--- title: "Luiss Guido Carli case study: design system, AI and cloud native | SparkFabrik" url: "https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/success-stories/luiss/" lang: "en" type: "case-study" lastmod: "2026-07-09" description: "How SparkFabrik rebuilt Luiss's digital presence as an ecosystem: multibrand design system, agentic AI search, Drupal and cloud native." keywords: "[Luiss, case study, multibrand design system, AI search, Drupal, cloud native, education, SparkFabrik]" schema: "@context": "https://schema.org" "@type": "Article" "articleType": "Case Study" "headline": "Luiss Guido Carli case study: design system, AI and cloud native | SparkFabrik" "description": "How SparkFabrik rebuilt Luiss's digital presence as an ecosystem: multibrand design system, agentic AI search, Drupal and cloud native." "url": "https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/success-stories/luiss/" "inLanguage": "en" "datePublished": "2026-07-09" "author": "@type": "Organization" "name": "SparkFabrik" "url": "https://www.sparkfabrik.com" "publisher": "@type": "Organization" "name": "SparkFabrik" "logo": "https://www.sparkfabrik.com/images/logo.svg" "about": "@type": "Organization" "name": "Luiss Guido Carli" "url": "https://www.luiss.it/" "keywords": "[Luiss, case study, multibrand design system, AI search, Drupal, cloud native, education, SparkFabrik]" ---Case study · Luiss Guido Carli # Luiss a university's digital presence, rebuilt as an ecosystem. **Multibrand design system, agentic AI search, Drupal CMS, cloud native infrastructure.** **Client** Luiss Guido Carli **Sector** Education **Services** Design system , UX , AI , Drupal , Cloud **Platform** Drupal · Cloud Native · Open Source Scroll The Luiss design system 01 · Modernization ## A major university steps into a new digital era. A digital experience **rebuilt from the ground up**, around a generation that **searches and studies in new ways**. See the live site ↗ luiss.it 02 · Multibrand design system ## Not a website. A system. One design system dresses the corporate site and, in the future, **an ecosystem of hundreds of sites**. **Without duplicating anything.** Foundations color #003C71 type **Aa Bb Cc** Display / Text · modular scale Condensed · 700i space 8 · 16 · 32 luiss.it Luiss · portal · University Open Day 2026 The same component, different foundations. A single source of truth for the whole ecosystem. Admissions Campus life Programs Apply Corporate site The brand identity becomes **a living design system**, wired directly into the site's code. The brand stops being a static document and becomes a living part of the product: **consistent everywhere, updatable from a single point**, the source of truth from which everything follows. “ > A university is measured, in part, by the quality of its digital experience. With this project we choose to combine technology and design as part of our identity, not as an add-on service. **Massimo Angelini** Chief External Affairs, Corporate Communication & Partnership Officer Luiss Guido Carli 03 · Simplification ## From 65,000 → 25,000 pages A leaner structure: **content that is easier to find and to manage**. A university website carries real weight: it has to serve very different audiences at the same time, students and prospective students, faculty, researchers, families, external partners, each with their own expectations and very little patience for friction. ** 15 ** months of **field work** ** 120 + ** interviews conducted by **Altura Labs** ** 20 + ** **offices involved** along the way The previous platform mirrored the complexity of the institution instead of resolving it. We started with people: **more than 120 interviews** (conducted by Altura Labs) and **over 20 offices involved**, across 15 months of work. From there, a content architecture redesigned from scratch and a more rational UX brought the pages **from 65,000 down to around 25,000**, removing duplicates, obsolete content and sections that were no longer relevant, and making what remains findable. luiss.it UX · wireframe UI · final ⇤⇥ Drag to compare · from UX to UI 04 · Design to Code ## What you design is what goes live. An integrated system, in **a continuous loop between design and code**. The usual friction between design and development teams gives way to **consistency, effectiveness and quality of the result**. Orchestrating two worlds with different rhythms and logics is hard: our ability to align them in a single direction is what **removes bottlenecks** and turns complexity into simplicity. 01 **Figma** Design system 02 **Pipeline** Tokens → components 03 **Live site** luiss.it 05 · Self provisioning ## A new site on your own, in minutes. With the self provisioning platform, Luiss can spin up a new site in the ecosystem on its own (a department site, for example) from a preconfigured dashboard: **minutes instead of weeks**, with the design system and security already built in. Launching a site becomes **an operation, no longer a project**. provisioning.luiss.it Site name **Satellite site · new** Template **Master template · v2.4** Design system **Luiss DS · active** Create site → **+** new site Every new site is born from **a master template**: consistency is guaranteed natively, and security updates **propagate to every replica from a single point**. Governance of the ecosystem stays centralized and control stays in the university's hands. That is freedom: complexity turned into simplicity. 06 · AI search ## Searching has become asking. Students and prospective students are used to asking an AI and getting instant answers. The platform's search speaks the same language: **conversational, zero-click**, precise because it is **anchored to the university's own content**. Luiss search · anchored to official content Luiss offers **master's degrees taught entirely in English** in areas such as Economics, Management, Data Science and Policies and Governance. The site lists the available programs and current admission windows. luiss.it/admissions luiss.it/programs Yes. Luiss holds **in-person Open Days** on the Rome campus, with guided tours and meetings with faculty. You can register online to find the upcoming dates. luiss.it/openday ✦ Ask anything · answers from official content ✦ “ > Adopting an innovative platform built on open technologies gives us full autonomy and flexibility: a strategic choice that lets us shape our digital services and evolve them in line with the University's real needs. **Francesco Amendola** Chief Digital Transformation Officer Luiss Guido Carli 07 · Multilingual content, in sync ## More languages, never out of sync again. An AI engine built by SparkFabrik simplifies editorial work, **always with human review in the loop**. The organization can produce and **keep content aligned across multiple languages**. A university is a huge editorial machine: many teams, many content types, different translation needs. The AI engine speeds up the work, but **the final word stays with whoever publishes** (human in the loop): thanks to Drupal, the translation workflow stays controlled and tailored to each team, with review and approval before publication. Italian · published AI + human in the loop English · in sync 08 · Digital accessibility ## Accessibility, built into the design. An inclusive experience. Components are designed with accessibility in mind from the start. It is **a design principle**, not a check bolted on at the end. **Keyboard** first **Contrast** checked **Screen reader** native **Text** resizable Bachelor's degree programs Your email name@example.com Apply to the program Tab ↹ ✓ 🔊 A A A 100% 09 · Technology and sovereignty ## The technology stays with the university. **Drupal is the central engine** for the entire content lifecycle. Beneath it, a **Cloud Native** infrastructure for top-tier performance, with security built into both development and production. An Open Source ecosystem that gives the university **full Digital Sovereignty** and control over all of its assets. It is a project that touches themes now at the center of public debate: **digital sovereignty, open source** and the way institutions stay findable and correctly represented **in the age of AI**. 01 ** Drupal CMS** Content · workflows · integrations 02 ** Design system** A single source of truth 03 ** Cloud Native** Kubernetes · performance · scalability 04 ** Security & Analytics** DevSecOps · data-driven The content architecture is **optimized for search engines and AI models** (SEO and GEO), so the educational institution **stays findable** and correctly represented wherever people search today. Luiss takes a deliberate stance, treating **technology and design as strategic assets**: a forward-looking posture in the Italian university landscape that shows it is attuned to the most current digital themes. The same modules developed for Luiss then flow back to the international Drupal community: the platform does not just use technology, **it helps define it**. “ > What matters is not a website, but the platform: design system, application and infrastructure, designed and managed as a single system. We built it on open source and open standards because an institution like Luiss must be able to run its own technology, not depend on a provider. **Paolo Mainardi** · CTO and co-founder, SparkFabrik Results ## A new multibrand design system. A digital presence modernized from the ground up. ** 25,000 ** **pages rationalized**, down from 65,000 **− 70 % ** **content publishing time** ** 10 x ** **performance**, thanks to the Cloud Native infrastructure **99.9 % ** **uptime**, Cloud Native infrastructure **Hundreds of sites** one design system **Frictionless content** an editorial workflow for complex teams **Multilingual, always** content always aligned with AI **AI-native** ask, don't search **Minutes, not weeks** for a new site in the ecosystem **Digital accessibility** an inclusive experience **Centralized security** propagated across every site, at every stage A project of this complexity comes from **a chain of diverse, complementary skills** working in synergy. **Luiss Guido Carli ↗ ** the client and true protagonist of the project, who drove the vision and had the courage to challenge the status quo and set a new direction for its digital presence **SparkFabrik ↗ ** analysis, design, development, delivery and cloud native infrastructure; design system, AI search, content structure, technical implementation of SEO and GEO **Altura Labs ↗ ** strategic consulting and project governance, information architecture and content rationalization, SEO migration and tracking strategy **Pezzilli & Company ↗ ** editorial contribution and go-live support Open source contributions ## The people who built the platform contribute to Drupal. SparkFabrik is a **Drupal Certified Partner Gold, the first Italian company** to earn it. The team behind the project builds and maintains Drupal modules, many dedicated to AI. The same tools shared with the international community **run on Luiss's platform**. **AI Guardrails** safe, controlled chatbot answers ↗ **AI Provider + MCP Client** LiteLLM, Cohere: conversational engine and agents ↗ **Search API Typesense + RAG** the platform's semantic search ↗ **Lara Translate Provider** AI-assisted multilingual translation ↗ **Drupal Symfony Messenger** asynchronous processing under real load ↗ **DrupalCamp Italy** co-organizers; speakers at DrupalCon and Drupal Dev Days ↗ ** 25 + ** modules maintained on **drupal.org** ** 1,000 + ** **contribution credits** ** Drupal Certified Partner Gold ** the first Italian company to earn the certification The vision ## A coherent brand architecture, for a university that speaks with one voice. Every future digital project at Luiss **starts here, not from a blank page**. Tell us about your project → Visit luiss.it ↗ --- *This is a Markdown version of the page to facilitate reading by AI and crawlers.* *Visit [https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/success-stories/luiss/](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/success-stories/luiss/) for the full version.*