As part of its strategic development, the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects' digital external communication was due for an overhaul.
Instead of completely rebuilding the system as part of a relaunch, the website was kept on the basis of the TYPO3 content management system and completely renewed instead.
The advantages of a redesign with partial refactoring were obvious for this large website project. On the one hand, the editors who were already familiar with the previous system did not have to learn a new CMS. The editorial workload for the editors of the website was also significantly lower. Secondly, the implementation costs were only a fraction of the cost of a complete website relaunch.
Refactoring and redesign instead of relaunch
The task of the digital agency .FUF was to further develop and adapt the existing design and elements, but also to agree on technical and conceptual solutions for an efficient website infrastructure.
The website of the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects offers a high level of functionality and is used intensively with its numerous databases, such as for seminars, the architecture meeting or classified ads.
It also has individual interfaces to internal systems, such as member data management. These modules were standardized and updated through the refactoring by Frank and friends. During a relaunch, many of these individual developments would have had to be completely reprogrammed. The code of the website was tidied up and simplified as part of the overhaul, like a spring clean.
For the maintenance interface, the TYPO3 plugin TemplaVoilà! Plus was retained for the maintenance interface, but the integration of the much simpler TWIG template engine compared to Fluid ensured faster implementation. The free CSS framework Bootstrap 4 was also introduced, allowing the existing mobile and desktop templates to be merged into one responsive version. The previous mobile version had limited functionality, which is no longer the case with the new responsive website thanks to the work of the digital agency.
The design now not only looks more modern, but has also been adapted to current viewing and usage habits. The size of the images and fonts has been improved, as has the usability of important functions. The introduction of the mega menu has also contributed to greater clarity and ease of use. The content has also been restructured and tidied up in the course of the revision.