Sector(s)

Team Members

njim, cbfannin, dalin, edwtorba, joetower, kfernandez, codechefmarc, meganbb, mikelutz, mirzu, amazingrando, rigoucr, si-robins, americkson

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  • entity_redirect
  • gin
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  • typography
  • google_analytics
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A new era of digital collaboration and brand unity for Yale

Yale University challenged itself to change the game in how it creates, manages, and publishes content. The result was YaleSites: a user-friendly, accessible, and highly customizable digital platform designed for the Yale community. Built on Drupal and open-source tools like Emulsify, YaleSites revolutionizes the digital landscape for the Yale community while giving them more flexibility and control over their content.

Here’s how Yale, through a strategic partnership with Four Kitchens, uses open-source solutions like Drupal to redefine digital collaboration and brand unity across its community.

Describe the project (goals, requirements and outcome)
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Launching a comprehensive ecosystem powered by open-source

Yale set out to build an innovative publishing platform that harnesses the power of open-source technologies to revolutionize content creation, management, and delivery. This initiative marks a significant milestone in Yale’s digital transformation journey, empowering users with unprecedented flexibility and control over their content.

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Emulsify and Yale: Redefining digital collaboration and brand unity

Adding blocks in the YaleSites administrative interface. Adding blocks in the YaleSites administrative interface.

Emulsify brings the power of choice to site creators using YaleSites. This robust toolkit has become the cornerstone of Yale’s unwavering commitment to redefining digital collaboration and achieving unparalleled brand unity.

With Emulsify as its guiding force, Yale has crafted a design system that blends its illustrious history and leading vision for the future. By adopting a component-based design and development approach, the University has enhanced the efficiency of its website initiatives and elevated the overall quality of its digital experiences. Site creators get the best mix of expression and brand familiarity without worrying about approval from the branding team or the accessibility experts.

Emulsify isn’t just a tool — it‘s a catalyst for Yale’s digital renaissance, empowering the University to embrace the boundless potential of open-source technologies and cutting-edge design principles.

YaleSites’ strategic implementation of design tokens has fostered an environment of unprecedented collaboration where designers and developers work in harmony. This spirit of cooperation extends to Yale’s unwavering dedication to accessibility, ensuring that every website is inclusive and accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities or circumstances.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) integration with AI at Yale

Want to know where to grab the best slice of pizza while you’re on campus? Yale’s AI chatbot will set you on the right path for an iconic New Haven pie. Dining wayfinding is just the beginning. In addition to providing dining recommendations, AI now supports a wide range of features and services for the Yale community.

AI at Yale ushers in a new era, transcending conventional website structures in favor of a unified user interface supported by an advanced content platform. This foundational platform unleashes the full potential of Yale’s AI chatbot, rendering Yale’s content highly amenable to machine reading. Integration with Drupal data further enhances its functionality while cutting-edge prompt engineering tailors interactions with the chatbot to user preferences, including specific topics (and emojis 😄).

From academic resources and campus event information to transportation and housing assistance, AI chatbots have become a preferred method for sharing information across Yale. With its intuitive user interface and advanced technology, Yale’s AI chatbots make navigating campus life easier and more efficient. As the platform continues to evolve and expand, it promises to revolutionize how students, faculty, and staff get their information.

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The journey to AI

The collaboration between Four Kitchens and Yale has played a crucial role in the University’s integration of AI. This partnership successfully introduced Drupal to campus with YaleSites version 1 in 2010 and established a precedent for innovative approaches to scaling Drupal for enterprise use.

The recent AI integrations, following the completion of YaleSites version 2 in late 2023, solidifies Yale and Four Kitchens as leaders in the AI and Drupal landscape, showcasing their capacity to pioneer in uncharted territories. The ongoing collaboration has allowed for continuous learning and growth. This has enabled Yale to stay ahead of the curve and provide its students, faculty, and staff with cutting-edge tools and resources.

The integration of AI has improved the user experience with Yale websites and improved efficiency and streamlined processes across the University. With the success of AI at Yale, other institutions are now looking to Yale and Four Kitchens as examples of innovation and progress in higher education technology.

Together, they continue to push the boundaries and drive the use of AI — and Drupal — to new heights.

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Why Drupal was chosen

Everything we love about Drupal is at the heart of the project.

Content creators can now efficiently manage their work in a central location and publish it widely, ensuring vital information quickly reaches the entire Yale community.

Further improving the platform’s capabilities is Emulsify, a dynamic design system toolkit that creates accessible, on-brand components as part of the platform. Complementing these powerful tools is CKEditor 5, an advanced rich text editor that empowers content creators with an intuitive and feature-rich editing environment.

These frameworks form the backbone of an out-of-the-box starter kit for building Yale-approved websites. YaleSites empowers users to unleash their creativity by providing flexibility with their site components, presentation, and brand expression.

Embracing the power of open-source

Yale University’s adoption of Drupal, Emulsify, and CKEditor 5 underscores its commitment to open-source technologies. These powerful tools offer many advantages that empower Yale to enhance its digital capabilities and provide an exceptional user experience.

Drupal’s flexibility and scalability enable the University to create and manage a wide range of content, from simple web pages to complex multimedia presentations. Additionally, Drupal’s extensive module library allows Yale to extend its functionality and tailor the platform to its specific needs.

Yale’s embrace of open-source technologies extends beyond functionality and user experience. Open source empowers institutions to shape and control their digital presence, fostering a sense of autonomy and independence. This self-reliance enables Yale to swiftly adapt to evolving digital trends and user needs while maintaining its position at the forefront of innovation.

Furthermore, open source fosters a collaborative environment where developers, designers, and users can contribute to the continuous improvement of the platform. This collective knowledge and expertise drives innovation, leading to the development of new features and enhancements that further elevate Yale’s digital ecosystem.

Technical Specifications

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