Design development of the COVID-19 informational State Chancellery website.
Challenge
Develop the official portal within less than 2 weeks to inform Latvian residents about Covid-19 updates in Latvia and worldwide.
Solution
To launch the page in an absolutely unprecedented timeframe, all possible human resources were engaged on the iConcept side. Twelve people worked in three shifts, dividing responsibilities both by stages and replacing each other at times when "they simply couldn't anymore." The main aim was to reduce the gap between official announcements and the public. Therefore, it was intuitively and immediately decided that the strategy would be based on user-centered content and structure. Starting with everything being quickly accessible on the website and ending with information explained in plain language. No bureaucratic complexity and nothing unnecessary. Another challenge is that information is constantly changing, and as the situation evolves, it becomes clear that priorities will also change. For example, initially, it was important to explain the repatriation process, but it had a deadline. Therefore, we agreed with the State Chancellery on two things. First, the website will provide "essential" information, but it will then lead to the relevant institutions' pages. Second, there will be an option to rearrange the order of information blocks. Thus, when there are, for example, major changes in the education system, it will be immediately noticeable upon entering the site. This foundation, on which the entire project was based, was developed at a rapid pace. Thanks are due not only to our team but also to the State Chancellery team, who were ready to respond and approve our ideas 24 hours a day. The page has been integrated with data.gov.lv, which reflects all current data on Covid-19 in Latvia, and integration with the open data portal for Covid-19 data worldwide. The available and convenient Drupal was used for the solution.
View page: https://covid19.gov.lv