Development
UNESCO Vienna Woods Biosphere Reserve relies on Zensations' Digital Expertise
The Vienna Woods Biosphere Reserve sees itself as a model region for sustainable living, economic activity, education, and research. To fulfil its role as a UNESCO model region and to optimally prepare and communicate its topics, the website www.bpww.at underwent a relaunch. For the implementation of the project, the expertise and know-how of the Vienna-based digital agency Zensations GmbH was employed.
Guaranteed Accessibility According to WCAG 2.0
The focus of the implementation was clearly on ensuring barrier-free access to content, enabling emotional engagement through rich imagery, and guaranteeing the further development of the site through a flexible and open-source based system landscape. A complete redesign of the site structure and associated content created an opportunity to best serve heterogeneous visitor groups, enhance the user experience, and thereby attract new target groups. In addition to topics such as research, education, or general information about the region, there is also information on leisure activities like mountain bike trails, hiking routes, and cultural events. An event calendar rounds off the information offerings.
The website was designed to be accessible based on the WCAG 2.0 Level AA success criteria, allowing people with audio-visual or motor impairments to optimally navigate the site and consume all information. “By integrating our A11y Toolbar with additional colour inversions, we provide a customisation option for visually impaired people who cannot use their own device at that moment. We are delighted that this feature is so well received by our clients, even though it is not required by the W3C,” says Wolfgang Leitner, Managing Partner at Zensations, enthusiastically.
A key role in the new online presence is played by the partners of the Vienna Woods Biosphere Reserve. In addition to the 51 Lower Austrian municipalities and 7 Vienna districts, these include a multitude of businesses in the region. Through their collective work and their focus on sustainability in the areas of ecology, economy, social aspects, and culture, they essentially contribute to preserving the Vienna Woods for future generations. “Thanks to the relaunch, the Vienna Woods Biosphere Reserve website meets the most modern requirements. We have succeeded in clearly structuring and presenting both the content of the Biosphere Reserve and the Vienna Woods region. It is particularly important to us that all interested parties can visit the website. We thank Zensations for the excellent cooperation and implementation,” says Biosphere Reserve Director Dr. Herbert Greisberger.
The technical implementation of the website is based on the latest version of the open-source Content Management System Drupal. With version 8, the entire architecture of the CMS was changed, achieving a milestone in terms of performance, security, and flexibility. OpenLayers 3 was used as a tool for implementing the maps. For optimal discoverability of all content, importance was placed on intuitive navigation, and a full-text search was implemented by connecting a search server (Solr).
