The Friuli Storia Prize, known for recognizing works that combine academic rigor with outstanding storytelling, aims to bring historical narratives to an ever-wider audience.
Moze has developed a new digital platform for Friuli Storia, the Circolo della Storia—an innovative tool that allows readers, publishers, and history enthusiasts to engage interactively and actively participate in the Prize’s activities and other related initiatives.
Getting started
The project was born from a meeting with Tommaso Piffer, historian and founder of the Friuli Storia Prize. Piffer envisioned a platform that would not only serve as an operational tool for managing the prize but also as a digital hub for history enthusiasts. His vision was built on three fundamental pillars: expanding the audience, offering new opportunities for participation in the Prize, and promoting original cultural initiatives.
To bring these ideas to life, we launched the project with a Co-design Workshop, involving the Friuli Storia Association team to gain a deep understanding of their needs.
During the workshop, we mapped operational workflows, defined the platform’s key requirements, and outlined a development roadmap. The work was structured into two main phases, aiming for a gradual release while monitoring the impact of new features on users.
Agile development
We adopted an Agile approach for the project, breaking the work into iterative sprints and incremental releases. This method allowed the Friuli Storia team to quickly obtain a functional first version of the platform and gather valuable feedback to refine the product in subsequent phases.
The first release, completed in April 2024, introduced the core features for managing the Prize. This version allowed publishers to submit their works, readers to register as jury members and vote for their favorite book, and the Association’s staff to manage all operations from the back-end. During this phase, access to the site was limited to invited users, enabling functionality testing in a controlled environment.
The second release, completed in September 2024, further enhanced the platform with additional features, including a “member-get-member” system to foster community growth, a dedicated events section, a rich editorial area with exclusive content, and new tools to boost user engagement.
Tech stack
We developed the platform on WordPress for its versatility and the availability of ready-to-use tools like WooCommerce for online transactions. As always, we created a fully customized theme and structured the database according to the project’s needs, leveraging native features such as Custom Post Types, Custom Taxonomies, and Advanced Custom Fields (ACF).
WooCommerce handles payments and subscriptions, enabling access to exclusive content and members-only activities.
Keep going
In early 2025, we worked with Circolo della Storia to expand the project and make it accessible to an even wider audience. The platform is now open: articles, interviews and in-depth features can be accessed without registering, which remains available only when really needed - to participate in events or support the project.
Alongside the editorial section, which features a wealth of content produced by the Circolo editorial team and now open to the public, a section dedicated to local Circoli has been introduced. Here, users can find a calendar of events in their city, select one or more Circoli and sign up to receive personalised updates.
Finally, to ensure the continuity of the Circolo's activities, we introduced the option of supporting it with annual subscriptions: we therefore designed a simple and clear page with annual plans managed through WooCommerce Subscriptions. People can activate a subscription in just a few steps and manage it independently from their preferences panel. Alongside subscriptions, there is always the option of making a single donation to support the Circolo.
The result is a more open and action-oriented platform: read, participate, support. A single place where the national community of Circolo della Storia can find content, events and tools to contribute to the growth of the project.
Circolo della Storia will continue to evolve, with new features already planned for upcoming releases. We look forward to sharing with you the next chapters of this digital project that promotes a wonderful cultural initiative.
Chiara Filipponi Direttore generale, Associazione Friuli Storia
