Delivering a Website-Wide Transformation in Just Four Weeks
University College Birmingham
What started as a seemingly straightforward design update quickly evolved into a full-scale digital transformation.
University College Birmingham (UCB) initially approached Codiance to implement a visual refresh based on newly developed brand concepts. The original brief focused primarily on introducing new colours across the website. However, as the project progressed, it became clear that the institution was undertaking a complete rebrand, requiring far more than a simple palette update.
With all branding assets scheduled to launch in September, the website needed to be transformed within an exceptionally tight four-week timeframe. The challenge was significant: the UCB website contained more than 5,000 pages, a highly customised Umbraco implementation, and approximately 10,000 lines of CSS that controlled the site's visual presentation.
Any mistake had the potential to impact thousands of pages, disrupt content editing workflows, or compromise accessibility compliance.
The Objective
UCB needed a digital partner capable of:
- Delivering a complete website rebrand within four weeks
- Updating typography, layouts, spacing and visual components site-wide
- Preserving the integrity of a large and complex Umbraco platform
- Maintaining strict WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility compliance
- Protecting the experience of internal content editors
- Minimising risk within a live production environment
Drawing on extensive Umbraco expertise, the Codiance team quickly identified the true scope of the work and developed a strategy that balanced speed, technical precision and risk management.
Rather than approaching the project as a simple colour change, the team treated it as a complete front-end transformation.
Managing a Complex CSS Architecture
The rebrand required extensive updates across roughly 10,000 lines of CSS spread across multiple files and templates. Because theme settings and colour selections were dynamically controlled through the CMS, even minor changes carried significant risks.
Special care was taken to ensure visual consistency across the site while avoiding issues such as broken layouts, inaccessible colour combinations and component-level styling conflicts.
Accessibility First
As a higher education institution, UCB must meet stringent accessibility requirements.
Throughout the project, Codiance worked closely with stakeholders to ensure the new branding remained fully compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Where design decisions risked creating accessibility issues, the team provided technical guidance and alternative solutions that balanced brand requirements with legal and usability obligations.
The result was a modern visual identity that remained inclusive and accessible to all users.
Preserving the Editor Experience
One of the more complex aspects of the project was ensuring the rebrand extended beyond the public-facing website.
UCB's content editors rely heavily on Umbraco's block-based editing environment. To maintain a true WYSIWYG experience, the new branding styles also needed to be implemented inside the Umbraco back office.
This required additional development to ensure editors could continue creating and managing content with confidence, while previewing pages that accurately reflected the final published design.
Future-Proofing the Platform
Given the project's accelerated timeline, Codiance took a pragmatic approach to minimise risk. Certain legacy colour mappings were intentionally preserved to avoid introducing unnecessary complexity into thousands of existing pages.
A planned second phase will build upon the success of the rebrand and further streamline content management across the platform.
The Results
The completed rebrand successfully aligned the UCB website with the institution's new visual identity while maintaining accessibility, performance and editorial usability.
Most importantly, the project was delivered within the required deadline, allowing the website launch to coincide with the wider organisational rebrand.
Codiance played a key role in bringing our website rebrand to life. Chris and the team worked closely with us to translate a new visual identity into an accessible, responsive and user-friendly digital experience. Throughout the project, they were collaborative, flexible and focused on finding solutions, bringing valuable technical expertise while working with us to achieve the best possible outcome.
Stephanie Gregan, Senior Digital Marketing & Web Content Officer, UCB
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