regjeringen.no – where Topic Maps and Search govern the user experience

odin.dep.no was the website of the Norwegian Government and the Ministries, containing 30.000 documents and 130.000 web pages. What the Odin team wanted initially was to upgrade our six years old content management system with a web based authoring client to get an improved editor’s user interface and extended metadata capabilities.

What we got 1 ½ years later is regjeringen.no, a complete redesign of visual appearance, navigation and functionality. The technical solution combines commercially available components – Web CMS, search engine and topic maps engine – to create a new user experience for both editors and end users, and to facilitate conversion of legacy content. A special feature is the option to add Topic classification automatically during import of legacy information data, and classification support for Editors publishing new content.

The presentation shows (using examples seen from the editors’ and users’ views) how a strong focus on a redefined end user target group – and on web editors’ tasks and needs – resulted in a unique platform that efficiently combines the capabilities of Topic Maps and Search technology, and encourages further development.