Estonian Academy of Arts / Higher education / 2017-Present

One academy. Many departments. Nobody needs the org chart.

The Estonian Academy of Arts is a school, employer, research institution, cultural venue, publisher, workshop network, and public calendar. I helped turn that institutional density into paths people can use without flattening the academy into a generic university template.

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Estonian Academy of Arts website showing admissions, curricula, news, and events.

degree levels

Bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral journeys need different answers.

academic units

15+

Distributed publishing needs shared rules more than another homepage slot.

primary languages

Estonian and English content serve local and international decisions.

service cycle

Always on

Admissions, studies, events, research, and news peak at different times.

The institutional problem

Everybody owns content. The visitor still owns the confusion.

A large academy accumulates pages the way a studio accumulates offcuts: each one made sense to somebody at the time. Prospective students arrive with a different map. They think in programmes, requirements, deadlines, language, and what their future might look like.

Current students need workshops, systems, contacts, calendars, and study information. Researchers, journalists, collaborators, and the public arrive with still other tasks. I designed the platform around those decisions while giving departments a structure they could actually maintain.

The navigation model

Start with intent, then reveal the institution.

01Choose the task
Admissions, curricula, studies, research, events, and contacts create recognisable entry points.
02Understand the context
Programme, faculty, degree level, language, deadline, and responsible unit stay connected.
03Move into the right system
The website hands people to application, learning, library, workshop, or contact services without hiding the boundary.

Information architecture

Design around decisions, not internal prestige.

The homepage cannot be a peace treaty where every department gets equal acreage. I prioritised high-intent tasks and made institutional structure available when it helps explain ownership, subject, or context.

Admissions and curricula remain persistent entry points
Current-student tools are separated from public storytelling
Faculties and departments provide context instead of controlling every journey

Programme structure

Treat curricula as structured products, not handmade brochures.

Applicants compare degree level, language, focus, requirements, deadlines, and people. Repeating those facts in a consistent model makes programmes easier to scan and reduces the damage caused by well-meaning local page inventions.

Shared fields create comparable programme pages
Admissions information stays close to the curriculum
International routes make language and application systems explicit

Events and news

Keep the academy alive without turning the homepage into a noticeboard avalanche.

EKA produces a constant stream of exhibitions, lectures, screenings, deadlines, and research news. I used types, dates, units, and archives to give that material a shelf life and let visitors move from a current item into a wider subject.

Events expose date, venue, category, and organiser
News and calendar items connect back to academic units
Archives preserve institutional memory without dominating the current view

Governance

The design system is also a publishing agreement.

A component library does not solve governance by itself. People need clear page roles, required fields, ownership, release checks, and a way to handle exceptions. I made the interface rules legible enough to become editorial rules.

Templates clarify what belongs on each page type
Shared patterns reduce department-by-department reinvention
Ownership and maintenance are treated as part of the product

After launch

A university website is never finished. That is not an excuse for chaos.

Admissions change, people move, programmes evolve, events multiply, and external systems come and go. The platform has to absorb that movement without making every content change a redesign.

The durable work is boring in the best way: structured content, stable routes, clear responsibility, shared release standards, and periodic decisions about what no longer deserves to exist. Good governance keeps the interface calm while the institution remains gloriously busy.

Shared content models for recurring institutional information
Clear handoffs to specialist study and application systems
Ongoing rules for ownership, quality, analytics, and release

HAAM’s role

I made institutional complexity navigable—and maintainable.

Product, interface, and operations

HAAM’s role spans product thinking, information architecture, interaction design, content systems, implementation guidance, analytics, and long-term governance. Graphic design by Stuudio Stuudio.

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