Introduction

The W4 Dashboard is the central management application for the Wissenschaftsverbund Vierländerregion Bodensee (W4) — a cross-border network of 25 universities and universities of applied sciences around Lake Constance.

My role in the whole organization is product designer, full-stack engineer and maintainer of the entire code base from first concept in 2019 to today.

Problems that needed solutions

Give project leaders one place to propose, update and report on their projects.

Let W4 staff review, approve and track every funded activity.

Replace scattered tools (PDF forms, Mailchimp, separate podcast host) with one coherent system that non-technical users can handle in minutes.

Solutions

A responsive web app that now covers everything from the first project idea to public communication.

• Project wizard – step-by-step submission with autosave and inline help.
• Workflow board – drag-and-drop Kanban for approval, monitoring and archiving.
• Reporting centre – generates interim/final reports and aggregates KPIs.
• Newsletter composer – WYSIWYG editor, list management and scheduling.
• Podcast uploader – drag-and-drop audio, automatic RSS rebuild.
• Website connector – GraphQL API that feeds project teasers, people cards and news directly to wissenschaftsverbund.org.
• Project submission
• Internal project management, approval etc.
• Project report functionality
• Newsletter Management
• Web content Management
• Podcast Tool
• Yearly Report