University of Turku – University website that attracts students and researches

What is University of Turku?

University of Turku is an active academic community of 25,000 students and employees. Above all, it is a multidisciplinary and international research university in the heart of Turku.

Objectives

The new website was intended to showcase the university’s diverse research, activities, and educational opportunities as clearly as possible. The site must be mobile-friendly and user-oriented.

Awards

International Splash Awards 2019: Nominee in the category Education

Wunder was selected as the technical implementation partner for the University of Turku’s website renewal project in a competitive tendering process that evaluated the price, delivery plan and suitability of the solution to the university’s needs.

The aim of the project was to redesign the university’s public web service based on a service concept made by North Patrol and University of Turku and to match the new brand identity designed by KMG Turku. The new service should also fulfill the requirements of the EU Accessibility Directive, and clearly serve end users.

An additional challenge to the project was the business objectives defined by the University of Turku: The site was intended to attract potential students and employees to the university, increase collaboration between the university and companies and improve the attractiveness of Turku as a student city, also internationally. In addition, the beta version should be available for internal use by the university as soon as possible after the project starts.

Wunder created a new site with Drupal 8 and made extensive integrations: The site provides information on researchers’ areas of expertise and research publications from the University’s Converis Research Information System. The Konsta event management system and the Qbank external image bank were also integrated. Qbank integration is a particularly welcome feature as the content creator is able to add images from an external image bank using the Drupal interface. Similarly, one can paste and download images from the Drupal interface.

Particular attention was paid to the logic of the content and navigation: Clear descriptions of the courses are available and can be browsed by category. The site also brings together the university’s diverse forms of business cooperation and service.

The actual project phase ended around the Midsummer of 2018, from which Wunder continued the continuous development until the launch of the site on November 28, 2018. The University of Turku wanted to ensure that there was enough time for content production and site finishing before publication. This is one of the reasons for a really successful project.

Eventually, the University of Turku’s website renewal became a success. The university received a site, which was designed with a user-centric and mobile-first mentality.

Research at the University of Turku was highlighted and the site has distinct sections for different user groups: student, research and business cooperation. This makes the new site significantly different from its predecessor.

The site is also designed according to the EU Accessibility Directive (WCAG 2.0), and the goal is to fulfill the strict AA level requirements during the continuous development work.

It’s no wonder that the project has been described as the best site renewal in the history of the University of Turku.