Intuitive access to democracy: bpb.de in new splendour

Strengthening democracy, promoting civil society: these have been the tasks of the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) for almost 70 years. With a wide range of events, publications, themed dossiers, audiovisual and online products, it creates an understanding of political issues, encourages political participation and strengthens democratic awareness.
It has been almost ten years since the last relaunch of the bpb website. Now the website has a new look: with a new conceptual approach and an up-to-date, fresh look: this is how political education goes online!

bpb.de

"bpb.de - The great repository of knowledge on politics, economics and history"

Retreaded for the 70th birthday

We have been looking after the bpb website since 2003. One of the current highlights of our collaboration is the relaunch of the website, the largest portal for political education in the German-speaking world. The authority celebrates its 70th birthday in 2022. We worked together for six years on the new site, which is now visually adapted to contemporary user experience standards and, above all, opens a new chapter in terms of technology and content structure.

From conception workshops, graphic visualisation and technical implementation to migration and editorial revision of the content, we supported this multi-year project from start to finish.

The result is a site that has been very well received both within the bpb and by users: The appealing design invites users to explore and read more - above all, users now need even fewer clicks to access the numerous high-quality content. A big win for everyone involved.

The biggest challenge was to make the bpb's content easier to find and access and at the same time present it in a more appealing way. This was no easy task, as the website contains around 120 extensive online dossiers, the media centre contains more than 3,500 audio and video contents and the web shop offers around 1,600 currently available publications.

The individual and generous design

Visually, the new site is based on the previous CI, which has been retained but adapted to current viewing habits. Targeted use of templates ensures a relaxed appearance and clarity - both on the portal and dossier entry pages and in the presentation of individual articles. The optimal balance between functionality and design now gives visitors more space to consciously engage with the content.

Safely through the info cosmos: The new navigation

The website recorded 60 million visits last year alone. In order to make the diverse content intuitively usable for all these visitors, the navigation has been revised and replaced by filters in many places. A clear distinction between the different formats, content and products now provides users with better orientation.

The centrepiece of the strategic redesign is the infocosmos we developed: the multi-layered site content is now clearly structured by topic and can be accessed not only via the navigation architecture, which can be opened as a mega menu, but also via the site's own topic search thanks to keywording and filtering.

Lots of luggage: the move from the editorial office's perspective

The migration to the new site ran parallel to the daily workflow for around six months - the content from the old site was automatically imported to the new site. However, this also meant editing all of the migrated content. All content had to be edited according to the new filter system, keywords added and pages reformatted.

In addition, many new images were added and graphics redesigned. The editorial team spent 2,700 hours editing the countless pages and processed almost 300 tickets - always in consultation with the in-house front-end department, which optimised the editing, and in constant coordination with the bpb's contact persons.

With its minimalist, clear design and good usability, combined with strong content, bpb.de brings the study of politics online. The website motivates people to take a critical look at political and social issues, making it the ideal tool for democratic decision-making.