Our Work

Services Provided

Hop Studios has had the pleasure of partnering with UC Berkeley on several projects over the years. In 2019, the Cal NERDS department asked us to help launch a website for their new grant-funded program, STAR.

STAR needed a website quickly to promote the program, with plans to expand it over time. We built a responsive four-page site—including a homepage, an about page, program details, and a contact page—optimized for desktop, tablet, and mobile so visitors could easily access STEM activities, resources, and training from any device.

Once the initial site was live, we began adding more functionality:

• A notification signup form for program updates
• A downloadable STEM Resource Guide (PDF)
• Individual program pages with detailed information
• A search and filter tool to help visitors find the right program
• Blog pages for news and updates

The next phase focused on building tools for faculty engagement. We developed a searchable directory of faculty opportunities and campus STEM resources, accessible only to users with Berkeley or CalNet email addresses. To protect this content, we set up an authentication portal and created a “not authorized” page for visitors without the proper credentials.

In 2024, we completed an extensive accessibility subdomain and audit remediation to bring the STAR site into compliance with WCAG 2.0 AA—a legal requirement for UC Berkeley sites. Our goal was to ensure the site is fully inclusive and usable by everyone, ensuring accessibility compliance on the STAR site. Website accessibility fosters inclusivity by ensuring anyone can use your website, including people with disabilities. UC Berkeley is legally required to maintain accessible sites, and we assisted STAR with becoming WCAG 2.0 AA compliant.

Some of the key accessibility improvements we made included:

• Adding accessible names and labels to interactive controls for visitors using assistive technology users.
• Ensuring all mouse-based controls and functions are fully operable via keyboard that can be used with a mouse are reachable and operable for visitors using keyboard navigation.
• Including ALT text to images for visitors using screen readers.
• Hiding decorative images that do not convey useful information from assistive technology.
• Adding a footer link to Berkeley’s accessibility reporting page.

We also implemented reCAPTCHA on the Freeform contact form to reduce spam by verifying that submissions come from real people, not bots.

Seeing this program grow from its inception and assisting the team every step of the journey has been a joy. We’re thrilled to continue working with STAR and helping them ensure that STEM is accessible and approachable to every student.