A better way forward.
A city website has to work for everyone. Turku needed a coherent, accessible service and a foundation its teams could keep building on.
About the client
Turku is Finland’s sixth-largest municipality and one of the country’s most significant urban areas. The city’s main communication channel, turku.fi, serves around 200,000 residents and other stakeholders by providing easy access to city services, up-to-date information, and opportunities for civic participation. The website plays a vital role in the city’s daily life – making Turku’s operations more transparent, efficient, and resident-oriented.
The goal
Mearra has been the City of Turku’s trusted digital partner for over a decade, working together on numerous initiatives – from earlier website redesigns to continuous development, maintenance, and the “Digikannustin” project.
This story focuses on the most recent complete renewal of turku.fi, one of the most significant joint projects to date. The goal was to create a user-centric, accessible, and future-proof municipal website that offers a first-class experience for both residents and city employees. The renewal was also a technical necessity: the Drupal 7 platform had reached the end of its lifecycle, requiring a modern foundation for the city’s digital presence.
The starting point for the renewal was to design and implement a new kind of website for the City of Turku – one aligned with the city’s strategy, new management model, and digital and data strategy. The key principle was to ensure customer and user orientation.
The new site had to serve diverse user groups and a large community of content creators. Equally important was a unified, easily scalable brand identity that could be applied across all city services. To support this, the project also included the design and implementation of the Turku Design System.
A beta version was released in fall 2024, and user feedback was utilized in the finalization phase before the official launch. This ensured the end result truly met the needs of both residents and content creators.
Key objectives included:
- Designing for diverse user groups
- Creating and implementing the Turku Design System
- Integrating systems to streamline data flow and efficiency
- Ensuring accessibility and usability at WCAG 2.1 AA level
- Building an information architecture that supports intuitive navigation and discoverability
- Strengthening the city’s visual and content identity
The solution
The scope and complexity of Turku’s digital ecosystem required a project model that combined the best of waterfall and agile methods.
This hybrid model proved to be the perfect choice – allowing adjustments and reprioritizations along the way without compromising schedule or quality.
During the project, the focus was redirected or refined several times. Without mutual flexibility and open communication, the project could not have been completed on time and with such excellent results.
Mearra’s extensive experience in developing large-scale municipal digital services was evident throughout the project. The team combined proven solutions with tailored development exactly where they brought the most value.
Mearra’s roles and responsibilities:
Service design, UX/UI design, and Design System creation
- Service path and information architecture design
- User interface and visual design
- Strengthening the city brand online (even the 404 page made headlines on Yle News!)
- Achieving and maintaining WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility
- Building a modular and reusable Design System
The Turku Design System work has been exceptionally well-structured and exemplary. I’d give it 10+ to Mearra!
Development and architecture
- Overall and system architecture
- Frontend and backend development
- Extensive integrations and data flow management
- Analytics and dashboards supporting data-driven decision making
Mearra’s frontend developers built the Storybook component library alongside the Design System, while backend developers handled numerous critical integrations and infrastructure tasks.
Project management and collaboration
- Close collaboration between project managers ensured controlled progress
- Open, proactive communication kept both client and development teams aligned
- Optimized meeting practices supported efficient and human-centered teamwork
Hosting and infrastructure
- High-security hosting environment located in Finland
- Automatically scalable and resilient infrastructure
- CDN and WAF solutions protecting the digital service
- A dedicated backup site ensuring continuity of communication in crisis situations
Mearra has been a reliable and diligent partner for the city. As the world becomes increasingly complex and cybersecurity threats grow, Mearra has provided top-level expertise and security for the City of Turku.
The results
Turku.fi is now a modern, accessible, and brand-consistent digital platform serving a broad and diverse user base.
The service makes everyday life smoother for residents and improves the city’s operational efficiency.
In addition to their expertise, Mearra’s real strength lies in their relaxed, down-to-earth culture. People are treated as people – with respect and empathy. Even with the inevitable pressures of deadlines and budgets, collaboration felt truly meaningful – often even fun and joyful!
The renewal was completed on time and within budget, meeting – and in many aspects exceeding – the set goals. This success was made possible by Turku’s courage and trust, combined with Mearra’s diverse expertise.
For many Mearra team members, the project was personally meaningful: a large part of the team comes from Turku, which showed in their exceptional commitment and pride in the work.
Thanks to Mearra’s diverse professionals, we’ve also gained fresh perspectives on current trends like AI utilization. Mearra has outstanding expertise in service design, user-centeredness, and usability – topics we’ve actively explored together.
So far this year, the site has had over 4 million visits and more than 2 million unique visitors.
The partnership between the City of Turku and Mearra continues, ensuring that digital services keep working seamlessly – on both sides of the river and beyond.
P.S. Feel free to explore the renewed turku.fi – and read more about the project from the city’s perspective.