Coinciding with the publication of the print edition of the ZEIT study guide, every year ZEIT ONLINE launches a new version of the CHE college ranking database. The ranking evaluates the quality of research and teaching at colleges as well as faculty development based on various criteria.
A variety of search approaches, such as by major, place of study and/or the user’s own compilation of evaluation criteria, give users the ability to create a customized overview of the various study programs and colleges.
These individual views are put together from a wide range of separate data. This results in high demands being placed on the visualization of these modules, which must have the ability to be combined in every possible way. We developed the initial programming and, together with scientists from the CHE and journalists from ZEIT, revise the backend for the new release every year. The search function is a core feature of the college ranking, and a great deal of attention is paid to it. It was implemented using Lucene.
In 2013, we optimized the college ranking website for display on smartphones.
