The Conservatives (Høyre) are currently the ruling party in Norway and have ruled the country with Erna Solberg as prime minister since 2013.
In December 2020, we launched the new website, Høyre.no where we gathered the party’s 375 associated pages for local branches under one single tab. The multisite is in 6 different languages, has a new design and an improved membership area (Mitt Høyre).
The Conservatives wanted a new module-based web solution that would take care of their communication needs – both in terms of reaching out to their local branches and members, but also present the party programme to the outside world.
— We wanted a module-based approach, where we together with an agency could define which blocks we needed. We wanted the building of the main organization and local branches’ sites to be a breeze and not a tiring ordeal, says Christian A. Schjelderup, digital adviser for the Conservative parliamentary group.
The party chose Dekode as digital partner, and we started the project at the turn of the month in May 2020.
Design for digital surfaces
When launching the new website, a fresh visual profile was simultaneously presented. The Conservatives themselves have been responsible for most of the new design, with Christian Hushovd, communications consultant and responsible for visual design in the Conservatives, leading the work.
Our designer in Dekode, Joachim Söberg, helped with facilitating the design, making it web optimized. We created a complete design system for the web that contains all of the party’s content blocks. The design system includes, among other things, color palette, contrasts and fonts.
Toolbox – for local branches as well
With 375 associated websites for the local branches, the party obviously had a lot of editors. The many associated pages were gathered under a national page, høyre.no, where you can easily find your local branch based on where you live.
For the Conservatives, it was very important that the solution should have a low user threshold for the editors and different structures according to the editors different roles. For example, editors at the local level now have a simplified design, making it easy and understandable for everyone to distribute local updates with similar design. If you work on the national platform, you have a more advanced interface, with far more options.
– The party is nothing without our elected representatives and contributors in local teams. That’s why it is important to have a good multisite, making it possible for even those who sit in the local branches to have a toolbox they can use to communicate in the best possible way.
Christian A. Schjelderup, digital adviser for the Conservative parliamentary group.
Agile process
We invited The Conservatives into Figma from day one, in order to make the process smooth and efficient. That way they could behold the process, see our design files and set the standard for working closely together all the way.
The Conservatives could comment directly in the files, and meetings were arranged for checks along the way. Posts for the website could be added directly into the shared work files. Collaborating in this way gave us all great confidence and strengthened commitment to the project.
Migration
Dekode has listed all the details, migrated and exported old articles and info from previous versions of the webpages, and has extracted a lot of the data material from the member system Winorg.
Not spending valuable time on a big clean-up job has saved the Party a lot of work. Instead, they’ve been able to concentrate on making content about who and what The Conservative Party really is.
— The new website has totally affected the way we communicate. The new Høyre.no makes our program and election promises available and present in the best possible way, giving voters the easiest possible choice.
Christian A. Schjelderup
Member areas
“Mitt Høyre” was previously a sort of community solution, reserved for elected representatives in the Conservative Party and not the typical member.
Dekode created a new “Mitt Høyre” where everyone who signs up gets a private login. At the profile page they may edit their own profile and easily pay for a new membership. In this way, the Conservatives get a golden opportunity to communicate directly to their members. At the same time, personal login provides access to more exclusive content, which creates added value for members.
Dekode has also worked with payment solutions and created a separate “flow” to make the process of registration, as well as donating individual gifts easier for users.
— The new website has totally affected the way we communicate. The new Høyre.no makes our program and election promises available and present in the best possible way, giving voters the easiest possible choice, says Christian A. Schjelderup.
Ready for the election campaign
With the brand new websites, the Conservatives are strapped and ready for the best possible communication in the time leading up to the election later this year. The collaboration between Dekode and Høyre is a long-term, strategic one that will continue – even after the election, with continuing development and making sure the website is technologically relevant.
Customer:
The Conservative Party of Norway (Høyre)
Role:
WordPress
Frontend development
Backend development
Project lead
Management
Url:
høyre.no
All images: Høyre