The new home of all major G+J publications

Development of a responsive frontend

Client: Gruner + Jahr | www.guj.de

It was early on that the Hamburg-based publisher Gruner + Jahr began digitising its strong print brands, which include publications such as Stern, Brigitte, Gala, Schöner Wohnen, Essen und Trinken, and Geo. A complex landscape of heterogeneous systems became entrenched over time. A large, cross-departmental project team was therefore put together with one major overriding objective: to reduce complexity.

The experts at Factorial were given the task of advising this team, on the one hand, and providing them with support as they implement a new system on the other. The aim of this system was to create, maintain and grow responsive websites for the various G+J brands – in a way that involves minimum time and effort. Another prerequisite was that all websites should use the same standardised components while allowing scope for customised designs.

One system for dynamic content

Through its consulting with the large, cross-departmental project team, Factorial made a key contribution in terms of coordination, knowledge transfer and problem-solving expertise within G+J Medien GmbH. The result achieved together marks a standardisation and simplification of existing technologies. In terms of software development, Factorial managed to help G+J websites into a position where they can provide and process dynamic content at greater speed.

In addition, standardised and reusable tools (build chain) make it much easier to make content available and maintain that content, while a uniform design system greatly simplifies the design of content pages. Thanks to the modular and standardised programming and design tools, editorial offices will, from now on, be able to provide journalistic content quicker and collaborate across multiple brands more effectively.

Two parallel frontend systems

As it grew organically, the system landscape of G+J touchpoints became too complex, and could only be managed and maintained by those with considerable insider knowledge about mutual dependencies. Based on the historical context of the sales market, two separate frontend systems were initially created for desktop websites and mobile applications.

Both systems sourced their data from the same content management system, but were largely independent of each other in their programming. Now the next aim was to achieve further scaling effects with the help of one common application case.