Web Factory: Creating the website for the Maison de l’Habitat (Housing Center) of the Eurométropole de Strasbourg

I work on public housing policy, coordinating the network of partners in the housing sector, and developing a Maison de l'Habitat (Housing Center) in the region.

I am an architect by training, with degrees from the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Strasbourg and the Technische Universität Dresden in Germany. I started my career at a Franco-Brazilian architecture firm in São Paulo, and joined the Eurométropole de Strasbourg in 2022.

Yes, and this project was a major challenge. First, because of its dual ambition:

• To create a new information platform for the general public on all housing-related topics: renting, buying, construction and renovation, health and safety, living environment, etc.
• To set up a space for sharing information and coordinating the network of professional partners of the Maison de l'Habitat.

It was also a bit of a personal challenge, because I had no previous experience in managing the development of a website.

We wanted to provide access to reliable, neutral, and clear information about the housing sector and the assistance and support mechanisms available in our region. Local housing policies and their operational mechanisms suffer from a lack of visibility and clarity for their beneficiaries, which reduces their effectiveness. The Maison de l'Habitat information platform aims to bring users closer to the programs and information available on housing, in order to facilitate their journey and support them in meeting their needs.

The Maison de l’Habitat, supported by the local authority, acts as a “trusted third party” to help users overcome obstacles and reassure them in their decision-making: simplified procedures, impartial advice, connections with high-quality partners, information on assistance and support mechanisms.

We involved the partners of the Maison de l’Habitat, inviting them to contribute to the drafting of the specifications, to reflect on the site's functionalities, to define useful content, and to validate the design at key stages. 

We also ensured user buy-in by organizing user tests to make sure that the web design met their expectations and to take their feedback into account before launching the site's development. 

Finally, we paid close attention to the clarity and readability of the site, which had to remain accessible to as many people as possible despite its rich content.

The site offers:

• Thematic sections and files: Rental, Purchase, Management, Construction and Renovation, Health and Safety, Living Environment, etc.
• A calendar of housing events in the region, designed to also include certain events posted on the local authority's strasbourg.eu website.
• Local news.
• A directory of Maison de l'Habitat network partners.
• A contact form.
• A “Professional Area” for sharing information dedicated to professional partners who are members of the network. This area has been designed to allow partners to share ‘professional’ news and events with each other, but also to offer “general public” news and events that can be integrated into the Maison de l'Habitat website after validation.

We put together a small project team representing several departments within the Eurométropole: the Housing Department, the Digital and Information Systems Department, and the Digital Communications Department. This team was responsible for:

• Project management and planning.
• Monitoring the various phases of website design.
• Organizing user testing.
• Meetings with partner consultation bodies.
• Meetings with validation bodies involving elected officials and relevant departments. 
• Organization of training for future agents who will contribute to the website.

The Maison de l’Habitat website had to use the same Liferay technology as the strasbourg.eu website in order to create interfaces between the two websites.

The Eurométropole works with Sully to manage its websites, as part of a public contract: Sully created the EMS website factory, which allows us to edit 14 websites from a single back office.

Sully was therefore already familiar with our organization and the ecosystem of our websites, which facilitated collaboration.

Sully helped us define the functional requirements by asking us very simple questions about our expectations, adapting the technical solutions to these expectations, and helping us decide which developments and features to prioritize. 

Together, we ensured that the budget and deadlines were respected, seeking to reuse components that had already been deployed and tested (in terms of accessibility and performance) on the strasbourg.eu website. The creation of new components, when necessary, was optimized and streamlined.

The Sully teams remained flexible in responding to requests for adjustments that arose during development, following user testing and feedback from partners. 

In short, we were able to set up an agile project organization, with task sharing and intelligent dialogue between teams. We can commend the responsiveness and availability of the Sully teams: communication was fluid and pleasant, and project follow-up meetings were efficient and regular. The teams took the time to thoroughly explain the ins and outs of the various choices made, particularly in terms of anticipating site management. The ability to entrust Sully with both the web design and technical development represented significant added value, ensuring a smooth handover between the agency's teams.

It has been a very positive collaborative experience with the Sully teams, who have supported us throughout this project with professionalism, responsiveness, attentive listening to our needs, and an ability to offer tailored solutions.

A big thank you to the teams who contributed to the design of this new website.