DGES strengthens digital presence with new Drupal portal

At the time of Javali's intervention, DGES lacked a new webiste that best reflected the innovation and dynamism that characterize it. As technology has evolved, DGES has adapted its services to provide them electronically, thus streamlining processes and making it easier for citizens to communicate with DGES on a daily basis.

The website developed will be the main means of providing services and information to Higher Education Institutions, students, candidates, teachers and other national and foreign citizens. As such, it should allow various aspects to work in a harmonious, innovative and technologically advanced way.

In order to meet this requirement, the design was conceived to focus on DGES's various target audiences, so that access to the information addressed to them is simple, quick and intuitive.

It also features a responsive design, which seeks to provide a user experience that satisfies all users, making it easy to read and navigate regardless of the type of equipment they use to access the internet (PC, tablets and smartphones), connection speed and the special needs of some citizens.

Reflecting this commitment, the new DGES website follows international best practices in terms of accessibility, as well as the applicable national legislation, namely the National Digital Interoperability Regulation (RNID), which is an integral part of Law no. 36/2011, of June 21. This law establishes the adoption of open standards in state IT systems and requires the intermediate level (level AA) of accessibility guidelines.

The new DGES website also seeks to comply with the maximum level of the accessibility guidelines (level AAA) for web content (WCAG), version 2.0, of the Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Since October 2012, these guidelines have been an international standard (ISO/IEC 40500:2012).

With regard to the functionalities required by DGES, Javali used the Drupal content manager, a completely free CMS (Content Management System) with no licensing costs.

In this project, in which we defined strategy, design and carried out development, which are common to a project of this size, we highlight the interconnection with AMA payment systems, the creation of reserved areas for sharing information, and the integration of authentication systems internal to DGES. The project also included the development of various online forms, searches of the training offer database and other relevant forms for DGES.

"DGES was pleased with the commitment Javali showed in revamping its website. It was a project that presented some interesting and difficult challenges, which were overcome," says DGES.

Visit the new portal at: http://www.dges.gov.pt