News

d-SIRE develops first fully accessible platform for social and volunteering activities in Germany

Aktion Mensch's volunteer brokerage service is making a huge leap forward: Its database, which has existed since 2008, has been fundamentally updated and expanded into a comprehensive platform.

The new volunteering platform has been online on Aktion Mensch's web portal for several weeks now. But not only there: The entire application can also be integrated by partners free of charge on external websites, for example by regional volunteer agencies. By means of a simple configuration, they can even adapt the design and functionality of the application to their individual requirements and respective corporate designs.

During the project, numerous workshops were held with experts from volunteer brokers as well as with active volunteers. This has helped to ensure user acceptance by both target groups from the very beginning.

As part of the project, d-SIRE was involved in consulting, UX concept and design, as well as being responsible for the entire technical implementation of the frontend and backend. The application was implemented in the Microsoft Azure Cloud and offers APIs for connecting external services.

Digital accessibility is of great importance to Aktion Mensch. For this reason, not only the public website, but also the closed area for the administration environment was implemented in full conformity to WCAG requirements.

Links:

• Volunteer Platform at Aktion Mensch
• Example for external integration at freilich Bayern
• Administration Environment

Stolpersteine Deutschland – an App against Oblivion

An app to commemorate people who must never be forgotten: In conjunction with the "Stolpersteine" (stumbling stones) art memorial, we would like to digitally support the culture of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism.

To do this, we use and compile publicly available data from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap. The personal stories and fates are thus made directly accessible at the places in Germany where they were written. Already at launch, more than 20,000 Stolpersteine are available in the app. More will be added by us on a regular basis.

The largest decentralized memorial in the world: "A person is not forgotten until his name is forgotten," Gunter Demnig quotes the Talmud. To commemorate the victims of the Nazi era, the artist inserts small brass memorial plaques into the sidewalk in front of their last self-chosen place of residence or work. Demnig began with a first stumbling block in 1992, and there are now more than 80,000 in over 1,000 German communities and 21 countries. The art project is considered the largest decentralized memorial in the world and focuses on the people who were persecuted, murdered, deported or expelled during the Nazi regime.

Free download of the app for iOS and iPad OS and for Android devices

Taste & vote – with our App for the Wine Festival

"In 80 days around the wine" is the motto of this year's wine festival in Koblenz. The festival invites all wine enthusiasts to get to know the regional wine-growing regions as well as that of the guest region Wachau from Austria. The app, developed by d-SIRE, offers extensive content about the festival wines, winemakers and wine regions and provides daily updated information and dates for the numerous events. In addition, visitors can vote for their personal "Wine of the Day" and win attractive prizes.

The election of the "WeinKaiserWein" is the highlight of the event, which takes place over the entire festival period: the wine that has particularly captured the hearts of festival guests is nominated via the app's voting tool. After the unveiling at the closing event, this wine may ceremoniously bear the award "WeinKaiserWein 2022" until the next wine festival.

You can download the free app in the iOS App Store and in the Google Play Store.

AOK extends accessibility consulting mandate

We are very pleased to have also succeeded in winning the AOK's second Europe-wide tender with regard to digital accessibility, with which we can now continue the successful collaboration that began in 2019 through 2025.

With an expanded scope of services, we are now consulting - in addition to the AOK Federal Association - all eleven regional AOKs and will again carry out numerous audits of websites and apps as part of this mandate. In addition, we are supporting the teams of the health insurance company in increasing the accessibility of online offerings through Plain Language and videos in German sign language.

Online store for the Berlin perfume manufactory BIRKHOLZ

"The most beautiful compliment is the smile on your lips, conjured up by the perfect fragrance." says perfume sommelier Philip Birkholz. The individual BIRKHOLZ perfumes are creations for people who are looking for something very special. Highest quality ingredients with up to 25% perfume oil content. Exclusive design. Personalizable. Handmade in Germany.

Based on Shopify, d-SIRE has launched the online store for birkholz-perfumes.com, whereby the exquisite compositions can also be purchased online directly from the manufactory. A fragrance navigator assists in finding a new favorite perfume, as do the sample sets that customers can customize. Anyone wishing to embark on a virtual scent journey with the perfume sommelier can book this via a reservation tool.

A visit to the impressive perfume bar with its fantastic filling station near Ku'damm is also worthwhile to get perhaps the best whiff of Berlin air!

Beautiful. Powerful. You.
New Online Shop for Judith Williams

Judith Williams is a personality brand and beauty expert. She is a businesswoman, family person, investor in the TV show "Höhle der Löwen" and a socially engaged ambassador. An enabler. Out of love for cosmetics, she founded Judith Williams Cosmetics in 2007 and became the most successful brand in European shopping TV. Today, it has grown into a company with international reach and European production facilities, a successful company with a face and a lot of passion!

Since December 2020, Judith Williams has also been selling her cosmetics products for the first time directly through digital channels. Her strong personality naturally takes a central role in the online store – because no one knows the products better than Judith Williams herself, and no one else could present them more convincingly.

Our task was to combine emotional storytelling with a unique shopping experience to create an extraordinary brand experience. In addition to the development of the visual and interface design, we were responsible for the communication concept, content modeling, wireframing, digital user experience, and SEO. The store implementation was done by a technical service provider in close cooperation with us.

Campaign launch for World AIDS Day 2020

Under the title "Living with HIV - different than you think", this year's World AIDS Day campaign is showing the reality of HIV-infected people in their everyday lives. Contrary to common belief, they emphasize that an almost completely normal and relaxed life with HIV is possible, and that the infection hardly plays a role in their daily routines.

The World AIDS Day takes place annually on December 1. It aims to promote solidarity for people with HIV and AIDS and to counteract discrimination. It also reminds people who have died as a result of the infection and calls for access to prevention and medical care for all people worldwide. 
Initiators are the Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (German Federal Center for Health Education, BZgA), the Deutsche AIDS Stiftung (German AIDS Foundation) and the Deutsche AIDS Hilfe (German AIDS Federation).

For this year's campaign, d-SIRE has updated the World AIDS Day website and further optimized the accessibility of the website. Technically, the redesign was realized with the Content Management System TYPO3. 

"Be part of a real social network" – Aktion Mensch campaign to promote voluntary work

This years‘ awareness campaign of Aktion Mensch is all about voluntary work. In line with the campaign claim "Mach mit beim echt sozialen Netzwerk" ("Be part of a real social network"), various opportunities are presented to visitors right upon accessing the page for the first time.  By using search and filter functions it is possible to narrow down the list according to personal preferences in a friendly way. This also includes voluntary work that can be done from home – an important aspect in times of COVID-19.

For those who are still undecided how to give a helping hand, the site is offering a self-test to find activities that fit one's personal profile best. In addition, the core message of the campaign is amplified through motivational stories about activists.

d-SIRE was responsible for the optimization and enhancement of the existing database for volunteer opportunities, concept and user interface design as well as for frontend development. The campaign was launched in mid-August 2020 and exceeded expectations within a very short time.

Consulting mandate: digital accessibility for the AOK

With more than 26 million insured persons, the AOK is the largest statutory health insurance in Germany. In addition to the federal association, it consists of 11 independent regional AOKs, which cover several federal states.

As a public sector body within the scope of the EU Directive 2016/2102, the regional AOKs - like all other statutory health insurance companies - must meet the EU-wide harmonized standards for accessibility and some additional requirements of the German BITV 2.0 (Barrierefreie-Informationstechnik-Verordnung). For such a large and at the same time decentralized organisation, this represents a particular challenge

In the course of a public tender, we convinced with our concept and a corresponding package of measures and thus won a consulting mandate lasting several months. Now we are accompanying the process for digital accessibility so that the legal requirements are met in the best possible way within the implementation deadlines. As a first step, we carried out numerous audits of AOK websites and mobile apps in order to analyze the current status and make future improvements measurable. At the same time, we developed extensive guidelines in close cooperation with the AOK federal association. These guidelines are intended to support the individual projects and development teams, provide qualitative and practical support for existing and new projects. The guidelines were made available centrally to the regional AOKs. d-SIRE also led through an introductory webinar for the project managers at the AOK federal association and the regional offices.

We would like to thank for the very good cooperation in this first phase and look forward to continuing to support the process.

Miele launches global brand campaign

In 2019, Miele not only celebrated its 120th anniversary, but also had their largest product launch in the company's history: the ‚Generation 7000‘ line of premium built-in appliances.

The global digital campaign focuses on four protagonists (including three celebrity chefs) who emphasize the premium character of the brand and fill the campaign claim "#LifeBeyondOrdinary" with culinary life. The dishes will be prepared on Miele Generation 7000 built-in appliances.

d-SIRE supported the extensive production of the online advertising media through the various project phases of the campaign. The product features were showcased in a high-quality manner; furthermore, an interactive mobile format with short video clips was developed.

The omnichannel campaign for Germany started after the world premiere at the IFA in Berlin 2019, followed by a global rollout.

Zanzu.no - Sex Education Portal for Norway

Zanzu is a sex education programme aimed particularly at adult migrants. It was originally designed by Sensoa, the Flemish expert centre for sexual health and the German Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA). With its particularly simple, pictorial presentation and reading functions, it provides low-threshold information on these topics, while also taking into account culture-specific sensitivities.

Due to the high acceptance of the German Zanzu website which was realized by d-SIRE, the BZgA received a request from the Helsedirektoratet, the Norwegian Directorate of Health, to adapt the offer for the Scandinavian country as well. The implementation currently covers six languages - from Norwegian to Arabic - and was realized by d-SIRE based on the CMS TYPO3.  

SeeYou App – Create your Party Invites with Augmented Reality

The creation of your next party invite will not only be easy and playful, it will also be full of impressive visual effects: The app "SeeYou" by LBS Nord will provide an exceptional Augmented Reality experience just for this purpose.

Users can create individual invitations and send greetings for a wide variety of occasions. The chosen setting is personalized with (sometimes shrill) 3D objects, own texts, photos or videos - even a giant flamingo can be placed on your living room table. After finishing the composition, an invitation is created, which then can be shared with your prospective guests as an image or video via WhatsApp, Messenger or directly in social networks such as Instagram Stories.

d-SIRE has been responsible for the cross-platform app development as well as for the UX and UI design. The app is available as a free download for iOS and Android in the respective App Stores.

PlasticCheck – active against ocean pollution

Orange Ocean is part of a global movement to counteract plastic pollution of the oceans. The nonprofit organization is working on different projects in the area of research, clean-up activities and particularly media events. It focuses on pragmatic solutions that can bring scalable change. Raising awareness of consumers is a prerequisite for their activation.

As a supporter of Orange Ocean, d-SIRE has developed the PlasticCheck, a tool to calculate potential personal savings of plastic waste. The result of one's commitments can be shared in social networks.

d-SIRE was responsible for the interaction concept, visual design and technical realization of the PlasticCheck.

Streamlined CMS workflows for a global editorial team

The distinctive feature of Crystals from Swarovski is the editorial team, which is spread all over the world and produces content in different languages. Editors can translate relevant content originating in other world regions into their own language version. Our task was to make the CMS workflow as frictionless as possible in order to make a maximum of regional stories globally available - while still ensuring the high visual quality standards of the brand.

d-SIRE was responsible for the concept, design, frontend development and Wordpress implementation of this multilingual site.

Digital accessibility becomes mandatory for all public sector bodies

The first stage of the directive 2016/2102, with which the European Union has significantly extended accessibility requirements regarding the public sector, has entered into force on September 23, 2018. In Germany, the directive has been implemented by supplementing the Bundesgleichstellungsgesetz (Federal Equality Act). Websites as well as PDF and office documents that are published after this date need to be provided in an accessible form within twelve months. We have summarized the most essential aspects of the directive on this page (German language only).

As specialists for digital accessibility, we will gladly answer your questions on current and future requirements.

Smart kick-off for Kaufhof

With Galeria Kaufhof, d-SIRE welcomes a new and renowned entrant in our client portfolio. Since spring 2018, we have supported the Cologne-based department store chain in various online and omnichannel marketing activities.

For our first publicly visible project, d-SIRE has created a sweepstake with a Smart as the top prize in all nation-wide stores. The key campaign goal was the generation of newsletter permissions – online as well as from Kaufhof's bricks and mortar presence.

Aktion Mensch: Familienratgeber relaunched

The online portal "Familienratgeber" provides a great variety of valuable content and services for people with disabilities and their families.

Two aspects have been identified as essential as the starting point of the user journey: On the one hand, the local vicinity to a counselling center, on the other hand, the specific living conditions of people. A nationwide database enables the search for regional offerings which can be filtered by various attributes. The Familienratgeber connects people with over 25,000 initiatives, organizations and social services. Access to extensive information is achieved by selecting from phases of life and by a topical structure.

d-SIRE has redesigned the Familienratgeber visually and implemented it responsively in order to offer the best possible experience on all devices.

"It's your love life – protect it"

"Gib Aids keine Chance" (don't give Aids a chance) and "mach's mit" (join in) belong – without any doubt – to the most successful education campaigns of the last 30 years. During this period, the Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA, Federal Center for Health Education) has achieved an enormous awareness and long-lasting impact on society.  Since 2006, d-SIRE has been in charge of the web-related activities of the AIDS/HIV prevention department.

With the new umbrella brand "LIEBESLEBEN" (Love Life), the BZgA has opened up a new chapter: The previous focus HIV/AIDS is extended and now also includes a variety of other sexually transmitted infections (STI), their symptoms and exposure routes. In addition to this, new target groups are actively addressed in highly differentiated communication forms.

The newly launched website liebesleben.de separates the main target groups on a top level. However, the homepage is dedicated to the information needs of the general population. Two further channels offer professional content for educational workers and journalists.

In order to successfully communicate to a heterogeneous population, the new website dispenses with a conventional hierarchical structure. Instead, the main navigation is conceptualized as a guided search with attributes that can be combined: By doing so, it is possible to easily filter all relevant content to a specific topic with one click.

The modular design concept is based on the Atomic Design approach and ensures consistency across all devices as well as maximum flexibility for content editors to create new pages. Within the project, d-SIRE has been in charge of concept, visual design, development of the responsive frontend and CMS implementation (TYPO3).

More impact for brands and products at Crystals from Swarovski

For more than 100 years, Swarovski, the Tyrol-based crystal manufacturer, has been inspiring creative designers all over the world. Designers are using Swarovski crystals of exceptionally high quality to give their products an extraordinary sparkle, particularly for fashion, jewelry and accessories. This creative variety now manifests itself in the ingredient brand portal "Crystals from Swarovski" in a new dimension: It all centers around products, brands and storytelling.

The unique relationship of Swarovski as manufacturer and its partner brands becomes most tangible on the designers' creations. For the very first time, the portal provides a comprehensive product catalog with a wide selection of brands that is supposed to become a "Crystal Hub" for consumers in their respective market segments. From here, the user journey is seamlessly connected to brand websites and online shops alike.

Existing content formats such as the magazine and the crystal blog have been refined and are now available in a responsive manner – optimized for all devices. Furthermore, customers can verify the authenticity of their crystal-embellished products by means of an individual code that is attached to the product as a tag.

For the development of this multilingual site, d-SIRE was responsible for concept, visual design and frontend development. The backend was implemented by the Swarovski IT department.

New at REWE:
Aktion Mensch Lottery Tickets

To usher in this year’s Christmas sales season, Aktion Mensch is boosting its presence in brick and mortar retail stores. Effective immediately, shoppers will be able to purchase vouchers for lottery tickets offered by the Aktion Mensch at around 3.300 REWE stores all over Germany. 

Single month or all year lottery ticket vouchers are available at stores for purchase. They have to be activated and customized after they have been paid for and make ideal ad-hoc gifts for every occasion. Customers activate their vouchers either online or via phone: Using a PIN code to identify themselves, voucher holders enter their personal data to be used to contact them if they win. As soon they have entered these details they participate in all upcoming drawings for the eligible period.  

To make this project technically possible, several new interfaces to external partners had to be installed, which are now operational in highly available systems. In conjunction with this project, d-SIRE was in charge of the front end detail concept, the visual design and the HTML implementation of the activation sites.

Optimum performance on all devices - the new ADA Cosmetics Store

In 2013, ADA Cosmetics advanced to the Top 100 of Germany’s most innovative medium-sized companies. Boasting an integral product concept, high functionality and modern design combined with ecological consistency, this European leader and supplier of hotel cosmetics has set new standards in its industry. 

To also represent this stance in the digital world and to make it possible for end consumers to enjoy an optimum user experience on all devices, the new store was designed to be highly responsible and efficient. Based on the E-commerce platform Oxid eSales, d-SIRE developed the entire website and implemented the backend. 

Aktion Mensch makes inclusive encounters possible

Encounters can be inspiring, surprising and even irritating. Of course they may also mark the beginning of special relationships. However, in our everyday lifes' personal interactions between handicapped individuals and others tend to occur quite rarely. Consequently, by launching a new campaign focusing on the topic “encounters,” the Aktion Mensch is striving to advance its efforts to create an inclusive society. 

The campaign was rolled out with the video “Das erste Mal” (The First Time): In an unusual casting scenario, about 20 applicants met a second person without any prior briefing except that they were to interact with each other. The pairs scheduled to meet included one person with and one without a handicap. The video shows the surprising and frequently humorous moments as they arose during this experiment. Just a few days after it had been posted online on various platforms, it had already attracted hundreds of thousands of views and generated overwhelmingly positive responses.

The video promotes the Aktion Mensch’s new campaign platform, which will be continuously expanded over the coming year. An interactive quick test covers typical situations that put individuals with and without handicaps in contact with each other and also highlights the uncertainties they face in terms of their behavior. The bridge between encounters in the actual and the digital world has been built by using the hashtag “#begegnet_in” (met_in) with the aim of fostering inclusive encounters through social media and to document such encounters through the posting of selfies. This will   also be the focal point of the upcoming PR event on Equal Rights for Handicapped Individuals on May 5th, which is slated to become the “Day of Interaction.” 

In conjunction with the campaign, d-SIRE will be responsible for the online concept, design and frontend implementation.

Responsive Marc O’Polo web store on demandware

As one of the foremost modern casual brands in the premium segment, Marc O’Polo is launching the go-live of its new online store. Consistent with its brand message, the company is presenting itself as a protagonist of an urban, relaxed lifestyle driven by sophisticated standards.

The assertive website is brilliant thanks to its balanced mix of premium product presentations, inspired shopping options and numerous stories. The fashion brand’s high level of consulting competency is just as evident in the newly created looks section featuring trendy outfits, which are constantly revamped and updated by Marc O’Polo styling teams. Awarded equal importance as the brand aesthetics aspects, the web designers focused on achieving optimum usability and a high level of conversion orientation as they worked on the project. On the front end, the responsive web design is definitely part of what makes the use of the store optimal on all types of devices.

Refreshed look for Juweliere CHRIST

Since 1863, Juweliere CHRIST has been standing for the fascination of jewelry and watches. Yet in the digital age, customers rightfully expect more than excellent products and outstanding service: Successful online shops inspire consumers, are click-efficient and highly conversion-oriented.

The solution that d-SIRE presented in the pitch met the high standards of CHRIST by striking a balance between branding and performance aspects.

The first project phase that has now been completed, encompassed the redesign of the page framework and the optimization of the most important starting points. The new homepage with generous image formats is both strong emotionally and provides attractive incentives to click for various user needs, ranging from branded specials to sales promotions.

Large menus offer direct and versatile access to the entire product range. Category entry pages have been unified and enhanced with editorial elements which lay the groundwork for new forms of storytelling within the shop. Products worlds such as "Jette", "Premium" and "Diamonds" are clear USPs for CHRIST which consequently move into the center of attention.

Within the project, d-SIRE was responsible for the visual design, concept and frontend development.

The New Swarovski B2B-Portal is Responsive

Since the establishment of the company in 1895, Swarovski crystal elements have been known to meet the highest standards in terms of lustrous sparkle, quality and perfection. They have inspired generations of creative talents and have enabled artists to design their own innovative products in sectors such as fashion, jewellry, accessories, interior design and lighting. However, time does not stand still: in recent years, the business customer market environment has become increasingly diverse, significantly more individualized and more demanding.

The premium brand from Tyrol confronts these new challenges in the further development of its entire portfolio, including the digital segment. Consequently, the Swarovski B2B Portal, which was launched in May 2014, represents a new approach to the maintenance of relationships with business customers.

In order to reach potential customers more effectively, a large portion of the content has been made accessible openly for the first time. It is no longer necessary to register and/or log in.

Given that personal customer service is Swarovski’s absolute number one priority, the company also placed a lot of emphasis on ensuring that the bar for customers to initiate contacts was lowered significantly: the objective is to generate new leads to potential new accounts in a target-oriented manner while the dialog with existing customers is maintained continuously.

The B2B Portal has been implemented in a fully responsive manner, which warrants the optimum operability on all end devices in an exemplary fashion. The content pages are based on modular concepts, which facilitates the performance of ongoing maintenance work. Within the scope of this project, d-SIRE was responsible for the provision of consulting services, the concept development, the digital adaption of the corporate design, the graphic design and the development of the responsive frontend template. The Backend implementation was handled by Swarovski’s in-house IT department.

"Gib Aids keine Chance" successfully migrated to TYPO3

From now on Typo3 – the well-known Enterprise Content Management System is the new technological base for the educational website "Gib Aids keine Chance" of the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA). Besides comprehensive information regarding HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted infections, the web portal provides offerings for personal consultation and a large selection of methods for professional prevention workers. During the migration process, d-SIRE has put particular effort on maintaining the award-winning accessibility level within the new system environment.