Case: processierups.nu

Anxious citizens flooded the authorities with questions about the processionary caterpillar. People started to shared recommendations that could be harmful. Because of this, the pressure to create one nationwide reliable source of information was rising. The Processionary Caterpillar Resource Center and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality reached out to us for help. And in just over 24 hours, we launched a fully responsive and fully accessible WordPress based knowledge-base. In the first 24 hours, the website served over 60.000 visitors. At its peak, the website welcomed 15.000 visitors in an hour, 2.500 of them simultaneously. Without a wince.

Can we help you accomplish a rush job?

Launching this quickly obviously comes with pros and cons. But if you’re under pressure to get something published, do know you can count on us. After all, we truly mean it when we say that a good challenge makes us happy. Give us a call. We gladly contribute ideas.

The goals

In the hour following that first (three minutes) phone conversation, we got clarity on several things:

• We needed to make sure that the online platform would cater to several target audiences at the same time. Moreover, visitors would be anxious to find relevant, reliable information as quickly as possible. Making sure visitors accomplished that goal quickly and easily thus was vital.
• We needed to arrange access for editors ASAP. That way, they could get started with loading content while we were working on other aspects of the platform.
• The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality would point to this platform as the primary resource for reliable information. Therefore, we needed to be ready for hundreds of simultaneous visitors.
• A government institution took part in commissioning this platform and would point to it as the primary source of information. Therefore, we needed to make sure the platform would meet the accessibility standards.

The approach

This was one of those moments that we were really happy that we had invested so much time in creating an awesome tool stack over the past years. Stability, agility, accessibility, usability, and indexability. They’re all part of the package. 

We started out with creating a hosting environment with an acceptance and production environment. Next, we configured the framework. We needed to be ready for considerable traffic peaks. Because of that, we wanted to invest enough time and attention here. By the end of the afternoon on Wednesday, the framework was ready to go. We then arranged access for editors. That way, they could start loading content. And in the meanwhile, our designers and front-end developers worked frantically on creating templates for the various types of pages.

The editorial team of the Processionary Caterpillar Resource Center continued to load content up until the wee hours of the night and during most of the following morning. To make sure that they wouldn’t get stuck in any sort of way, we had team members available for most of that time.

The solution

The tool stack we mentioned before forms the core of this content platform. We’re using the WordPress CSM software with a streamlined theme and a combination of third-party and custom developed plugins. Using this tool stack took care of most of the web accessibility needs for this platform. The Axe accessibility test consistently shows results between the 91st and 100th percentile.

In this case, the organizational culture and team spirit have played a major role, as well.

We could, so to say, see the sparkle appear in each others’ eyes. 24 hours? Nobody hesitated for a moment. Awesome, let’s do it!