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

Vuoden huiput web application

Vuoden Huiput organised by Grafia is Finland's most significant creative design competition, established by designers themselves in 1980. The event comprises a competition, a festival, an awards gala, an exhibition showcasing the winning works, and an annual yearbook. The competition features 15 categories across various areas of creative design.

Starting points

The Vuoden Huiput website had been serving Grafia members for 10 years and was in need of an update. Redandblue set out to revamp the site alongside the Grafia.fi website overhaul, but as a separate service. The sites use some common Gutenberg blocks and design elements.

Explore the Vuoden Huiput service

vuodenhuiput.fi

Concepting and design: redandblue
Client: Grafia ry

Concepting and design

At the start of the project, several concept workshops were held to review the target groups, goals, technical constraints, and, notably, the judging process involving judges, senior judges, Grafia admins, and system functions.

Additionally, the user paths for freelancers, young creatives, or companies participating in the competition were mapped out. Complex and multi-stage paths were documented as technical requirements, which were then used to create the service’s technical architecture and technical plan.

During the design phase, prototypes for both the desktop and mobile versions of the user interface and visual design were developed.

  • Julia Valanne

    Producer, Vuoden Huiput & Huiput Creative Festival

  • Katri Soramäki

    Executive Director, Grafia ry

“Like Grafia’s own website, the vuodenhuiput.fi site was quite old and in need of an update. The goal was to improve the site’s usability and achieve partial automation for both administration and job submissions.

Under the hood, the site features many functions that an average visitor might not notice. Submitted works progress through various stages of the competition, from judging to the shortlist and finally to the Vuoden Huiput archive. The competition-specific data accumulated during this process is also used for creating the annual yearbook. Additionally, the system includes various user groups, each with its own view of how the competition works. The website’s needs were extensive and the required features were complex, certainly not the easiest to implement.

Working with Redandblue has been remarkably smooth despite the site’s complexity. They made even complex issues approachable and were always ready to assist with minor uncertainties. Redandblue’s efficient workflow helped us reconsider necessary features and find better ways to accomplish tasks. The process progressed excellently on schedule, and working with Redandblue has been truly seamless. Thanks to the excellent Redandblue team, we have been very satisfied!”

  • Julia Valanne

    Producer, Vuoden Huiput & Huiput Creative Festival

  • Katri Soramäki

    Executive Director, Grafia ry

Technical features

The annually organised event aims to elevate the level of design, enhance creativity and originality, and develop the professional skills of designers. The Vuoden Huiput website serves as a marketing, communication, and archive service for the competition. Through the service, works are submitted for the competition, registration fees are paid, and the entries are judged by that year’s panel of judges in the first phase.

As part of the registration process, works can be paid for through various payment options or invoiced either individually or as a group invoice, which consolidates the costs of multiple submitted works.

In the design of the site, the public side of vuodenhuiput.fi is a more streamlined component that uses customised Gutenberg blocks from WordPress. The content includes information about the site’s categories, judges, and schedules.

The theme was designed with consideration for the competition’s annually changing appearance, which can be updated by the client through the publishing system without the need for technical assistance.

During the overhaul, a vast archive of award-winning works from the competition was migrated to the site, which can now be filtered and browsed by name, year, and award type, dating back to the 1980 awards.

Login to the service is done using “Grafia credentials,” which are consistent across both the Grafia.fi website and the Vuoden Huiput service. Users are Grafia members, and their information is updated in real-time via integration with the Gruppo membership registry service. The membership application process was also updated along with the redesign of the Grafia.fi site.

Judging process

A significant change in the competition’s history was the complete overhaul of the judging process. In 2024, preliminary judging will occur entirely behind login on the same site’s management side. This automated process will significantly save time for Grafia employees in the future.

Customised user interfaces were implemented for logged-in users to manage competition entries and related judging tasks. The interface is dynamic and built with the Vue.js JavaScript library. Special attention was given to the accessibility of interface elements. Data flows between WordPress’s database and the user interface through customised REST APIs. Security and privacy were considered in the implementation by precisely restricting API access. The system also includes a customised WooCommerce installation used for the checkout page, payment interfaces, and order confirmations.

During the testing phase, the judging process was simulated in a joint testing workshop with the client, where all user roles’ service paths in the application were reviewed.

For the publishing system, the client can independently build each year’s content and update site menus and content as desired. The site is AA-level accessible.

Results

Compared to the previous period, two months following the launch:

Number of visitors increased by 92.2 %
Number of new visitors increased by 90.6 %
Traffic from organic search increased by 190.3 %

Explore web services:

vuodenhuiput.fi

Contact us

Petri Siltala

Director, Sales & Finance

Phone: +358 41 506 2462