The Goal
A New Web Presence as the Center of Digital Communication
As part of its strategic development, the Robert Bosch Stiftung revised its corporate design in 2017 for both print and digital media. The website www.bosch-stiftung.de/en serves as the central hub of the foundation’s external communication and therefore played a key role in the CD relaunch and digitalization strategy. Our task was to further develop the new online corporate design and adapt it to existing and new elements and content. In addition, technical and conceptual solutions for pre-designed UI components were developed. As a result, the agency was responsible for the complete programming of the responsive website as well as the setup of a high-performance technical infrastructure.
Responsive web design and convenient editorial work
The most significant design change was the shift to a single responsive layout that automatically adapts to any device. The new web design emphasizes bold colors, motion imagery and prominently placed visuals. Editors can choose the color scheme for nearly all content elements, allowing them to create a vibrant and dynamic appearance. Speaking of editors: the greatest benefit of the new website is the simplification of editorial and internal processes. The page structure is based on content types and paragraph formats in Drupal, creating a modular system that enables editors to assemble and adjust a wide variety of content variations with just a few clicks.
Editorial elements can also be tagged with different metadata, enabling content to be displayed automatically and dynamically across various sections of the website. Content publication and updates are streamlined through inline editing, allowing editors—when logged in—to switch directly from the frontend view into editing mode for individual elements. Another major improvement: bilingual content management. With a single click, the English version of a German page can be created, automatically including all paragraph elements from the original version. This approach also simplifies scaling to additional languages.
Improved Usability through Technical Flexibility
The decision to use Drupal led to a complete rebuild of the website. External content was integrated by .FUF, while much of the existing content was restructured and migrated. Frank und Freunde developed a powerful and flexible technical foundation that supports the integration of diverse media types, modern user navigation and highly interconnected content structures. The open-source CMS proves advantageous here due to its adaptability to various design and functionality requirements, offering editorial workflows based on content types and paragraph formats. A paragraph can represent simple text, an image or even an interactive map. This modular setup provides full flexibility and ease of use during editorial work.
To improve content visibility and cross-linking, .FUF implemented a robust social media integration. Additionally, an XML interface enables translation agencies to efficiently localize website content.
Advantages
Choosing the right content management system is strategically significant when redesigning a website. User-friendliness is essential — both for visitors and for the team operating and editing the website long term. The digital agency .FUF currently relies on the open-source enterprise CMS Drupal, which is widely used in the U.S. market. From the agency’s perspective, site building with Drupal offers numerous advantages over TYPO3 or WordPress. Among them: Drupal has the largest active developer community, the most modern architecture and the highest installed base among open-source enterprise CMS platforms worldwide. Furthermore, Drupal’s modern and technically advanced framework makes it highly suitable for custom enhancements and system adaptations.
The Success
A Modern Website Delivering Added Value for Users and Editors
With the new Drupal 8 website, the digital agency .FUF provides the Robert Bosch Stiftung with a modern, high-performance platform that impresses with its contemporary design and usability on the frontend, and with powerful editorial workflows and intuitive operation on the backend. Both visitors and editors benefit from this relaunch — as confirmed by consistently positive feedback.
Project Info
Robert Bosch Foundation
responsive website based on Drupal 8
5 months implementation period
2 language versions
The Robert Bosch Foundation
The Robert Bosch Stiftung is one of the largest corporate foundations in Europe. For over 50 years, the foundation has been following the legacy of Robert Bosch and continuing his social and societal commitment in a contemporary form. The purposes of the foundation are exclusively charitable and are implemented in an operational and promotional manner, divided into the five areas of health, science, society, education and international understanding. The Foundation's seven institutions include the Robert Bosch Hospital, the Institute for the History of Medicine of the Bosch Stiftung, the Institute for Clinical Pharmacology, the Robert Bosch Academy, the German School Academy, the UWC Robert Bosch College and the International Alumni Center.
Target Group
The Robert Bosch Stiftung not only supports third-party projects, but also takes the initiative itself to develop and implement programs. Accordingly, the website is intended on the one hand to enable the submission of ideas for new funding projects, and on the other hand to provide information about existing projects and opportunities for participation. The website is also intended to appeal to members of the press, potential applicants and members of the public interested in charitable projects.
Tech Facts
Responsive website with Bootstrap
CMS: Drupal 8
Individual extension development with Drupal / Symfony
Multilingualism: Website supports two languages (DE/EN)
Glossary
CMS (Content Management System): Software for creating, editing and organizing content, usually in websites, but also in other forms of media.
OPEN SOURCE: Software whose source code can be viewed and modified publicly and by third parties and which can usually be used free of charge.
DRUPAL 8: freely available open source CMS that is used for websites.
FRAMEWORK: Programming framework used in software engineering.
RESPONSIVE WEBDESIGN: creative and technical approach to creating websites so that they can adapt to the characteristics of the end device used.