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Coventry 21

Coventry University take a Bold Approach to Evaluating Coventry UK City of Culture

Services used on this project:

Design & Web Development

The Challenge

Following Coventry’s year as the UK City of Culture 2021, a team of researchers compiled an extensive range of data, reports, and focus studies evaluating the year’s impact on the city. Coventry University required a dedicated digital platform to act as a “library resource and archive website” for these findings.

The brief required a solution that would:

Showcase the “innovative approach” taken in measuring the social, cultural, and environmental impact of the year.
Organise a vast amount of complex data (over 50 distinct outputs) into an accessible, searchable format.
Serve a diverse audience, ranging from international academics and media outlets to stakeholders and the general public.

Unity’s Solution: Web Design & Developement

Unity designed and built a bespoke research database website that balances academic rigour with user-friendly accessibility.

Design & User Experience (UX)

We created a visual identity that references the original ‘COV21’ branding while establishing the evaluation project as a distinct, independent entity. To simplify navigation, we implemented a colour-coded architecture to distinctively categorise the site’s key sections:

Pink: Evaluation Strategy & Journey
Green: Research & Evaluation
Blue: Insights

Technical Development

The core functionality of the site is its powerful research database. Unity developed:

Advanced Search Functionality: A dynamic search engine allowing users to filter results by specific Keywords (e.g., ‘Innovation’), Resource Types (e.g., ‘Report’), and Data Types (e.g., PDF, Video).
Sticky Search Bar: To ensure the database remains the focus, we engineered a search bar that remains fixed to the top of the browser window as users scroll.
Custom CMS & SEO: We built a flexible Content Management System tailored to the client’s needs, integrated with Yoast for SEO optimisation to ensure the research is easily discoverable.

The Result

The final website, Evaluating Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 (coventry21evaluation.info), now serves as the central legacy archive for the project. It successfully hosts the final evaluation report and a library of over 50 supporting outputs.

By transforming a complex set of documents into an intuitive digital resource, Unity has helped ensure that the “largest and most innovative set of evaluation activities ever undertaken for a City of Culture” can effectively inform future projects, including Bradford 2025 and policy developments by the DCMS.