In an increasingly competitive higher education landscape, North Dakota State University recognized the need to evolve — not incrementally, but boldly. Their brand vision, “One NDSU, One Voice,” called for a unified platform that could amplify the brand, support hundreds of editors, and provide a seamless experience for prospective students, families, and partners. But that transformation would mean untangling a complex web of nearly 300 independent sites, each with its own design, structure, and content.
Together with Four Kitchens, NDSU embraced the opportunity to leap forward — building a scalable, future-ready platform that brings their vision to life.
Highlights
- Unified nearly 300 decentralized websites into one brand-aligned, user-friendly Drupal platform.
- Achieved Lighthouse performance scores up to 99, with a homepage FCP of just 0.5 seconds.
- Built intuitive drag-and-drop authoring tools with hundreds of on-brand, accessible layout variations.
- Trained and supported 152 editors — including 35 Web Principals — through live webinars, peer mentorship, and a public knowledge base.
- Enhanced accessibility and SEO to help NDSU content reach and resonate with more prospective students.
- Used AI to accelerate migration of legacy AngularJS apps, saving time and resources.
North Dakota State University
We now have an amazing authoring experience and an engaging web presence that reflects the vibrancy of the NDSU community.
—Lindsay Condry, Web Manager
Challenge: From digital sprawl to strategic focus
For years, NDSU’s web presence had grown organically — and unevenly. Nearly 300 websites existed across the institution, each created by different colleges, departments, and offices with varying styles and levels of quality. Some were built on outdated platforms. Many were difficult to navigate. Most needed updates to better reflect NDSU’s new brand and strategic priorities.
This patchwork approach diluted the University’s online identity, confused users, and made it difficult for the University Relations team to support editors or ensure consistent quality. Prospective students often encountered outdated or contradictory information, while internal teams struggled with redundant content and unclear ownership.
Further complicating matters was a concurrent university-wide rebranding effort. We faced a unique challenge: building the new website alongside an evolving brand identity.
Four Kitchens
From the start, NDSU’s leadership was ready for big change. Their excitement and clear vision made it possible to pull off such an ambitious, institution-wide transformation.
—Ashley Hitson, UX/UI Lead
Solution: One platform, built for change
To meet NDSU’s ambitious goals, we knew this project couldn’t be just a redesign — it had to be a reinvention. We didn’t start with comps or templates. We started by listening: to editors, to stakeholders, to students, and to the evolving brand itself.
From there, we built a flexible, future-ready Drupal platform designed to scale across hundreds of sites, serve the needs of dozens of departments, and support a diverse range of content creators. Every feature, every pattern, and every piece of guidance was created with one core principle in mind: Make it easier for NDSU to speak in one clear, confident voice — reinforcing their brand vision of “One NDSU, One Voice” — without sacrificing the autonomy of its teams.
What followed was a deeply collaborative, phased process that blended strategy, governance, design systems, AI-powered migration, and hands-on training into a single, cohesive transformation.
Empowering editors with an intuitive authoring experience
When your web platform supports more than 150 active content creators, it can’t just be powerful — it has to be intuitive. NDSU needed a publishing experience that could handle complexity behind the scenes while making content creation simple and flexible for editors across campus.
The new site revolutionizes the authoring experience. Built with Four Kitchens’ open-source design system, Emulsify, and the Layout Paragraphs module, NDSU’s interface provides drag-and-drop layout tools and real-time previews — no technical skills required. Editors can assemble content with confidence, knowing each variation automatically aligns with the University’s brand and accessibility standards.
By combining smart defaults with flexible components, we gave editors the best of both worlds: the freedom to tell their stories and the assurance that every page looks polished, professional, and on-brand. The result? Less time spent wrestling with layout, more time spent creating content that connects.
Four Kitchens
The authoring experience is next-level. Editors build pages visually with drag-and-drop tools and live previews. No more guessing!
—Callin Mullaney, Senior Frontend Engineer
Fueling a community-led transformation
Great platforms don’t succeed without great people — and NDSU had a powerful, passionate community ready to lead the charge.
From day one, we partnered with NDSU’s stakeholders to build not just a better website, but a stronger sense of shared ownership and purpose. At the heart of that effort was the Web Principals group: 35 power users from across colleges and departments who served as project ambassadors, peer mentors, and essential links between central administration and distributed editors. These champions helped test features, refine training materials, and guide their colleagues through the platform transition.
Together with the University Relations team, we developed a robust training and support network. 117 authors were trained in just two days, followed by weekly workshops, open office hours, and a comprehensive public knowledge base. These sessions covered everything from writing accessible content to using the new layout tools effectively.
The result is more than a trained editorial team. It’s a confident, connected community — aligned in purpose, empowered by tools, and supported by peers. And in bringing so many voices together, NDSU achieved the very vision that sparked this project: “One NDSU, One Voice.”
Four Kitchens
The Web Principals became our change leaders. They’re the power users and the first line of support, making sure knowledge spreads across campus.
—Megan Bygness Bradley, Technical Project Manager
Editorial governance at scale
When you have more than 150 editors across dozens of colleges, departments, and offices, content freedom without control can quickly spiral into chaos. NDSU needed a way to empower its distributed teams while maintaining quality, security, and consistency across the entire platform.
We built a governance system rooted in Drupal’s Group module — a powerful permissions framework that mirrors NDSU’s organizational structure. Each group functions as an isolated content silo, assigning roles, access, and editorial boundaries based on department. Editors in the College of Engineering, for example, can fully manage their own pages but can’t view or edit content owned by the Graduate School. The result is clear ownership, focused access, and dramatically reduced risk of cross-departmental content conflicts.
But this model didn’t just preserve autonomy — it unlocked a new level of independence. Previously, some tasks required IT approval or intervention — not because of internal policy, but because the old CMS and its rigid permissions made self-service difficult or risky.
With the new Drupal platform, that bottleneck is gone. Granular permissions built into Groups ensure that editors can manage their own content — even full microsites — with the confidence that they won’t break anything or go off-brand.
Four Kitchens
This project was all about ownership. We gave departments the tools to do things themselves — from updating menus to launching entire microsites — all without compromising brand integrity. And no more waiting on IT or submitting tickets!
—Jim Vomero, Senior Engineer
The impact is both cultural and operational. Editors now have the tools — and the trust — to publish efficiently within a stable, secure framework. It also simplifies onboarding and support: Editors know exactly where they work, what they manage, and what they can’t touch. Combined with training and peer mentorship from the Web Principals group, this governance model ensures that editors can move quickly and confidently — without sacrificing brand integrity or system stability.
It’s a powerful example of how technology and training can work together to bring “One NDSU, One Voice” to life.
More engaging program discovery
For prospective students, finding the right academic program is everything. But on NDSU’s previous websites, that journey was often fragmented and confusing. Program information on the main university site was pulled directly from the catalog, where program descriptions weren’t always updated regularly, and it was sometimes too detailed or technical to appeal to prospective students. To fill the gap, many departments created their own program pages, leading to duplicated — and sometimes conflicting — content across the sites.
The new platform reimagines this experience from the ground up, focusing on the student experience first. We partnered with NDSU to design a visually rich, Netflix-style program finder that invites exploration and encourages action. Organized around compelling categories like “Pursue a Career with Purpose,” the finder allows students to browse academic offerings by interest — making discovery more intuitive and engaging from the start.
Each program page now lives in a central, consistently designed system that highlights what matters most: degree options, career outcomes, and an engaging and concise look at the program. Departments and colleges can now link to these shared pages instead of creating their own, reducing duplicate content, streamlining updates, and ensuring accuracy across the board.
With strategic crosslinking to admissions, financial aid, and campus life content — plus improved SEO, accessible design, and modern search tools — prospective students now enjoy a faster, clearer path to the programs that fit them best.
Migrating hundreds of sites — with some help from AI
Rebuilding a university-wide platform is no small feat. Rebuilding it while consolidating 296 legacy TYPO3 websites and two Drupal sites? That’s transformation on another level.
To make the migration both manageable and efficient, we deployed a strategic mix of automation, templating, and hands-on support. But the real accelerant? AI.
Two legacy AngularJS applications required significant rework to function within the new Drupal environment. Rather than rewrite them from scratch, we used AI-assisted tools to translate the codebase into clean, maintainable vanilla JavaScript — drastically reducing development time and allowing our team to focus on refinement and integration.
On the content side, we collaborated with NDSU to audit and triage their sprawling site network. Together, we built a prioritized migration plan aligned with the university’s recruitment goals — identifying which pages to rebuild, redirect, or retire. Editors were equipped to recreate their content using the new component system, supported every step of the way by robust governance resources and real-time coaching from Four Kitchens.
We didn’t just move content from old to new. We helped NDSU reimagine their digital ecosystem — faster, smarter, and with fewer barriers — thanks in part to the strategic use of AI.
Four Kitchens
AI helped us unravel messy Angular apps, turning them into clear, documented code that saved hours of guesswork.
—Jim Vomero, Senior Engineer
Flexing with the brand: Navigating a simultaneous rebrand
While the web transformation was underway, NDSU was also rolling out a campus-wide brand refresh — a project with its own evolving timeline, stakeholder input, and creative direction. This could have easily derailed progress, but instead, it became an opportunity to build even stronger alignment.
Rather than treat branding as a late-stage polish, we built our work around it from day one. Our design system was flexible enough to accommodate changes to typography, color, photography, and voice as they emerged. We created reusable, on-brand components that could evolve in lockstep with the visual identity.
By partnering closely with NDSU’s University Relations team, we turned what could have been a constraint into a collaboration — ensuring the platform was always aligned with the latest brand vision, without sacrificing momentum or quality.
Four Kitchens
We designed a flexible framework that could absorb the new branding mid-project. It was like building with LEGOs, making sure we could layer on new elements without starting over.
—Ashley Hitson, UX/UI Lead
Results: A platform that performs, inspires, and unites
The new NDSU website offers a cohesive, engaging experience strategically aligned for recruitment and growth.
A unified digital identity. Successfully consolidated 296 TYPO3 and two Drupal sites into a single, centralized platform — turning a fragmented web ecosystem into a cohesive brand experience. For the first time, every college, department, and office now speaks with “One NDSU, One Voice,” reinforcing trust, clarity, and institutional pride across all digital touchpoints.
AI-accelerated modernization. Leveraging AI tools to refactor outdated AngularJS applications into clean JavaScript saved significant development time — allowing NDSU to modernize legacy systems without starting from scratch or increasing technical debt.
Faster, easier content creation. Intuitive, drag-and-drop authoring tools dramatically reduce time spent formatting and troubleshooting. Paired with live previews and smart defaults, the interface empowers editors to focus on what matters most: creating compelling content for their audiences.
Smarter authoring through design systems. Editors can create 324 unique layout permutations from just a handful of templates, colorways, and formatting options — and that doesn’t include the components library! It’s a powerful, scalable authoring system built on Emulsify and Layout Paragraphs that provides flexibility without sacrificing consistency or accessibility.
Empowered editors, sustainable governance. Through a strategic training program and the Web Principals initiative, more than 150 editors — including 35 campus champions — were trained to create compelling content with confidence. NDSU’s investment in people has fostered an active community of editors and authors.
Outstanding speed and performance. The new site achieves Lighthouse performance scores up to 99 on internal pages and delivers a homepage that loads in just 0.5 seconds — creating a faster, smoother experience that keeps users engaged and reduces bounce.
Dynamic academic discovery. A visually rich, Netflix-style program finder transforms how prospective students explore academic offerings. Organized by intuitive interest groups like “Shape the Future Through Innovation,” this tool makes program selection more engaging, personalized, and student-centered.
Elevated accessibility and SEO. Near-perfect accessibility and SEO scores ensure that NDSU’s content is inclusive, compliant, and discoverable. These improvements expand the reach of NDSU’s messaging while supporting recruitment, equity, and brand visibility goals.
North Dakota State University
Four Kitchens felt like an extension of our team. They listened, they supported us, and they cared deeply about the success of the project.
—Lindsay Condry, Web Manager
Built to last: A partnership powered by Continuous Care
For NDSU, launching the new website wasn’t the finish line — it was the starting line for long-term growth and continuous improvement.
Since launch, NDSU has partnered with Four Kitchens through our Continuous Care website support program — a flexible model for ongoing support, enhancements, and innovation. Together, we’re rolling out new features, fine-tuning governance, and expanding the platform’s capabilities through iterative, data-informed updates.
From new components and landing page templates to refined training and editorial tools, the Continuous Care team ensures NDSU’s platform remains fast, accessible, and aligned with evolving university goals.
This isn’t just maintenance. It’s momentum — driven by a commitment to collaboration and long-term success. Because when a platform is built to grow, great things keep happening long after launch.
Four Kitchens
Having the same Project Manager roll into Continuous Care means we maintain consistency, relationships, and a deep understanding of the platform’s evolution.
—Megan Bygness Bradley, Technical Project Manager
Details
Services provided
- Communication support to facilitate change management
- Author and editor training
- Content strategy and information architecture
- UX and visual design
- Design system and component library creation using Emulsify
- Automated and manual content migration
- Frontend and backend development
- Accessibility testing and compliance
- Site performance testing and optimization
- Testing and QA
- Migrating legacy Angular apps to modern JavaScript
- Integration with Grouper and enterprise IAM tools
Technologies used
- Drupal
- Drupal Group module: content permissions
- Drupal Layout Paragraphs module: structured content and live previews
- Emulsify design system: component development and accessibility testing (meets WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines)
- CKEditor 5
- Pantheon, the WebOps platform
North Dakota State University
Four Kitchens has been great to work with. We talk a lot. We laugh. We feel connected, and it’s not all about work. You can tell that we care about each other and the success of the project. We’re in it together.
—Lindsay Condry, Web Manager
Ready to unify your digital experience?
Higher ed websites are complex. You have hundreds of editors, decentralized content, and pressure to meet enrollment, accessibility, and branding goals — all on limited time and resources. NDSU’s transformation shows what’s possible with the right platform, people, and partner.
Whether you need a fresh start or a smarter strategy, we’re here to help. Let’s talk about your next big digital move!