The Project
The Center for Long-Term Cyber Security (CLTC) has a robust Research Library that they wanted to make accessible and user-friendly while being on brand with the University of California, Berkeley.
We create digital products that are sustainable and impactful in the long term; that’s why we work with open-source content management systems. CLTC collaborated with Kalamuna as we are familiar with supporting brand challenges in higher education. We conducted user-centered Discovery and Design workshops to ensure our design and development efforts were steeped in CLTC’s values. We supported this project throughout its entire lifecycle, from discovery and design to implementation.
Kalamuna has a long history of developing impactful higher education and research-oriented websites. CLTC sought a partnership with us because they could trust us to understand and solve their unique challenges.
The Big Goal
CLTC is known as a research innovator that disseminates cutting-edge cyber security research; however, their previous website made it difficult to find the latest research, updates, and news. CLTC wanted a web presence that would represent their forward-thinking approach and encourage partnerships and development. We create digital products that are sustainable and impactful in the long term; that’s why we work with open-source content management systems.
We reorganized CLTC’s research and program content around research topics while incorporating their existing Cyber Visuals project into a single platform. With a filtered search tool, users can now easily find the content they need for their research projects by sorting research by topics used consistently across the site. Not only are publications now easier to find, but we also prioritized blog posts that feature faculty and experts in particular research topic areas. The user-friendly research tags in the sidebar encourage the research community to explore topics easily.
CLTC has a legacy of partnering with individuals and organizations to support the future of cybersecurity research, policy, and best practices. Kalamuna collaborated with CLTC to reimagine their web presence to align with their already sterling reputation. Giving and partnerships were critical to CLTC’s success, so we built clear calls to action to encourage visitors to donate. Visually, we introduced aspects of the UC Berkeley brand to create a unique yet familiar visual language.
Our developers rebuilt the CLTC website from the ground up, focusing on making the backend more user-friendly for their editors. We transitioned to using the Gutenberg editor and built custom-tailored Patterns and Blocks. We constructed a blend of static blocks and dynamic blocks that drew content from various parts of the website. This empowered the CLTC team to effortlessly personalize their site, facilitating the seamless sharing of new reports and peer-reviewed literature with the broader cybersecurity research community.
“Kalamuna helped us with a comprehensive website redesign from soup to nuts — from an initial strategic refresh of our goals and audiences all the way to the finer details of sleek design elements and user accessibility. Kalamuna helped us restructure the architecture of our website in a way that allows us to better tell the story of our organization and how we act on our mission.”
-Rachel Wesen
Events and Communications Specialist, CLTC
Final Thoughts
CLTC needed a solution to make their research easy to find and access. We supported CLTC’s vision of creating a Research Library catering to their community utilizing discoverable tags. With the Library, we seamlessly incorporated the UC Berkeley brand into the concept by blending the university’s colors and design elements into the platform’s aesthetics. While incorporating the institutional brand, we emphasized the importance of giving by implementing clear donation calls to action. Understanding that CLTC’s research spans a wide range of topics, we implemented advanced search functionality. Users can now perform complex searches by specifying keyword searches and research types.