AIT Vietnam is a leading international postgraduate institution offering Master's and PhD programs across three disciplines. With thousands of current students and a growing alumni network, they needed a website that reflected their academic excellence and institutional credibility. Their legacy system, built with Elementor, was slow, outdated, and difficult to manage—especially for course management.
1. The Challenge: From Outdated to Trustworthy
The Problem
AIT Vietnam faced three critical obstacles.
Design & Performance
- Website felt outdated and visually inconsistent
- Heavy Elementor setup caused slow page loads
- Unoptimized images and bloated code
- No distinction between UI polish and actual performance
Course Management Complexity
- Managing multiple graduate programs was cumbersome
- Instructors and staff needed developer help for every update
- Difficulty adding, editing, or removing courses
- Alumni and faculty network updates required backend work
Missing Global Reach
- No dual-language support (Vietnamese + English)
- Institutional branding wasn’t clearly conveyed
- Limited trust with international audiences
Discovery: Questions That Changed Everything
We asked AIT Vietnam leadership three critical questions.
1. “How often do you need to update course information?”
Answer: Weekly — new courses, schedule changes, faculty updates
Insight: They needed an editor, not a builder.
2. “What feeling should your website create?”
Answer: Academic rigor, institutional trust, modern professionalism
Insight: Design needed to be minimalist — 20% primary color, not cluttered.
3. “Who updates your alumni and faculty network?”
Answer: Marketing team, not developers
Insight: The content editor must be simple for non-technical users.
The Goal
Build a modern, high-performance educational platform that:
- Reflects academic excellence and institutional credibility
- Lets staff manage courses and networks independently
- Supports dual languages seamlessly
- Loads fast and feels premium
2. Our Approach: Strategy, Wireframes, Build
Brand & Design Strategy
We created a clean, minimalist identity system.
- 20% Primary Color for key accents (headers, CTAs)
- 10% Secondary Color (darker tone) for depth and hierarchy
- White / light backgrounds for an academic feel
- Professional imagery, carefully selected and refined
Branding Philosophy
- Minimal color palette → professional, not corporate
- Professional photography → trustworthy institution
- Clear typography hierarchy → easy navigation
Wireframe-Driven Course Management
Before building, we designed the course management interface in detail.
Key Wireframes
- Course Listing Page — grid showing programs, duration, level
- Course Detail Page — overview, syllabus, faculty, admission requirements
- Faculty / Alumni Directory — searchable, filterable network
- Content Editor Interface — simple form for non-technical updates
Client Feedback During Wireframing
wp:paragraph “Seeing this layout made us realize we needed an easier way to feature Featured Courses.
The wireframe showed us exactly how users would navigate.” /wp:paragraph
Early alignment saved weeks of rework and ensured the final build matched their mental model.
Technology & Real-Time Integration
Stack
- Bricks Builder + Jet Engine
- Real-time Google Sheets integration
- Automated email notifications
- Dual-language setup (Vietnamese / English)
- Performance optimization (images + code cleanup)
Why This Matters
- Google Sheets → course updates go live instantly
- Automated emails → inquiries reach admissions immediately
- Bricks + Jet Engine → flexible for complex structures, still editor-friendly
3. Implementation: Building Trust, Not Just Code
Challenge 1: Performance from a Legacy System
Problem
- Load time: 5+ seconds
- Images up to 10MB+
- Bloated CSS and JavaScript
Solution
- Image compression (50–70% size reduction)
- Code cleanup and modularization
- CDN implementation
Result: Lighthouse score 94+
Challenge 2: Making Course Management Effortless
Problem
- Staff had to understand Elementor
- Alumni and faculty data was static
Solution
- Custom content editor with simple forms: wp:list wp:list-item Course title, description, duration, faculty /wp:list-item wp:list-item Alumni name, role, company, photo /wp:list-item wp:list-item Faculty profiles and expertise /wp:list-item /wp:list
- No code knowledge required
- One-click publish
Result
wp:paragraph “Now our team can update courses without waiting for a developer.
We updated 5 courses in 2 hours — it used to take a week.” /wp:paragraph
Challenge 3: Dual Language Without Duplication
Problem
- Managing two language versions separately is error-prone
Solution
- Language toggle in header
- Single content interface (one field per language)
- Automatic URL structure (/vi/ and /en/)
- Search works in both languages
4. Results: A Platform That Reflects Institutional Excellence
What Changed
Tangible Outcomes
- Staff Independence — marketing team manages content without developer help
- Professional First Impression — academic rigor conveyed immediately
- Global Reach — dual language enables international recruitment
- Faster Updates — announcements go live instantly
- Searchability — alumni & faculty profiles indexed and discoverable
Client Feedback
wp:paragraph “The new site feels like an institution worth joining. Performance is night and day.
Most importantly, our team finally feels empowered to keep content fresh.”
— AIT Vietnam Marketing Director /wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph “International prospects immediately trust the quality and professionalism.”
— AIT Vietnam Director /wp:paragraph
5. Handoff & Sustainability
What AIT Vietnam Received
- Bricks Builder + Jet Engine (fully configured)
- Content editor documentation (step by step)
- Performance maintenance guidelines
- Google Sheets real-time sync guide
- Email automation setup
- Dual-language content workflow
- 2-hour training session
What’s Possible Next
- Blog / News section
- Alumni success stories
- Video course previews
- Scholarship & application portal
- Mobile app alignment
Project Summary
Duration: 4 weeks
Team: 1 consultant, 1 designer, 1 developer
Technologies: Bricks Builder, Jet Engine, Google Sheets API, Formspree, Cloudflare CDN
The key to success wasn’t just building a fast website.
It was understanding that AIT Vietnam’s real need was institutional independence — a system where non-technical staff can confidently manage content while the platform continues to convey academic excellence.