Website goes live with new look, structure, and technology
The University of Freiburg has relaunched and is continuing to modernise its website
The revamped, central website of the University of Freiburg went online at www.uni-freiburg.de/en on 22 August 2024. Led by the Office of University and Science Communications (HWKom), a project group worked jointly with IT Services (RZ) and a web agency to develop a content management system (CMS) for the University of Freiburg. Based on WordPress, this CMS allows for visual, structural, and technical redesign of the university websites and along with it, comprehensive modernisation of the whole web landscape of the university. Within the central website, nearly 800 subpages were reorganised, edited, and merged, with technology, content, structure, and the needs of the respective users and target groups in mind. The live premiere of the central website is an important milestone in the university-wide relaunch process, during which further project steps will be taken to transfer all other university services and institutions onto the new CMS.
Corporate design, accessibility, data
protection, and information security
The CMS is based on the University of Freiburg’s corporate design, which was introduced in 2023. The website design is responsive. It adapts to the user’s device and automatically optimises the display for screens of different sizes ranging from mobile phones to tablets to big screens. Accessibility, data protection, and information security were further leading criteria for the development of the CMS. What is more, the CMS – especially when compared with the previous CMS Plone – is easy to operate intuitively, allowing for attractive and contemporary presentation of content. During the rollout, various applications and functions will be made available to users successively.
Ongoing development
Since July 2024, all university services and institutions have been able to set up their own websites with the new CMS. The respective service or institution is responsible for migration, content, and maintenance of these websites. The project group is supporting them through this process with, for example, advice, on-site training, and video tutorials which explain individual applications in detail. Additionally, a central support e-mail address has been set up. HWKom is responsible for migration and maintenance of the central website www.uni-freiburg.de.
The website relaunch was preceded by a three-year, university-wide process. During this time, the project group worked together with a steering committee, the rectorate, and university representatives to set its course. The project team aided the university’s central administration in several workshops, in which they revised and adapted content for their respective areas. Even now that it’s gone live, the central website will still be continually improved and maintained. The project group, in cooperation with the web agency, will also continue developing the CMS based on user feedback.