From interaction design to functioning website
Västarvet (Western heritage) is Sweden's largest administrator of natural and cultural heritage.
On their search engine-based website, you can search for large amounts of information: from among hundreds of thousands of photographs and objects, in the collections of a variety of museums. Precio Fishbone developed the website from complete interaction design.
- The big challenge was to integrate the website with all the information in the underlying systems, explains Henrik Staberg, project manager at Precio Fishbone.
Västarvet is part of the Västra Götaland region and their task is to preserve the natural and cultural heritage of western Sweden. They also run future-oriented development work in the whole of Västra Götaland.
– We try to bring history alive with exciting museums, points of interest and exhibitions, explains Web Coordinator Barbro Lindh. As a regional resource, we focus on cultural environment, nature conservation, archaeology, conservation and handicrafts.
Fully search-based navigation
When Precio Fishbone was commissioned to develop Västarvet’s website, the work was already advanced.
– The requirements specification, interaction design and graphic design were clear”, says Henrik Staberg. Our task was to translate and develop this into a functioning website.
Because the site is search engine based, Precio collaborated with Findwise, a company that specializes in search-driven "findability".
– There is no structured hierarchy on the site", Henrik explains. Navigation is completely search-based and the visitor creates the hierarchy through their searches and filtering of the search results.
Each operation has its own website
And there is a lot of information to search. Västarvet runs the operations of several museums: Bohuslän Museum, Gothenburg Natural History Museum, Lödöse Museum, Forsviks Bruk, Slöjd & Byggnadsvård, Vänersborg Museum, Vitlycke Museum and Västergötland Museum.
– Each operation has its own website that is built on the same templates, but with content that is specific to the relevant operation, explains Henrik.
Västarvet can create new websites
So it is about several websites and the solution is built so that Västarvet can also create new websites itself, if needed.
– The big challenge was to integrate the website with all the information in the underlying systems, explains Henrik and mentions, among other things, Basetool.
Basetool is a common platform for companies and organizations in the tourism industry, a web tool that facilitates interaction between the different stakeholders and organizations of a destination.
– When Västarvet’s editors write and build pages with content that is not in Basetool or any other system, EPiServer is used as the CMS.
Easy to collaborate with
The website was launched in summer 2013 and, so far, Västarvet is very satisfied.
– The work has gone well", says Barbro Lindh. Precio Fishbone is easy to collaborate with and has very competent staff.
– After launching, you always discover things that can be even better", adds Henrik Staberg. So the project rolls on and we are continually developing the website.
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