The Moscow State Academy of Choreography Official website

The Moscow State Academy of Choreography

One of the world's leading and oldest ballet schools, classified as an especially valuable object of cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation.

It implements the main educational programs of choreographic art — secondary vocational education, bachelor's, master's, internship and postgraduate assistant programs, as well as additional educational programs.

Graduates of the Academy work in the leading theaters of the country, including the Bolshoi Theater of Russia.

In 2023, The Moscow State Academy of Choreography celebrates the anniversary of 250 years since its foundation. This event was the reason for our cooperation.

1

Modern and image presentation of the Moscow State Academy of Arts: to give an appropriate reading of the resource, preserving the historical heritage and rich history and striving to meet modern realities;

2

Redesign of the structure and functionality of the site. Due to the large amount of information provided, not all pages were easily accessible, and some were inaccessible through the basic navigation in the old interface;

3

Modernization of the site in accordance with legal requirements for successful completion of control and monitoring procedures of the education system;

4

The site should have a simple and intuitive administrative panel to manage a large amount of data;

5

Implementation of the ability to switch the site to a version for the visually impaired;

6

Development of an English version of the website with a unique structure and menu in order to increase the number of international students and increase the subject interest from foreign media.

A few numbers

52 unique layout designs;

70 information blocks and 12 reference books for easy content management;

More than 200 final site pages maid using initially created components from design layouts;

100% result of checking monitoring for compliance with methodological recommendations for presenting information about an educational organization of higher education in open sources, taking into account compliance with the requirements of legislation in the field of education.

The main feature of the project was the large number of key categories of users with different needs from the site:

Applicants;
Academy students aged 7 years and older;
Parents;
Teaching staff;
Administrative staff;
Inspection authorities;
Foreign students;
Foreign applicants.

The project was distinguished by a large volume of internal pages, which had to be logically arranged into sections for each category of users so that they could quickly find the information they needed.

To work with a large amount of textual information in page design, an approach was chosen in which the user could "catch a glimpse" of the information he needs and continue studying it with a comfortable width of the text block and without getting lost between the lines and without straining his eyes.

The site has a complex structure and a large amount of different information, so it was important to create a site that meets modern trends and requirements, while being user-friendly.

Based on the provided brand book, a design concept was developed, which was based on the following entities:

Separation of navigation for different user roles: external and internal;
Use of a full-screen video block to create the maximum effect of a theater atmosphere;
Working with the rhythm of elements and using an asymmetrical grid is an association with ballet dance, where stability and flexibility are combined;
Noble, calm and low-contrast colors give a feeling of “maturity” and “conservatism”, which strongly resonates with the mission of the academy itself;
Emphasis on the anniversary of The Moscow State Academy of Choreography.

An interactive block implementation with facts linked to historically important events and dates. A timeline with a brief summary and photos gives the effect that the user views an archive of posts with photos.

The "History and Contemporary" section is presented as a backstage section, behind which is a "bookshelf" with more detailed history of a specific time period. This technique, on the one hand emphasizes belonging to the stage, and on the other hand reflects the centuries-old history described in the “books”.

Section "Exhibitions" based on the construction kit

Considering that The Moscow State Academy of Choreography has a long history and is a research institution, we were tasked with creating a platform for demonstrating various online exhibitions, events and articles. A large amount of information and media materials must be decomposed into a convenient readable and interactive format so that users find it interesting and easy to perceive

Solution:

Creating a flexible design template from blocks that can be arranged in any order, creating a unique page each time.
Construction kit development based on information blocks for convenient and intuitive filling in the content management system.

Result

20 unique blocks that are easily customizable and have several display variations (changing the background, elements position, placing text options for different volumes and formats, etc.);

The section inherits the design of the main site, but at the same time has its own unique solution;

Light animation helps to focus the user's attention with a large volume of blocks;

This page is easy to create without having any design and development skills.

This section is mandatory for publication on the website of any educational institution and has clear implementation requirements:

Placing large tables with text, external and internal links;
Each page contents special html markup that allows to uniquely identify information that must be placed on the site.

The data for this section is regularly updated, and the posted documents are used for other internal pages of the site, so it was important to create an effective logic for displaying information: do not duplicate the same information or publish the same document in different sections of the site, at the same time it was necessary to set up a clear and easy-to-use administrative panel for Academy employees.

The version for visually impaired users complies with legal requirements, has advanced personalization options and makes the site accessible to people with special needs.

The main objectives of the English version of the site are to attract foreign students to the Moscow State Academy of Arts training programs and provide a clear algorithm for admission to the Academy for students and their parents.

Implemented a unique structure and menu, worked out 15 unique design layouts;

New content management functionality has been added using CMS tools.

1

The document “Methodology for posting and managing information on the official website” has been developed, describing the procedure for the administrator to work in the administrative panel;

2

The document “Project Documentation” has been prepared, describing the physical path of all pages, API and description of page entities for the administrator to understand how and where to edit data;

3

Comprehensive online training was conducted on working with the administrative panel and distributed version control system (GIT).