Cerpus helped Karlstad University with a new website built in Drupal

In June, the first part of Karlstad University's new website was released. 

- We have started from the users and now have a responsive web with better functions, extended search field and a nice design, says Olle Hallberg, communicator at Karlstad University, who together with Kina Nilsson was the project manager for the work.

There were several reasons why the website was rebuilt. The site was six years old and built in a Drupal version that was discontinued and no longer supported. Considering the rapid technological development that takes place today, the website did not meet the requirements for functions that were desired. 

- Desktop usage has plummeted and therefore we have to adapt. Whichever device you access, the website should work well. Our educations maintain a high quality and it is at least as important that our marketing does the same, says Olle Hallberg. 

Kina Nilsson, Paul Scott and Olle Hallberg, Karlstad University. 

Focus groups for a smarter website

Many have been involved and engaged in the extensive preparatory work through focus groups. Both students, the student union and researchers have been involved and agreed on structure and content. Focus has also been placed on making it easy for editors to administer the page. 

- We want to get better at stimulating research collaborations and will therefore have an improved page for research profiles and research environments, it is important to show off our competence and create good collaborations, says Olle Hallberg. 

Close collaboration with Cerpus

The project was completed on September 30, 2016, and the work has taken approximately 18 months since the feasibility study started. Motherland was responsible for the design and Cerpus was responsible for large parts of the development, including implementation of design, search functions and integrations with Karlstad University's internal systems. They chose to go from Drupal 6 directly to Drupal 8, which entailed major challenges as Karlstad University was one of the first to drive the development of such a large web in a version that is still under development. 

- It has been a long journey where we had to adapt the operating environment, retrieve information from other systems and manage our large database with all training programs, but thanks to a close collaboration between Cerpus and our IT department, we have solved it well, says Paul Scott , project manager from the IT department, Karlstad University. 

– We wanted a live web where it was easy to make changes. This tool gives us more opportunities to hide and move blocks in the interface, which makes the visitor experience the page more customizable, says Olle Hallberg. 

Text: Hanna Grevillius
Photo: Karlstad University and Hanna Grevillius