Univers is a digital medium for readers who want to keep abreast of the most current developments in academia.
The independent journalistic medium of Tilburg University
Challenge
Univers has a website with many news articles and content. Due to the large amount of content, the old website was not user-friendly. Especially the editorial staff of Univers experienced difficulties in managing the website. Also for visitors the website was not optimally designed, especially in the mobile view of the site.
The old admin environment, the backend, contained many outdated and duplicate features. It was messy and not secured. As a result, a lot of spam came in through comments and forms.
For that reason, Univers was in need of a new website where all content, including SEO values, had to be preserved. The challenge was that almost 13,000 articles had to be migrated to a new website. Univers's editors already had experience with 2manydots through a previous collaboration. Since they were not satisfied with their current internet agency, they chose to work with 2manydots again.
Question: future-proof foundation
On Univers's schedule was a stable, future-proof website. The new website had to be made user-friendly and clear for both editors and users. For this, the Content Management System (CMS) WordPress is very suitable. Mobile display was an important aspect here, as many website visits came via mobile.
The website was in need of a new, fresh look where articles on the website were pleasant to read for visitors, on both mobile and desktop. Visitors should be encouraged to click through to other articles and be able to make suggestions. In addition, editors must be able to easily manage the new website.
In summary, it was important to work on both the user interface and the user experience without losing the old content.
Solution
A new, tidy backend provides more flexibility for editors to write and publish articles. In the process, redundant functionalities were removed to provide a fast and secure experience. Anti-spam measures in forms, for example, ensure that spam is limited as much as possible. Also easier changing of the structure and layout of the home page, through a number of predefined templates, is among the possibilities.
Satisfied team
There are different roles within the website where, for example, an author has no rights to publish, but can only submit a text. Then the chief editor, with a different role, can check the text and finally schedule it for publication. A satisfied team of editors now works in a user-friendly and well-organized backend.