Western Sydney University (WSU) engaged ARK360 to create a dynamic, interactive online experience to showcase the university’s top Higher Degree Research (HDR) candidates and their research projects. The goal was to elevate the visibility of WSU’s leading academic talent by transforming traditional research profiles into engaging digital stories that inspire, inform, and attract potential collaborators, students, and industry partners.

🔹 Promote Excellence: Highlight standout HDR students and their contributions to research across key disciplines.

🔹 Enhance Engagement: Deliver an interactive, user-friendly platform that encourages exploration of individual research stories.

🔹 Foster Collaboration: Attract industry, academic, and government stakeholders with a polished digital presence.

🔹 Support Recruitment: Position WSU as a destination for top research talent by showcasing innovation, depth, and student impact.

🔹 Student/Researcher Profiles: Each HDR student featured on their own interactive page, with a rich mix of media—video interviews, project summaries, research themes, and real-world applications.

🔹 Dynamic Filtering: Visitors can explore by discipline, research theme, or impact area to discover students aligned with their interests.

🔹 Mobile-Optimised Design: Fully responsive experience ensuring accessibility across devices, browsers, and screen sizes.

🔹 Search Engine Ready: Optimised for discoverability, helping drive organic traffic from search engines and research directories.

🔹 Content Management Interface: Admin users can add, update, and manage HDR profiles without technical support, ensuring long-term flexibility.

🔹 Built on a modern low-code stack to accelerate delivery while maintaining full creative and technical control, the platform was:

🔹 Designed for Flexibility: Modular design system supporting growth and future feature expansion (e.g., event showcases, downloadable assets, or cross-institutional profiles).

🔹 Performance-Driven: Fast load times and optimised media handling to support high-quality videos and images.

🔹 Secure and Compliant: Adhered to university IT governance and accessibility standards, including WCAG compliance.

✅ Successfully launched in under 8 weeks, aligned with the academic calendar.

✅ Showcased over 30 HDR researchers at launch, with capacity to scale.

✅ Positive feedback from faculty, researchers, and external visitors.

✅ Enhanced perception of WSU's HDR program as a leader in innovation and impact-driven research.

✅ Sparked new interest from partners and prospective candidates.