The Vallei en Veluwe Water Board’s new website: built based on questions from residents, businesses, and partners

With that in mind, in 2025 and 2026, we worked closely with the Vallei en Veluwe Water Board to develop a completely new digital platform. What began with a Wagtail demo at the water board’s office evolved into an intensive process in which strategy, service delivery, accessibility, design, content structure, and technology came together step by step.

After a successful bidding process, we teamed up to build a future-proof open-source platform based on Wagtail CMS. Not a closed-off solution, but a flexible foundation that not only allows the water board to move forward today but also provides room for further growth, campaigns, subsites, and ongoing development.

A platform rooted in real-world practice

The challenge was broader than simply “a new website.” It involved creating a digital platform that works for diverse target audiences, various types of content, and different forms of service delivery. A platform where information is presented clearly, actions are immediately accessible, and editorial teams maintain control over content and quality.

This is reflected in the site’s structure. Visitors must be able to quickly find the right information, but also be able to take immediate action right from the homepage. They shouldn’t get lost in an organisational structure right away, but rather be guided by logical entry points, clear top tasks, and recognizable paths.

At the same time, the platform also had to function well behind the scenes—for editors, content owners, administrators, and teams collaborating on publications, reviews, campaigns, news, and services.

The Editorial Team in the Driver’s Seat

A key principle in this project was that the editorial team is truly in the driver’s seat. They aren’t dependent on developers for every content change but are able to build pages themselves, manage content, and publish selectively within clear guidelines.

That is why we focused heavily on creating an editorial environment in which content owners have a clear signaling role and work together with the editorial team within a structured workflow. Review requests, reports, and clear publication steps not only ensure speed but also provide control. This is crucial for an organisation where information must be up-to-date, accurate, and administratively sound.

That editorial autonomy is also embedded in the platform’s architecture. With flexible StreamField templates, reusable components, and various snippets for dynamic content management, the editorial team can build pages in a way that is both consistent and agile. This keeps the site recognizable and manageable, without requiring every page to be identical.

Tight in structure, inviting in appearance

A water board website must be reliable and clear. But clear does not automatically mean impersonal. Especially for a public organisation, it is important that a platform is not only functional but also inviting, reassuring, and conveys the organisation’s social role.

That’s why we opted for a design that’s streamlined in structure and navigation, yet also has character. A platform that’s service-oriented without feeling sterile. Professional where it needs to be, accessible where possible. This is reflected in the logical components, the consistent design choices, and the way in which different content formats still come together as a cohesive whole.

The underlying design system played a major role in this. Not only as a visual library, but as a shared foundation for design, development, and content creation. This allowed us to ensure consistency across the entire platform, while still leaving room for nuance, campaigns, temporary highlights, and subsites.

Complexity That Must Feel Simple on the Front End

What appears simple on the front end often requires a great deal of coordination and technical depth behind the scenes. In this project, that complexity existed on multiple levels.

There were integrations with third parties, with Azure for identity and management, and with government systems such as Samenwerkende Catalogi. In addition, integration with other systems and editorial workflows played a key role. After all, a good platform must not only function on its own but also fit logically within the organisation’s broader digital landscape.

A good example of this is that the platform supports multiple websites within a single environment, including a “careers” subsite with Ubeoo integration. This avoids creating a collection of isolated silos and instead fosters a cohesive digital ecosystem where management, structure, and brand experience remain aligned.

Support for third-party integrations also had to be flexible. It was important that code snippets could be added securely, with clear instructions and a user guide within the CMS. This creates room for practical expansions without compromising manageability or security.

Accessibility as an Integral Part of the Foundation

In this project, accessibility was not a separate, post-hoc check, but an integral part of the design, content, and technology. WCAG played a key role in the development of components, navigation, forms, and content structure.

This is evident not only in the technical architecture but also in specific features that help visitors make better use of the information. Examples include integrations for screen-reading tools, definitions of terms, and a clear, understandable content structure. This is especially essential in public services: information must not only be available but also truly usable.

Focused on managing, finding, and understanding

For visitors, a website ultimately comes down to a few simple questions: where do I need to go, what do I need to do, and how do I get there quickly? That requires more than just good navigation. It also requires smart search functionality and clear tools.

That is why search functionality is an integral part of the experience. With synonyms in the search and featured search results, the platform can better assist visitors, even if they do not use the exact right terms. That may seem like a small detail, but it is precisely these kinds of choices that make a government website much more useful in practice.

Features such as centralized management of header and footer settings also contribute to this. They ensure consistency across multiple sites and make it easier to effectively organise navigation, service information, and important links platform-wide.

More Than Just Publishing Pages

The journey toward this platform was also explicitly about functionality that goes beyond standard content management. Forms play an important role in this: not just as a point of contact, but as a concrete part of service delivery. Visitors must be able to request, report, or submit something without encountering unnecessary friction.

In addition, features such as live blogs and emergency banners are important. For a water authority in particular, the website is not only a publication channel but also an operational communication tool. When current events and accessibility converge, the platform must be able to respond quickly and in a controlled manner.

These types of features require a CMS that goes beyond individual pages. It requires structure, roles, workflows, and flexible building blocks that support multiple scenarios.

Built for today, designed for tomorrow

What makes this project special is that the result is not just a new website, but a digital platform for the future—a foundation upon which the water authority can continue to build. With campaigns, subsites, new integrations and expansions, and further optimization of services and content.

By working with Wagtail CMS, a design system, flexible components, and an editorial approach that keeps the organisation in the driver’s seat, we’ve created a platform that adapts to new needs. Rather than locking everything down for a single moment, we’ve established a logical foundation that will still make sense in a few years. For visitors, the end result must above all feel intuitive. Quickly get something done. Find something. Understand something. Behind that simplicity lies a long journey of choices, coordination, technology, design, and collaboration. That’s precisely what makes projects like this so rewarding: that the complexity ultimately fades into the background, making way for a digital platform that works.

Acknowledgments

We’d like to thank the Vallei en Veluwe Water Board for the intensive process and the wonderful collaboration. The result is a platform everyone can be proud of. Curious about what we’re talking about? Check it out for yourself at www.vallei-veluwe.nl.