University of Cambridge: PACE

The ask

Zoocha joined this project as a trusted delivery partner after work had stalled with a previous agency. With a significant portion of the design phase already completed, our multidisciplinary team stepped in to review, refine, and bring the vision to life, aligning with modern best practices and working to a tight remaining timeline. 

The client required a Drupal platform that could integrate tightly with an existing external data system, Olympus, which manages course and staff data. Consolidating and streamlining content structure was therefore key, establishing a single source of truth in Olympus that would reflect in the website content.

Our initial task was to review and elevate the quality of delivery, and then lead the platform to a successful MVP launch through enhanced design review, structured discovery, and development practices.

The approach

Design handoff & review

While the core visual designs were inherited from a previous agency, our design team conducted a full audit and refinement process to ensure accessibility compliance, responsiveness, and alignment with development standards. Minor styling issues such as inconsistent font scaling on large screens were identified and resolved without major significant resource or impact on timeline.

Discovery & training

Our team led a focussed discovery phase before development began, engaging with stakeholders to validate technical requirements and user expectations. This phase included quality assurance planning, CMS training, and early architecture review to prepare the team for an efficient build phase.

Technical highlights

Olympus data integration

A critical component of this build was the integration with Olympus, the external system responsible for managing key institutional data, specifically course and staff information. Zoocha implemented a seamless content sync, pulling data into Drupal as structured Course and Staff content types.

A major improvement was the consolidation of course instances under a single parent course page, solving a key pain point for the client, who previously managed redundant pages that became obsolete each academic cycle. This restructure dramatically improved content sustainability and access to key course information.

Single directory components 

Zoocha utilised Single Directory Components, a relatively new feature in Drupal core, to architect a maintainable and scalable front-end system. This approach streamlines development by natively bundling each component's template, styles, and scripts together, greatly improving maintainability and reducing dependency on external modules.

In combination with additional supporting modules, this allowed back-end fields in the CMS to be directly mapped to front-end components which enhanced performance, developer efficiency, and consistency across the site

Search functionality & future roadmap

The initial search experience is intentionally straightforward, this decision reflected the MVP first approach taken to launch the platform on time and within budget.

Search is a key area earmarked for enhancement in the post MVP phase. Rather than a single large overhaul, the roadmap focuses on continuous improvement through smaller, iterative updates, with search expected to be the standout enhancement in the near term.

The results

Project scope was tightly managed due to PACE moving from an unstable experience. This required negotiation, descoping, and incremental funding discussions to ensure the MVP could be delivered with the essential features in place.

This resulted in the successful delivery of the MVP of the platform, integrating external data systems, resolving structural challenges, and implementing a modern component-based development architecture. The new Drupal platform is now a flexible, maintainable foundation that the client can evolve over time, beginning with future enhancements to search, content management, and user engagement tools.

Visit site

www.pace.cam.ac.uk