A digital information platform for Bouwplaats IRM.

A digital platform that informs the target groups of Bouwplaats IRM. Regarding the development of the joint vision of the rivers in the Netherlands, from regional authorities and the national government. With this new Drupal-based website, Groowup has helped Bouwplaats IRM to create a platform. Which is based on an appropriate online strategy, where it is possible to communicate about the developments in an accessible way to all target groups. With an easy to manage Drupal 9 configuration we have improved the management of the website. Among enough creative freedom to keep the website up to date.

Case video

Case description

“A modern digital platform as center, to provide information for all target groups.” That was the starting point for Bouwplaats IRM's new website. From a clear information structure, so the visitor can easily find all information. With as ultimate goal: increasing the involvement of target groups and visibility. In addition, improving the management of the website was key. Together, with the content managers, we have set up the CMS in a manner it’s way more user-friendly.

Case goals and results

Objectives that were achieved:
- Target group centered design and UX, accessible with a clear information structure.
- A solution for the content management of all the images and associated data: the image bank.
- User friendly open-source CMS with a many times more user-friendly workflow, compared to the previous Drupal-based setup. By allowing the content managers to build pages using fully customizable paragraph types, while still being compliant with the accessibility requirements.
- An interactive functionality to map the abstract process and its progress for the target groups.
- The goal in the tender of Bouwplaats IRM was not to create a vendor lock-in, Drupal is therefore the best solution as open source.

Results:
- The platform is well used to inform and inspire the target groups. This leads to an increase in engagement.
- Fewer pages required per session due to good information structure.
- The performance of the website has improved since the launch of the new website. For example, the loading speed at first run has been improved from 1.4 seconds to 0.9 seconds. And we achieved a score of 100% with the internet.nl check.
- Working with the simplicity of Drupal allows employees to do more. The website is updated easily and more regularly. Thus, the website plays a bigger and more important role within the organization.
- Webmasters feel they can be creative in building new pages in the Drupal CMS using the Paragraphs module.
- Built according to the latest standards which increases safety, speed and stability.

Challenges

Challenges:
- The design of the website has been further developed from the existing visual identity to a fresh, contemporary style that suits the organization and target groups. The color palette for digital use is enriched with soft colors to support the messages.
- For a government institution such as Bouwplaats IRM it is very important to comply with the correct legislation. That is why the website has been developed completely digitally accessible. Accessibility was central from the start of the process. For example, we have considered that the user can easily navigate. During the design phase, the readability of texts, use of the correct contrast ratio and the correct implementation of the HTML structure, with some of the base requirements the website was built on, were central.
- The process of Bouwplaats IRM consists of various parts and can be experienced as abstract by the target groups. To map this abstract process and its progress, we have developed an interactive functionality that allows the user to navigate through the different ‘Bouwstenen’. And the progress of the process can be seen briefly.
- A challenge for the content managers, who also manage media outside of the website was the management and collection of photography and associated data. We have developed an image bank for internal use. The image bank has different themes, tags and filter options, so that you as a user can search intuitively. To manage the requests, we have developed an application module in which a distinction is made between images that can be downloaded immediately, or photos with image rights that Bouwplaats IRM must first approve with a simple click. In both cases, you as an applicant will receive an e-mail with your requested images.
- The content managers from Bouwplaats IRM were used to working with Drupal, although the setup of the previous website was not experienced as user-friendly. And that while Drupal is a very accessible CMS. Together, we have inventoried the stumbling blocks and set up the new website in such a way that they experience this as a huge improvement. We've added some clever features. For example, a page cannot be edited by multiple administrators at the same time and you can specify restrictions when using images; how often can the image be used and in which places on the website?

Community contributions

The Dropdown Language module is used to present a dropdown menu a visitor can use to switch between language versions of the currently visited page. As of an API change in Drupal core 9.4, the 'Dropdown Language' contributed module did not work anymore, because the type of a method's return value changed. We wrote a patch which made it possible to use the module in Drupal 9.4 (and above) based websites and did not break pre-9.4 websites at the same time.

https://www.drupal.org/project/dropdown_language/issues/3270979

Categories

Overheid

Date when website went live

1 year 11 months ago