In 2018, IfThen partnered with the University of Chicago’s Office of Communications to redesign its News website. This initial engagement quickly expanded to include two larger initiatives—one with the College and another with the Biological Sciences Division (BSD), which encompassed dozens of departmental sites. These early successes evolved into an ongoing partnership, with IfThen serving as a preferred vendor to the University and supporting multiple departments, offices, centers, and institutes each year.
Built on Drupal, our codebase for the University has grown into an extensive library of templates and components that we continue to refine and expand. The consistency and success of these sites led IfThen to productize our approach, offering University teams a streamlined path to launch new sites across varying budgets and timelines. Together, these efforts have elevated the University’s digital ecosystem modernizing the design, clarifying the messaging, and improving the overall user experience while driving measurable results.
UChicago NewsIn 2025, IfThen launched a refreshed design for the University’s News website - an evolution of the original site we had designed and built eight years earlier. In the years since, the audience had more than doubled, and both the volume and variety of content had expanded significantly. The News team needed a new interface and experience that could better showcase their growing body of stories, explainers, podcasts, and video content while maintaining the intellectual character that defines the University of Chicago brand.
The Biological Sciences DivisionThe Biological Sciences Division, or BSD, is the largest academic unit of the University housing ten basic sciences departments, fourteen clinical departments, The Pritzker School of Medicine, and dozens of centers and institutes such as the Heart and Vascular Center. BSD integrates research, education, and clinical practice making it one of the most resource-intensive divisions at the University. IfThen has worked with the division for 7 years providing a toolkit of templates and components that can work in a variety of settings including faculty profile pages, curriculum information, news, events, and research.
The Global CentersFrom 2022-23, IfThen designed, developed, and launched four global centers that represent the University of Chicago across the world with locations in Beijing, Hong Kong, Delhi, and Paris. Each site includes the center’s programs, news, events, and resources serving as a local touchpoint for students and faculty in those locations.
- The College
IfThen collaborated with the University of Chicago to transform its College website into an experience that inspires and informs prospective and current students, faculty, and staff providing a unique window into campus life. As part of the project, IfThen shot and produced several unique cinemagraphs depicting moments of life on campus unique to UChicago culture.
Outcomes and impact
However beautiful the strategy, you should sometimes look at the results.
— Winston Churchill
Across these initiatives, measurable impact followed. Within eight months of the College site’s launch, page views doubled, engagement increased by 62%, and return visits rose by 50%. The BSD now uses our design system across more than 50 departments and programs, while the UChicago News site continues to drive exploration of the University’s research and intellectual community. Together, these projects have advanced the University’s digital presence and strengthened its overall online ecosystem.
What’s Next
IfThen is continuing work in several departments across the University including the Office of Communications and BSD to maintain and evolve the sites created through new design work, site optimizations, and technical upgrades.
- Location Chicago, IL
- Founded 1890
- Sector Higher Education
- Employees 30,000+