• Concept design
• Integration
• UI/UX
• Websites and web services

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s web service

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has approximately 3.6 million members. In 2023, over 20,000 Finns joined the church. The new Evangelical Lutheran Church web service, www.evl.fi, was designed to serve the church's members and attract potential new members by introducing them to the church's activities and message. The site receives nearly 2.5 million sessions annually.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has a total of 354 parishes, employing approximately 15,800 staff members. In addition to spiritual roles, the church also employs experts in administration, communications, and property maintenance. The parishes operate independently as individual employers. The church also has staff in the diocesan chapters of its nine dioceses. A separate multisite was created at evl.fi/plus specifically for the church’s partners and professional stakeholders.

Explore the new web service of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland:

evl.fi

Starting point

Extensive background research was conducted for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s web service, and we began the concept work based on the communication guidelines provided by the church and the specifications implemented by North Patrol. In addition to these specifications, the project was guided by user surveys conducted by the church, its strategy, communication program, and the “Millennial Church” initiative, which aims to attract more millennials to the church.

Due to the broad and multifaceted nature of the project, the concepting phase took more time than usual. The site maps for both websites were designed in smaller teams, using data from analytics as a basis. Throughout the design process, a significant amount of analytics data was utilised, with a strong focus on usability and accessibility. With nearly 60% of site users accessing via mobile devices, mobile usability was a central focus of the design.

Implementation

The technical implementation of the web service began in the project’s early stages, once the initial visual elements were finalised. The development proceeded agilely, allowing the client to test the implemented elements and functionalities as they were completed. The technical implementation was completed in the spring of 2023.

AD login and contact information

AD login was implemented for the site. Since content creation for the church’s websites is decentralised among approximately 100 content creators, the login process was designed to be as simple as possible. Additionally, contact information is regularly retrieved from AD for the evl.fi/plus site, ensuring that updates are synchronised in a single system.

External content fetching in the web service

The web services increasingly fetch content from external services and systems. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland publishes press releases through the ePressi service. These press releases are retrieved from ePressi and displayed on the church’s website to avoid manual work. The releases are presented in designated highlight sections on the site.

Content is also fetched from other services. Social media updates from the church are brought to the site using the juicer.io service. Additionally, open job positions at the church are embedded on the site via an iframe from Oikotie. The content for the “Päivän sana” (Word of the Day) section is brought to the site through an RSS feed from the Kirkkovuosikalenteri (Church Year Calendar).

Other features

The online service for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland includes so-called supersites or landing pages that consolidate information on specific topics into an easily comprehensible format. The church is involved in many significant life events, such as weddings, baptisms, and funerals, and the site needed the ability to create visually impressive yet clear summaries of these topics that affect many people. Supersites can also feature internal anchor navigation, allowing users to jump directly to the desired section of the page as needed.

Users can find their own parish through a parish search integration on the site. This feature is important in many contexts, and a floating parish search element was decided for the site to be displayed when needed. Clicking on the icon element opens the search. The content of the element can also be customised per page, allowing users to be prompted in various ways to find their parish, such as when organising a baptism or seeking help in a difficult situation.

Explore the online services:

Contact us

Heidi Nora-Klemetti

Account Director, Partner

Email: heidi@redandblue.fi

Phone: +358 40 575 2448