Continuous agile development: The strategic website collaboration between Wunder and Fintraffic

What is Fintraffic?

Towards the world’s safest, smoothest, and most environmentally friendly transportation. Fintraffic’s journey began five years ago when Finland became the first country to bring all modes of traffic management under one roof. Today, the company employs more than 1,180 transportation professionals. Fintraffic moves people and goods across land, sea, and air. Additionally, Fintraffic accelerates the development of the entire transportation and logistics sector by leveraging open traffic data, information platforms, and other digital services to provide higher quality and more competitive services for households, businesses, and authorities. 

Fintraffic’s website serves not only as a key external channel for the company’s brand and communications but also as a platform to highlight its core services to various customers and stakeholders, ranging from authorities and app developers to businesses and citizens. The fintraffic.fi site requires ongoing, data- and service-driven development, with a focus on continuously evolving the site based on content and customer needs.

One of the main objectives of the website development is to continuously enhance the user experience. Alongside refreshing the site's appearance, there was also a desire to improve findability and make it easier for each user group to locate relevant information.

Fintraffic’s employees do work that matters to every Finn, and this principle also guides the development of the website. The development process began with an extensive research and analysis phase, during which customer and stakeholder groups, as well as Fintraffic’s various services for different customer segments, were thoroughly reviewed. At the same time, user journeys were analyzed based on data to determine how best to present the range of services and content on the website in a way that is relevant to the user while also advancing the organization’s goals.

The core focus areas for continuous development were distilled into:

• Enhanced user experience and technical reliability
• Content development and service-oriented approach based on data

“Wunder certainly brings the necessary skills and expertise. Communication and collaboration have been close-knit, and it’s clear that Wunder takes things seriously, proving to be a reliable strategic partner in website development.”
- Antti Haarala, Head of Digital, Fintraffic

The further development and maintenance of the service package were put out to tender in the fall of 2022. The collaboration began with a technical audit of the site, onboarding, and transferring hosting to an environment managed by Wunder. Immediately after the technical transitions, service design work began to further develop the fintraffic.fi website.

Shared goals and clear vision

First, the goals of the website, current challenges, and success metrics were defined together to establish a clear shared direction and outline the necessary development tasks. This process also involved inviting Fintraffic's stakeholders and experts from various fields to participate in the development, creating a solid foundation for brainstorming, designing, and developing new solutions. For example, content and service owners were involved in identifying customer needs before even considering the direction of the homepage redesign.

“The workshop sessions were suitably challenging, inspiring, and efficient. They provided a very concrete understanding of customer and stakeholder needs, ensuring that customer-centricity remained at the core of all activities. The groundwork was laid thoroughly, so when it came time to execute the project, everyone was clear on the objectives.”, Antti Haarala summarizes.

Clear steps as the foundation for design

A concise yet thorough customer and stakeholder analysis, along with user research, provided clear guidelines on how to improve areas such as findability, user experience, and user interface.

Even after development began, the team engaged in agile layout creation and quick assessments of different UI designs. This approach allowed room for iteration and the efficient testing of various solutions. For example, the homepage was divided into clear "showcases," enabling users to effortlessly browse the overall content.

Adaptive and forward-thinking web design is essential in today's world. Website development is never truly "finished," but even after the first phase of the project, Fintraffic's homepage evolved toward a user- and need-driven service approach. Ongoing development will continue to be guided by data and content enhancements, supported by the work done behind the scenes.

Fintraffic's satisfaction has been significantly influenced by the increased confidence in the professional ongoing development of the site, thanks to Wunder's expertise and reliability. Close and active communication, clear metrics, and the specification of broader objectives will ensure that development work continues smoothly. At the same time, risks can be proactively anticipated, allowing potential issues to be addressed early.

“Wunder knows its business and manages the overall scope comprehensively. Website development requires strategic expertise to ensure that progress remains continuous and active, involving agile development where the site is advanced incrementally, piece by piece.”, Antti Haarala says.

Good communication and a jointly defined development roadmap have ensured that ongoing development progresses effectively in the desired direction. Haarala from Fintraffic describes the collaboration followingly:

“It has been a pleasure working with all the Wunder team members I’ve met! The collaboration has been characterized by smooth collaboration and teamwork, where we advance things towards a common goal together.”

The project's first major deliverable was the redesign of the fintraffic.fi homepage, which was launched at the end of 2023. In the spring of 2024, a new landing page framework was created, and crisis communication capabilities were enhanced. Additionally, ongoing improvements are being made to the site's appearance and functionality, including advancements in analytics. A roadmap has also been developed to support long-term development plans and the continued evolution of the website.