Case Study: Capacity4dev.eu for European Commission

Capacity4dev.eu is the implementation of  a new version of the collaboration platform www.capacity4dev.eu on Drupal. The former version of www.capacity4dev.eu generated a lot of traffic but was not actively used. Drupal 6 was used to build the future C4D platform. The new website was based  on user needs, with a focus on an ergonomic design. It provides a new, intuitive user interface, with a well balanced taxonomy and improved navigation that help users accomplish their goals.

Problem

The former version of www.capacity4dev.eu generated a lot of traffic but was not actively used. The website grew organically and had a lot of nice functionalities but without any vision or concept. In general, when you arrived as a new visitor, it was not clear at all what C4D stands for. Why has this website been created? What can you do with it? How can you do it? What is the target audience? What is currently going on?
In addition, it lacked of usability, a lot of features were set up in the wrong place or didn’t work at all. The former design was professional but overloaded.
Other problems: search was not well implemented, complex forms and workflows, poor navigation structure and lack of a personal dashboard.
Technically, the former C4D platform gave a buggy, unstable impression. Due to the big number of modules used (>290), the system became un-maintainable.

Solution

After a analysis phase together with our partner Namahn, the new Capacity4dev.eu project was described as:

·      Base the new C4D platform on user needs, with a focus on an ergonomic design. Provide a new, intuitive user interface, with a well balanced taxonomy and improved navigation that help users accomplish their goals.
·    Based on the Strategy for capacity4dev.eu, expand the thematic scope of the platform to allow all thematic Units and Issues to be covered.
·    Work on improving the core functionality, the backbone of C4D, i.e. offer group ware to professionals with a common interest that allows them to share knowledge and information in a safe environment. Less is more: reduce the overload of features and consolidate them
·    Foresee a first release with a sufficient feature set to allow migration to the new C4D by the end of August, making sure it will be implemented in an unambiguous, user-friendly manner. The feature set will be extended in subsequent iterations by the end of 2010

The main features  of the new platform are:

Groupware with :
o    Document sharing
o    Blogs
o    Events
o    Mini website
o    Private and public groups
o    Notifications
·    Personal dashboard with
o    Your profile
o    Your groups
o    Your interests
·    Topic pages
·    Magazine articles, including video
·    Platform members with facetted search

Technical setup

·    Drupal 6 was used to build the future C4D platform.
·    Functionalities were built as features. A feature combines content type(s), views (list of content), blocks, configuration and customization in a module. This makes it possible to install and enable a complete set of functionalities at once.
·    The requested functionalities were be created as much as possible by combining existing modules.
·    The amount of modules was limited to improve site performance and make future developments and improvements of the site easier. Priority will be given to  modules that can cover a number of functionalities at once.
·    All platform functionality were built with reuse in mind
The group functionalities were based on the Open Atrium framework.