In June this year, Flow Communications won a tender to enhance the South Africa Government Online and Government Communication and Information System’s (GCIS) websites. All government information, from how to apply for a birth certificate to downloading the latest budget speech, is currently provided on a number of sites that have been developed by GCIS.
Flow’s job has been to develop a new over-arching, comprehensive and accessible architecture for all the information and to provide prototypes for the future structure and design of the site.
“This has been a challenging and highly rewarding job where we have focused on the structuring of an overwhelming amount of information, and then have interpreted the results into a navigation framework and design mock-ups that allow citizens, government workers and interested persons to access any information in a logical and intuitive way,” says Tiffany Turkington, Flow Communications’ MD.
The government online portal (www.gov.za) has a wide variety of target markets, from private-sector organisations and businesses to international markets, and is in the process of implementing more interactive information as well as establishing social media profiles.
The project involved the research into and benchmarking of international best practices in online information architecture and Search Engine Optimisation.
“It has been an honour to work with the most prestigious government client in South Africa and to have the opportunity to solve critical problems around the presentation and accessing of information for every person in the country,” says Tara Turkington, Flow’s CEO.