MACH-Transformation & Relaunch of the austria.info website

MACH is microservices, API-first, cloud-native and headless. These principles are critical for modern digital platforms as they provide flexibility, speed and scalability. By transforming the Austria.info platform from a legacy, monolithic CMS to a MACH architecture, we laid the foundation for a future-proof digital strategy.

The first phase focused on the strategic realignment of the website. Our team of UX designers, strategists and technical consultants worked closely with the Austrian National Tourist Office to take into account the requirements of different markets and languages. The goal was to create a scalable and user-friendly platform that would meet the diverse needs of the international audience.

We developed a fresh, user-centric design for the new site. At the same time, we created a flexible content model that allowed for streamlined multilingual content creation processes in collaboration with the client. Using Storyblok as a headless CMS allowed content to be managed efficiently across all markets.

The core of the project was the technical transformation of the old CMS structure into a MACH-based system. The integration of Storyblok as a headless CMS, Algolia for search and Scaleflex for digital asset management (DAM) provided a highly scalable and performant platform. The API-first approach ensured that the microservices worked seamlessly together and that the cloud-native infrastructure was future-proof.

By choosing Nuxt 3 for the frontend, we optimised the user experience and speed of the site. Nuxt 3 has enabled us to develop a high performance and scalable solution, specifically tailored to the needs of a global market with high traffic volumes

Another area of focus was search engine optimisation (SEO) and tracking. By implementing a holistic SEO approach and integrating advanced tracking tools, the visibility of the website in search engines has been significantly improved.

At the heart of the MACH transformation is Storyblok, a headless content management system (CMS) that fits perfectly with the MACH philosophy. The headless approach means that the backend - where content is created and managed - is completely decoupled from how it is presented in the frontend. This separation has many advantages:

• Content delivery flexibility: Content is delivered to different channels or front-ends (website, mobile apps, etc.) via APIs. This makes it possible to create content once and then distribute it to different frontends and platforms - a useful feature for a site that operates in 20 languages and multiple markets.

• Content reusability: Storyblok enables the creation of modular content that can be adapted for different markets and languages. This means that editors at Austria Werbung can flexibly use and adapt centrally created content for different target markets, significantly increasing the efficiency of content creation and management.

• Optimal developer friendliness: Developers are free to choose which front-end technologies they use to present Storyblok content. For this project, we chose Nuxt 3, a powerful framework that offers high performance and flexibility in frontend design.

• SEO optimisation: Storyblok offers extensive options for SEO optimisation, which maximises the visibility of content in search engines. In a highly competitive global market, this is essential to keep users on the site and continually increase reach.

In addition to Storyblok, we have integrated two other key components of the MACH architecture:

• Algolia: Algolia was chosen for the search functionality because it delivers lightning fast and accurate search results. Especially for a large, multilingual content portal like Austria.info, the quality of the search function is crucial for the user experience.

• Scaleflex: Scaleflex was used for Digital Asset Management (DAM). This solution enables the Austrian National Tourist Office to efficiently manage, optimise and globally distribute a large amount of image and video data. Thanks to the integration into the cloud-native structure, these assets are also quickly available worldwide, which supports an optimal user experience.