Luke.fi – statistics, news, and data bank in one place

What is Natural Resources Institute Finland?

Natural Resources Institute Finlandopens-in-a-new-tab (Luke) is a research organization operating under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland. Luke employs around 1,300 specialists and produces hundreds of peer-reviewed studies every year.
In addition to its research activities, Luke has statutory tasks as a public authority, producing Finland’s official food and natural resources statistics, providing research-based services to businesses, and supporting societal decision-making related to natural resources and the natural resource economy.

Objectives

Natural Resources Institute Finland wanted to implement a renewed, modern and mobile-friendly digital service that would combine two previously separate websites, luke.fi and stat.luke.fi.

In addition to mobile-friendliness, the aim was to comprehensively take into account the latest cookie recommendations of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) and to enable the collection of user data for analytics to support further development, with particular attention to data privacy matters.

Luke.fi produces and publishes a considerable amount of content, news, and research results, so it was essential to pay attention to the flexibility and ease of use of the publishing tools. The aim was to make it easier to highlight content through visuals and various visibility elements.

Achieving robust integrations with applications that are important for Luke’s operations (e.g. the Statistical Database and Lyyti) was also an essential need.

Alongside with update of the overall strategy at Luke, the online presence update became relevant – including the merging of Luke’s two websites. Previously, food and natural resources statistics were published on stat.luke.fi, while research information and current news were available on luke.fi. Website renewal, including merging two websites, is a remarkable change for users and everyone involved in content creation and site maintenance – and it requires a multidisciplinary skill set from the IT solutions vendor.

Luke produces several hundred peer-reviewed studies every year, so a large amount of data is accumulated. In addition to the studies, Luke’s website contains a large volume of news and information concerning the sector. Ensuring rapid loading speed, easiness of finding the needed information, and comprehensibility of the provided data were the essentials for this project.

Around half of the visitors to Natural Resources Institute Finlandopens-in-a-new-tab browse the website on a mobile device, and, in line with the global trend, the number of mobile visitors to this website is also on the rise. The aim was to make the mobile user experience as pleasant and easy as possible to cater to this soon-to-be majority user group.

Luke is a data-driven institute and has the statutory obligation to produce and maintain reliable data – so naturally, data integrity, data accuracy, and discoverability were of higher importance than on the average website.

It was also essential to implement integrations into the organization’s internal master data system, the PxWeb statistical database system, and Lyyti (an event management system).

The first steps in Wunder redesigning the Luke website were reviewing the requirements and refining the implementation concept. The final concept was designed together with the client, resulting in a wireframe model implemented with Whimsical.

Ideation in the early stages of the project was done using Invision user interface prototypes. Wunder’s UI/UX designer implemented the user interface and layout of the service based on the client’s rebranding, with Wunder’s front-end and back-end developers handling the practical implementation after the client’s approval of the design. Luke’s components were implemented in the Storybook component library and imported into Drupal. This solution ensured consistency and efficient further development.

The technologies chosen for the implementation were open-source Drupal 9 and Wunder’s own Silta GCP hosting environment hosted at Finnish data centers.

A significant part of the content comes from Luke.fi’s own source system, which itself compiles data from several different sources. One of the most important developments was the format in which data is presented to the user – the more user-friendly the presentation, the better the user experience. The versatile content elements designed and implemented by Wunder and their flexible combination of page templates allow a large amount of data to be presented in a structured way, even in a single view. Content metadata and listing tools allow content to be combined more easily.
The joint Wunder and Luke team of specialists from different areas worked closely together throughout the development of the site. Daily zoom meetings and separate sprints on weekdays gave the project a clear schedule, making the work efficient and enjoyable. The promises of psychological safety made at the kick-off were kept, which added to the project’s positivity and solution-focus. The website redesign was implemented within an agile development model.

Wunder’s developer team included a technical architect, a front-end developer, a back-end developer, an analytics specialist, a UI/UX expert, a service designer, a delivery manager, and an account manager. After the launch of the new website, Wunder’s collaboration with Luke continues with the maintenance and further development of the website, and Wunder hosts the website on Wunder’s Silta.

The luke.fi website now serves both; those looking for statistical information and anyone else who needs information produced and shared by Natural Resources Institute Finland.

After the site renewal, users interested in research or statistics can find both types of content linked to each other, and the Google visibility of statistical content, in particular, has improved.
In terms of cookies, analytics, and accessibility, the target levels set at the beginning of the project were also achieved.

It is now also easier for content creators and curators to work with the website. The redesigned site templates and other implemented solutions allow information to be presented in a more understandable format.

Juha Heikkilä, Senior Specialist in Communications at Natural Resources Institute Finland, and Janika Seppälä, Senior Specialist in Statistical Services, praise Wunder for the excellent scheduling of work and the partnership enabling close teamwork between Wunder and Luke specialists.
The website is also under further development at Wunder and hosted at Wunder’s Silta.