CAUE 76 is the Council for Architecture, Urban Planning and the Environment of Seine-Maritime. This organisation is dedicated to supporting residents and local authorities on issues relating to architecture, urban planning and landscaping. In 2024, CAUE 76 asked Magina to create its website.
Discover the stages of this project and how the Magina team rose to the challenge of quickly designing a high-performance, eco-friendly website!
Specific features of the project
The website for CAUE 76 featured several specific elements:
- Complete website creation: design and development of a new website for CAUE 76
- Software interfacing: connection with internal appointment scheduling software for smooth management by CAUE 76 teams
- High level of accessibility: compliance with strict accessibility standards to ensure an inclusive experience for users
- Eco-design: environmental performance target with a minimum rating of C
- Rapid release: tight deadlines for fast and efficient launch in less than two months
The difficulties encountered
During the development of the CAUE 76 website, our Tech team faced several technical challenges:
- Implementation of the Site Origin page builder: chosen to speed up deployment, but limited in terms of long-term flexibility and complicating the DOM (the nodes present on the page)
- Visual overload: the initial mock-up contained too many visuals, impairing readability and, above all, the performance of the eco-design
- Typography weight: the first typographical choice was too heavy, affecting the user experience (UX) and, once again, eco-design
- Overly complex DOM: the DOM (Document Object Model) was too heavy, slowing down the site's performance and also impacting eco-design
Proven solutions
To overcome the difficulties encountered, we made several adjustments:
- Switch to Gutenberg: replacement of the Site Origin page builder with the native Gutenberg version for greater flexibility and eco-design performance
- Caching system: implementation of a high-performance caching system to optimise loading times, in line with eco-design criteria
- Performance testing: installation of a testing solution to measure and optimise site performance
- Flat menu: reorganisation of the menu to simplify navigation and improve UX
The results
The website was successfully created and developed in accordance with our client's requirements:
- Deployment timeframe: website launched within two months
- Eco-design: a C rating was achieved, meeting the project's environmental objectives
- Improved user experience: navigation is now more intuitive and clear
- Enhanced performance: performance testing and the cache system have significantly reduced website loading times
In short, the creation of the CAUE 76 website demonstrates our team's ability to meet technical challenges while adhering to tight deadlines. Thanks to our technical solutions, we were able to meet accessibility, performance and eco-design requirements. The result is a functional and sustainable website that meets the needs of CAUE 76 while offering an excellent user experience. This project perfectly illustrates Magina's expertise in optimised web development.
