Website Design MIT Haystack

Haystack Observatory Website

The Haystack Observatory conducts scientific research in the areas of Astronomy, Geodesy, Geospace and Space Technology. With very detailed science information, we needed to create a website that is appealing for non-science users, and researchers and scientists alike. At the same time, the website needed to be easy to administer and have information show in many places, as much of the science and researchers work in overlapping areas.

MITInfographicsInfographicsIconographyWebsitesWebsitesAccessibilityUX DesignWebsite DesignWebsite DevelopmentIndustryIndustryEducationUser experienceUser experienceEasy Content Admin1Mission to Mars launched during this project

Accessible content that cuts across all areas

This site was architected and built with easy maintenance for websites. Entering content once and having it displayed in many areas lessen site maintenance time. In particular, this is true for information about the many projects that are in the works at any point in time (and ever changing), as well as the researchers themselves and the science behind it all.

For Publications, we also created a custom integration with the Orcid publications tool to the specifics of the information we wanted to display, and how we wanted to display it. Here too easy maintenance for websites was an important goal.

Custom iconography to visualize information

MIT Haystack IconsIn order to make the scientific content easier to scan and more user friendly (and fun), we created a custom icon set for each research area. These pull through researchers, scientific projects, and science information across the site. They also give the Haystack team an opportunity to broaden the branding into print and other digital materials.