Caroline Backman, technical project manager at the communications department, explains why we need a new website:
– SLU’s main websites, slu.se, internt.slu.se, student.slu.se, universitetsdjursjukhuset.se, and artdatabanken.se, are built using the publishing tool Episerver, now known as Optimizely. Our websites are built on an outdated version of the publishing tool, and since there have been significant technical advancements in the new version, all code needs to be rewritten from scratch.
The main reason for the project is therefore technical, but the project also includes content and organizational matters.
Will the new website be better?
– Our platform slu.se is generally a good website. In recent years, a considerable amount of work has been done to stabilize the platform, improve performance, and adapting the website to meet stricter accessibility and privacy requirements. This has yielded results, and the website performs well in most areas today, says Caroline Backman.
– During the project’s preliminary study, we also received confirmation that the website’s users are largely satisfied with slu.se. International students, in particular, are satisfied, while employees tend to be somewhat less satisfied. At the same time, we know that there are significant content issues on today’s website. Far too much content is outdated, inaccessible, and broken. We hope to address this by reviewing all content before it is transferred to the new website.
Clearer Organization
Some differences between the old and new websites will be noticeable. This includes a clearer web organization, with more editorial teams and increased collaboration. There will also be higher demands on web editors, who will work more continuously with web publishing than many of them do today. The editors will be trained in the spring of 2025 and will create the new content during the period from March to May.
– Research communication is a focus area, and the goal is to provide visitors to the website with a better overview of SLU’s collective research than today. This will be achieved through a research catalog where researchers themselves can contribute information. The catalog consists of web pages that can be sorted and filtered in various ways based on a tagging system.
– Our goal is to build a long-term manageable, stable, and secure website with the best possible performance, while the interface should be perceived as simple and sufficient for the editors, says Caroline Backman.
Text: Vanja Sandgren
To Vårt SLU
