UX Award finalists 2024. Trophy cup

Winner: Best publisher UX award 2022

23 March 2022 • Jane Charlton, senior marketing manager - community and content

We're pleased to announce De Gruyter as the winner of our third annual Best Publisher User Experience (UX) Award 2022!

Our UX award 2022 winner

Our panel of esteemed judges selected De Gruyter as this year’s winner for showcasing impressive results from its collaboration with technology partner 67 Bricks. De Gruyter demonstrated a user-centric approach and went to great lengths to improve their user journey and overall experience. 

Our award puts the spotlight on publishers which strive to put users at the heart of their service design. We revealed the winner at our 2022 Access Lab event on Tuesday 22 March.

About De Gruyter

Founded in 1749, the scholarly publishing house aims to support scholars in their endeavour to give their best and to create new opportunities to promote knowledge. To reach this goal, De Gruyter is undergoing a complete digital transformation that has already changed the trajectory of the 270-year-old business.

In February 2021 they launched their new website degruyter.com, a digital research platform built in cooperation with 67 Bricks. Based on modern cloud technology, it provides fast, stable and secure access to over 110,000 scholarly books and 800,000 journal articles.

Our 2022 award finalists

The two finalists De Gruyter and Cambridge University Press presented judges with tangible evidence of learner and researcher engagement with their product. They also demonstrated a strategic approach to user experience across the organization. Both organizations showed great knowledge and care for their UX and end-users.

Ultimately, judges decided to award De Gruyter with our UX award for their user-centric approach and philosophy. They delivered exceptional user experience and enabled users to access knowledge easily.

"De Gruyter has worked tirelessly to completely rebuild degruyter.com to better support end-users. It is a great accomplishment and honor to receive recognition for the team's hard work in building a platform that simplifies things for researchers, authors, librarians and readers. We want to thank OpenAthens for the opportunity to showcase our work."

Scott Williams, vice president platform and technology, De Gruyter

The Berlin-based firm understood the need for change and invested heavily in creating a new digital infrastructure. Together with Oxford-based technology partner 67 Bricks, they ensured the delivery of a digital transformation strategy. This included the optimization of software systems, workflows and digital products.

"Digital transformation is as much about people as it is technology, and many firms fail when they don’t acknowledge the cultural – and wider business – aspects.  Between us we have the skills to ensure De Gruyter successfully continues its digital evolution, and we are here for them every step of the way."

David Leeming, delivery director, 67 Bricks

"From everyone at OpenAthens we’d like to congratulate the team at De Gruyter for winning this award, it is well deserved. The De Gruyter team demonstrated embedded user-experience throughout its strategy."

Jane Charlton, international marketing manager, OpenAthens

"It was not an easy decision. Cambridge University Press was also a strong entry and provided evidence of end-user experience."

“Our award celebrates innovation in the information industry and those that push the boundaries of user experience, going above and beyond for those requiring knowledge access. We are committed to supporting and driving forward innovations, raising awareness and the importance of simplifying access to digital resources. We hope to continue our Best Publisher UX Award for many years to come.”

Hear what Matt Balera, senior manager UX design at De Gruyter said about their UX work at our finalists webinar.

Best publisher UX award 2022 finalists

During the webinar you’ll hear how our finalists, Cambridge University Press and De Gruyter have put learners and researchers at the very heart of their service design. You’ll also hear from our 2021 winners nkoda about changes to user experience since they won last March.

UX award 2023. Two people high five.