Case Study
University of New Mexico Health Sciences
eWay Corp partnered with Stamats Communications to build a single-page Cascade CMS template for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences website. The deliverable: a magazine-style template with section-by-section animations, full WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance, and a Cascade-ready implementation that the health system's editorial team could use as the foundation for the rebuilt site.
- Industry
- Healthcare
- Platform
- Cascade CMS
- Services
- Cascade Template Development + Accessibility
- Engagement
- Project-based
Client Snapshot
About University of New Mexico Health Sciences
- Scale
- Over 1 million patient visits each year across New Mexico's only academic medical center
- Website
- unmhealth.org
The University of New Mexico Health Sciences is New Mexico's only academic medical center, dedicated to delivering high-quality accessible health care to all New Mexicans while training the next generation of healthcare professionals and conducting research that advances care.
The enterprise encompasses the School of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, the College of Population Health, the UNM Hospital, UNM Children's Hospital, UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center, and the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only NCI-designated cancer center in the state. UNM Health Sciences is also home to New Mexico's only Level 1 trauma center and the state's only dedicated children's hospital.
The public-facing website at unmhealth.org serves a community of patients, families, providers, students, and the broader public across New Mexico. Its visual identity, accessibility posture, and editorial workflow all carry the weight of representing the only academic medical center in the state.
The Challenge
A magazine-style Cascade template for the only academic medical center in New Mexico.
The University of New Mexico Health Sciences is New Mexico's only academic medical center, and its public-facing website serves over a million patient visits each year along with patients, families, providers, students, and the broader community across the state. Its digital presence carries the visual and editorial weight that responsibility implies.
In 2021, eWay Corp partnered with Stamats Communications to build a single-page Cascade CMS template for the UNM Health Sciences website. Stamats led the visual identity, providing XD design files, design guidelines, and a series of animation specifications. eWay's role was to translate the design into a working Cascade-ready template with the specific magazine-style layout and the section-by- section animations the design called for.
The bar was high: pixel-accurate fidelity to the XD designs, magazine-style layout with substantial animation work across every section, and WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance throughout. The animations took particular effort to figure out and implement to specification.
What had to be on the page
Single-page Cascade CMS template implementing the Stamats XD designs
Magazine-style layout with substantial animation work in every section
Animation specifications translated from XD into working HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Full WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance throughout the template
Cascade-ready implementation handed off to the health system's editorial team
The Solution
A Cascade-ready template with magazine layout, animation, and accessibility built in.
After receiving the XD files and design guidelines from Stamats, eWay analyzed the requirements and built a single-page Cascade CMS template that met the magazine-style layout, the section-by- section animation behavior, and the WCAG 2.1 level AA accessibility bar. The work used HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with custom animation implementation for every section the design called for.
Single-page Cascade-ready template implementing the Stamats XD designs precisely
Magazine-style layout across every section of the template
Custom animation work for every animated section, captured from the XD specifications and implemented in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance built into the template construction rather than retrofitted
Cascade CMS hand-off so the editorial team could publish content against the template
Visually distinctive design that holds up to the academic medical center's brand standards
Architecture
A glimpse of the stack
Application
Cascade CMS template with custom front end
Frontend
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery
Animation
Section-level animations driven by CSS and JavaScript
Accessibility
WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance built into construction
The Outcome
Magazine fidelity, section animations, and accessibility for an academic medical center.
Magazine fidelity for healthcare
The Cascade template renders the magazine-style layout across the page with the visual sophistication appropriate for an academic medical center. Section-level animations behave as the design called for, bringing the page to life as visitors scroll.
Accessible by construction
WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance was built into the template from the start. Patients, family members, students, and providers using assistive technology, keyboard navigation, or alternative input methods can use the site the way it was meant to be used.
Cascade-ready hand-off
The template was delivered ready for Cascade CMS to use as its publishing foundation. The health system's editorial team could then build out the rest of the site against the template without re-doing front-end work.
Animation work that holds up
The section animations took deliberate effort to figure out and implement to the specification Stamats provided. The result is animation that complements the content rather than distracts from it.
The University of New Mexico Health Sciences website now runs on a Cascade-ready template that brings magazine-style design and section-level animation to an academic medical center brand while meeting WCAG 2.1 level AA from construction rather than retrofit.
Common questions about this engagement
What buyers ask before engaging us on a project like University of New Mexico Health Sciences
What does a 'single-page' Cascade template mean?
A single-page template defines the structure, layout, and interactions for one canonical page that Cascade can use as the foundation for similar pages across the site. Editors author content into the template's defined sections within Cascade, and the published output renders against the template's HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The single-page approach keeps a unified visual identity across the site without producing one-off page builds for every section.
Why does WCAG 2.1 level AA matter for a healthcare website?
Healthcare websites serve patients with a wide range of abilities, including patients with vision impairments, mobility limitations, and other conditions that require assistive technology. WCAG 2.1 level AA is the conformance standard commonly required for public-facing public-sector and healthcare sites. Building accessibility into the template at construction rather than retrofitting it later produces a site that holds up under audit and serves every patient consistently.
How were the section animations specified and implemented?
Stamats provided animation specifications alongside the XD designs, indicating the behavior expected for each animated section. eWay analyzed the specifications, prototyped the animations, and implemented them in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Working through animation behavior at the implementation level took deliberate effort, particularly to ensure animations stayed performant across devices and did not interfere with accessibility for visitors using assistive technology or those who prefer reduced motion.
How did eWay work with Stamats on this project?
Stamats led the visual identity work for UNM Health Sciences, providing the brand language, the XD design files, design guidelines, and the animation specifications. eWay was the technology partner: translating the design into a working Cascade-ready template, implementing the animations, and meeting the accessibility requirements. The two organizations operated as a paired team where Stamats owned the design and eWay owned the technical implementation that made the design real.
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