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A European Union (EU) agency whose mission is to produce and disseminate impactful scientific and health information to the general public and an international network of stakeholders - national and local government authorities, health professionals, researchers, students and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
Our customer, an European health agency, identified the need to change the way their three core brands were presented online, while keeping a strong corporate identity.
The strategic direction was clear:
To address the customer’s new strategic direction, Amplexor proposed a renewed digital strategy for the three brands which included: an overall content restructure, a new digital asset management approach and a dedicated multi-site content management platform. The project also encompassed the technical setup for the hosting infrastructure and content migration from the old SharePoint system.
The new WCMS based on Drupal 8 comprised innovative features to allow easy sharing of functionality across the different websites. The three websites are centrally managed from the same WCMS back-end, but maintain their own separate brand aesthetics.
Amplexor’s solution for this organization’s website experience focused on seven main areas:
Based on a thorough content inventory, target audiences’ personas and user journeys we modeled the different navigation paths to the available information. From this navigation and content model, we created interactive wireframes using Axure RP to allow the customer to test and validate the concept at an early stage.
The branding and styling was applied in the form of high level designs in Sketch, followed by a complete prototype in HTML and CSS, using Bootstrap framework for developing a responsive, mobile-first website.
This enabled not only browser compatibility checks to be performed early, but also full visibility on different screen sizes.
Navigation styling is minimalist to draw attention to the page content rather than the menus, as well as contextual, showing only navigation options related to the given page’s topic.
New components were added to promote findability of content and optimize user experience, such as metatags to automatically aggregate similar content, in-page tabs, breadcrumb trail to display the visitor’s current location within the site, large buttons and carousels, as well as interactive graphs, maps and tables.
Existing content from SharePoint was redefined into a flatter structure and migrated to a centralized single repository and shared libraries to optimize resources. This user-friendly back-office also provides advanced functionalities for Digital Asset Management (DAM), such as an image library, automatic thumbnails and metatag categorising for documents, images, video and audio files.
The variety of content types and page layouts give complete autonomy for content authors to build pages with the components that best display their content. This design approach ensures sufficient freedom and flexibility without compromising on structure.
Drupal 8 offers an easy-to-use authoring interface and tools for content managers:
The European Surveillance System (TESSy) was integrated into Drupal using web services to generate content automatically on statistical monitoring of prevalence of infectious diseases and provide visitors with a seamless experience through all website pages.
Amplexor’s open source translation connector for Drupal 8 enables content authors to request and receive translation of pages directly through their CMS. Authors and editors are also able to create separate workflows for translations, use split-screen editing or even use different languages in their authoring environment.
Several ready-made components in a variety of languages were also prepared for easier multilingual content creation.
Site-wide search with filtering and sorting options (faceted search) as well as quick document search for publications are available. Search supports metadata, partial words & phrases and boolean searches. Apache Solr search function integration enables indexing and searching not only of pages within the websites, but also of file attachments and synonyms.
Drupal 8 CMS complies with EU legislation on personal data protection and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Level AA requirements (WCAG 2.0 AA), as is required for all EU institutions.
The health agency’s renewed digital presence conveys a strong corporate identity with emphasis on full multi-platform accessibility. Content is easily available and reusable through interactive search and navigation interfaces. Interactive formats include, charts, maps, infographics, videos, spreadsheets, as well as technical assessments and guidance.
The new websites serve a wide variety of users, within its public domain and restricted extranet areas, which include the EU institutions, national and local government authorities, public health professionals, researchers, students and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
The new Drupal CMS accelerates the organization’s content lifecycle and generates benefits spanning visitor experience, marketing integration, content authoring, performance and security.
"We believe the new websites are the result of a successful global digital experience overhaul. The content restructure and refreshed online channels respond to the customer’s goals of engaging and mobilizing their target audiences to act as multipliers of the agency’s messages and content."
Eline Mevensen, Strategic Account Manager at Amplexor
The project involved a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in Drupal development, graphic design, front-end development and project management.
The phased delivery and close collaboration with the customer’s web, content and infrastructure teams from the start enabled efficient use of resources through an Agile methodology, maximum use of the standard CMS out-of-the-box functionalities (modules) and a quick and dynamic development process.
This partnership is well under way and we expect further developments to continuously improve visitors’ experience and marketing integration of their Drupal platform will be added to the pipeline soon.
"Amplexor’s integrated project approach resulted in a seamless transition between analysis, design and technical development, and was instrumental for the timely go-live of the websites."
David Verdonck, Project Manager at Amplexor
With proven expertise in the public sector, Amplexor is able to adapt its services to address specific issues related to process improvement, quality management, eGovernment, IT systems and public service improvement – all delivered in a multilingual context.