight-lined elements. We broke through these constraints by, quite literally, circling the square.

Where once we had block-like visual elements resembling the squares of the periodic table, they are now reimagined as movement and sound-oriented wave-like animations. The new website’s design not only made ETIC_Algarve stand out visually, but also made it more approachable, more inviting, resembling the school’s free flow of ideas, all the while reorganising its information architecture.

Launched just in time to celebrate its 15th anniversary, ETIC_Algarve’s website lays the groundwork for a new and youthful way of communicating. The use of shapes, colours and carefully selected typography makes way for a clearer and more aligned vision of a creative digital school.

Behind the scenes, the website’s backoffice was thoughtfully crafted to allow for faster and more efficient content updates. A reworked information architecture and user experience answer the student’s needs, allowing not only a smooth navigation through ETIC_Algarve’s courses, projects or training areas, but also ensuring an engaging on-brand experience that eases the path towards conversion.

A CREATIVE SCHOOL PREPPING FOR THE FUTURE

As it approached its 15th anniversary, ETIC_Algarve had grown into a well-established institution and felt the need to take a look at the brand and communication approach as they seemed misaligned with its true identity. ETIC_Algarve knew they were much more youthful, creative, and light-hearted than what was being conveyed.

The challenge was to build ETIC_Algarve a new website, while also revising and refreshing some key elements of their visual universe that supported digital communication. Nevertheless, and even though the project goals seemed clear, we needed to address the specific pain points and clarify the path ahead before diving into the challenge and tackling the discomfort.

TAPING INTO THE DISCOMFORT

ETIC_Algarve’s visual identity was loosely tied to its partner in Lisbon, ETIC. Extending beyond the logo, it was stuck into a somewhat rigid, square-based aesthetic, that changed frequently over the years. The school was ready to move beyond that, aiming for a stronger connection with their students and prospects – a way to reach them that was inviting, creative, authentic and more human. At the same time, it was essential to allow the brand to slowly change and adapt: it required versatility.

That was precisely what we concluded from the early brand consulting stage. ETIC_Algarve needed to improve its communication approach to ensure the desired positioning. The new website and refreshed brand assets needed to convey the school’s differentiation from other creative schools, mostly showing its practical and innovative identity that leans on market-related teaching with “hands-on” methodologies. Likewise, ETIC_Algarve’s relevance in its sector should also be reflected by its messaging and tone of voice. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF BRAND CONSULTING

As we started to draw conclusions from the brand consulting stage, we understood that designing and developing the new website would be an exciting and ambitious project. It would not only realign ETIC_Algarve’s communication standards, but also actually reflect the school’s experience and know-how. By the end of the project, we would have reinforced the brand’s positioning by strategically enhancing the brand’s versatility and delivering a refreshed communication look and feel that reached students and prospects in a more captivating and direct way.

Designing the User Experience

A detailed assessment of brand assets allowed us to identify key misalignments and paved the way for a clearer, more confident brand communication approach. To explore this direction, we adopted a hands-on approach with studies and tests of potential concepts. Thirteen colour directions were tested across grouped palettes, alongside thoughtfully revised brand elements and curated typography that aligned with the brand’s character.

These studies resulted in a multi-layered, interactive document we shared with ETIC_Algarve, allowing them to experience the proposal first-hand. This experimentation gave way to a flexible system within the website itself. It resulted in a feature that allows back office users to shift the website’s look and feel by selecting one of multiple predefined colour palettes, changing the use of colour throughout the website and allowing for a refresh, preserving the brand consistency. Also, to answer the playful and exploratory spirit that the brand called for, we’ve envisioned elements that respond to sound or mouse movement, resulting in an engaging and lively digital experience.

MAKE IT INTUITIVE AND STRUCTURED

User experience remained a central topic throughout the project. With a wide range of courses, the website required a more focused and streamlined way of accessing information. A filterable course archive allows prospective students to filter content by training area and course type, while course cards display key characteristics at a glance. This structure allows for an easy and suitable user experience, avoiding the need to open each course page to figure out key concepts for each and every course.

To further humanise the experience, each course page may introduce a more personal layer of communication. When loading the course page, a short video appears with an instructor addressing the possible student with an overview of the course’s content, the teaching approach and its relevance. This feature helps prospective students connect with both the subject matter and the people behind it, reinforcing trust and approachability.

VISUALISATION AND DYNAMICS

Beyond individual courses, one of ETIC_Algarve’s defining strengths lies in the opportunities it offers after graduation. The school supports study progression through partner institutions, as well as international mobility via Erasmus+ programmes and internships. To make these pathways clear and tangible, the website introduces two fully dynamic interactive maps dedicated to Progressão de Estudos. These features were built into a fully dynamic system. Through the backoffice, ETIC_Algarve’s team can add partner institutions, assign them to countries, enrich them with content and see the maps update automatically, ensuring a flexible, scalable and reliable platform to manage over time.

ALWAYS ON-BRAND

One of the most challenging and important phases of the project was creating the mechanism for the changing colour palettes. ETIC_Algarve speaks to a young and dynamic audience that engages better with websites that offer visual interest and a captivating user experience. Matching the colour tones to guarantee legibility, contrast and accessibility across every layout while staying on-brand was crucial. 

Each colour palette needed to feel distinct yet always recognisable as ETIC_Algarve, all the while ensuring that this flexibility did not sacrifice brand coherence. This level of flexibility meant designing a system that ensured structure and hierarchy to hold the identity together as its visual expressions changed. The challenge was demanding, but it was fun to do!

MORE THAN A WEBDESIGN PROJECT

Ultimately, the website provides ETIC_Algarve with a digital platform designed to scale over time. Flexible systems and dynamic content management allow the school to evolve its communication without losing its coherence or identity. More than a refresh, the project provides a foundation for continued exploration, connection, and creative growth, honouring the school’s past and future.

At its core, this project was about making visible what ETIC_Algarve has built over years of practice and student training. A school grounded in learning by doing, close relationships, and real-world work training. More than a redesign, the website becomes an extension of how ETIC_Algarve teaches and supports its students. It’s a platform designed to guide learning, encourage exploration, and create the conditions for students to prosper in a real-world working environment.

It was a pleasure working closely with the ETIC_Algarve team and translating their needs and ambitions into a website that is effective and distinctive, and contributing to positioning them at the forefront of the creative education landscape.