World Education Services
Creating a lasting impact on the web and beyond.
Project Synopsis
World Education Services (WES), a non-profit social enterprise, works to advance the educational, economic, and social inclusion of immigrants, refugees, and international students in both the U.S. and Canada. WES has spent 50 years setting the gold standard in international academic credential evaluation, guiding millions toward their academic and career objectives.
As WES approached its 50th anniversary, our design partners at Page 33 undertook a comprehensive brand refresh to honor past achievements while highlighting future initiatives that will drive WES into the next half-century.
Through our partnership with Page 33, Storyware built a new website for WES on top of WordPress.
Team
- Todd Wickersty
- Matt Watson
- Justin Esders
- Wyndsor Hug
- Natalie Semczuk
- C.R. Taylor
- In collaboration with ...
- Page 33
- Andrea Jarrell
The website was at the heart of the WES rebrand project. Simply put, WES wouldn’t function without it. Every day, hundreds of thousands of people visit the site to access the credential evaluation application, the core service WES has offered since its founding.
Performance was a top priority.
Leveraging our expertise with WordPress, we achieved significant improvements, increasing Google’s Lighthouse performance score by at least 38% on mobile and 28% on desktop. Additionally, we brought the accessibility score to 97% and reduced the first contentful paint time by 33% on mobile and 37% on desktop.
A Substantial Migration
The migration of the WES website was a complex undertaking that required transferring a large volume of content and code.
Key to this process was the seamless relocation of several custom post types, each with its own unique business logic, without the need to rewrite these sophisticated “mini-applications.”
On top of this, the front-end pages generated by these post types had to be completely restructured and redesigned to align with the new visual standards set by the rebrand. This ensured a cohesive and modern user experience across the site.
Alongside the legacy codebase, the migration of content was a significant undertaking. Using the WP All Import plugin, we successfully transferred over 500 pages, 1,000 posts, and the data tied to the custom post types mentioned earlier.
Given the volume of content, a meticulous manual migration, cleanup, and formatting process was also required to ensure every page was perfectly aligned with the new design and layout standards.
The WES redesign brilliantly showcased how to merge the old with the new.
By introducing a completely revamped user experience, often layered on top of existing functionality, and reimagining the information architecture, it brought greater prominence to recent social impact initiatives.
This ensured these initiatives were as visible and impactful as the well-established WES credential evaluation program, serving as a prime example of harmonizing legacy elements with modern innovation.
What We Built
- Nonprofit Website