Case description
With more than 300 employees and students, the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) is one of the largest research institutes of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). It specializes in the ecology of water and land: how does nature work? Together with NIOO-KNAW and LimoenGroen, Puurpxl restyled their website.With its research, NIOO-KNAW contributes significantly to the understanding of nature and the search for solutions facing the world such as the restoration of biodiversity, reduction of climate problems and sustainable use of soil and water - in agriculture or in cities. Good and appropriate communication is crucial in order to perform these tasks properly. The NIOO-KNAW website is one of the most important communication tools.
Together with NIOO-KNAW, we analyzed the former website. We created personas, established top tasks and determined the main priorities. We validated the personas and top tasks with the statistics and additional user research. In doing so, we could base our UX and design choices on data and create a data-driven design. NIOO focuses on multiple target groups, all with different information needs. The scientific researcher is looking for in-depth information, while nature lovers and volunteers are looking for accessible content. By displaying accessible information in relevant places on the website and providing the opportunity to receive updates and get in touch with experts, a network function is created. This is the connecting function between visitors and NIOO-KNAW. Based on these starting points, the flows and structure of the new website were created.
On the new NIOO-KNAW website, ecological knowledge is presented in a clear manner, based on different themes. Visitors can also easily follow content by logging in. Self-manageable subsites were created to enable research groups and project teams to present their work and results.
The redesign of the NIOO-KNAW website has web accessibility guidelines engrained. In doing so, the digital platform is accessible to everyone and ranks better in Google. Things like color contrast ensure that texts are easy to read for everyone. Not only for people with a visual impairment but also for those who are using the website from a smartphone outdoors. Fonts, lengths of sentences, font size and line-height were carefully considered.
Case goals and results
With NIOO’s new strategy, their old website no longer met the requirements. The new website therefore had to be an important tool in expressing and implementing the new strategy. Important goals for NIOO were connecting diverse people at different scientific and intellectual levels and being the hub for scientific talent. They want to be known as the national research institute for ecology. The design challenge was to create a new website that matches the new strategy, is in line with the various target audiences, and provides more accessible information.The result is a digital platform where ecological knowledge is presented in a clear manner, based on themes and underlying files. Research groups and project teams can present their work and results on self-manageable sections or subsites, built with Drupal groups. Research information is presented through a custom link with PURE. In addition, visitors can easily follow content by logging in with their eduID via SURFconext.
The new website design is clean but playful and has a scientific approach. NIOO astonishes, surprises, connects and makes the impact of ecology visible for society.
The website was launched in June 2022. It’s too early to tell whether the goals will be achieved or not, but early data already looks promising.
The website was developed with Drupal version 9. Content editors have much freedom in using paragraph types in order to create landing pages and content items. Even the homepage can be easily altered. All within the boundaries of the styleguide.
“We have experienced the collaboration with Puurpxl and LimoenGroen as extremely valuable. The designers took a good look at what kind of organization we are and what kind of users we have for the website. In everything they do, they think about the consequences for the user experience. The beginning of the process was a bit difficult for both us and Puurpxl and LimoenGroen, because the strategy wasn’t ready yet. Meanwhile, time was taken to zoom in on what we really needed, which resulted in a beautiful design that fits who we are as an organization. We have already received lots of positive feedback from both inside and outside the organization.”
Brechje (NIOO)
Challenges
The main challenge that we faced was making sure the new website met the specific wants and needs of NIOO-KNAW and all the different target groups. There had to be more in-depth information on the website for the scientific researcher, but also more accessible information for nature lovers and volunteers.Also, creating the self-manageable subsites was a technical challenge. Within the boundaries of the existing styleguide, we still wanted to give content editors much freedom in creating a subsite that met their needs and wants.
Community contributions
Patches:https://www.drupal.org/project/paragraphs_asymmetric_translation_widgets/issues/3189155
Categories
Non-profit
Date when website went live
1 year 5 months ago
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