Redesign of the University of Ljubljana’s Central Website

The main aim of the University of Ljubljana’s website is to provide comprehensive information to all the website users, especially students and staff. The essential elements include providing information about the university’s events, activities and organisation, promoting the university and providing access to linked websites. The redesigned website provides up-to-date and accurate information in a user-friendly way to all users, including visitors with special needs; it provides them with quick access to the key sections, simplifying the use of the website by means of its functionalities.

The content and process optimisation was based on an analysis of the existing situation, which included a review of documentation, a number of meetings with faculty and department representatives and extensive desktop research. The integration of sub-portals on the main University of Ljubljana website was identified as the key redesign task, with the aim of creating a single website with a unified navigation and appearance. Separately from the main website, other linked websites, which differed in design, content and functionalities, were being developed. As a result, all content areas have been reorganised and the website has been designed in line with the guidelines of the new visual identity.

Website users can now access all the information through a single entry point, which makes it easier for them to browse, as the user experience has been unified across all subsites. Merging the websites also made sense in terms of the content management, as some information is duplicated across the websites. There was also duplication of some of the features, such as the collections of news, events etc., so we have introduced shared collections to provide users with information in one place and a system for one-off entries, which are then arbitrarily referenced at different ends of the website. This has made the web content managers’ work considerably easier.

The redesign has ensured a user-friendly experience in terms of using the tools on all devices, especially mobile phones, as the web traffic data shows that the percentage of users visiting the website on mobile devices ranges between 60% and 65%. As the front page receives the most traffic of all the pages, some other content areas have also been given a more prominent position by being included in the navigation and highlights.

Silverstripe is an open-source content management system that makes it easy to manage complex websites with a simple and flexible interface. We have established a clear content management policy that defines the managers of individual content areas and their tasks, thus facilitating their day-to-day work and maximising their content management autonomy.