Institutional websites - Project history

The aim of the project is that all public services be accessible in one place, Ísland.is, regardless of which organization provides them.

Research has shown that people often do not know which organization does what. A large percentage of calls to service desks are inquires about services about other organizations provide and precious time is spent redirecting people to other organizations. Online search also provides many results from many organizations and people don´t know which one holds the truth.

It is clear that valuable time, both for staff and service recipients, is often badly spent. The demand to be able to retrieve information and services from the web in a quick and simple manner is growing ever louder.

Merging all public services in one place meets these user needs.

The process

The transfer of an institution to Ísland.is involves:

• Content design where all the content of an organisation is reviewed based on the needs of users and according to the content strategy.

• Implementation of the institution's landing page within the Ísland.is website where users can access information on address, opening hours, staff, policies and other details.

• Closure of the current organization website to prevent duplicate content.

The approach

The basis of content design for the website is the Ísland.is content strategy.

It is based on three conditions that a good information website must meet:

The user is always in focus and emphasis is placed on the fact that for each user need there is only one page containing the answer to it. Duplicate content increases risk of contradicting information and makes the website administrators work more difficult. It is better for the user to be able to trust that Ísland.is contains the correct information, it is designed based on the needs of users and written in simple language. Testing and measurements are conducted to optimise content, sitemap and search for the user.

The content strategy is also accompanied by a handbook which is a good reference material for new webmasters on the Ísland.is website. The aim is to ensure accessibility for all groups to information and services on the web, as well as consistency in the how organizations maintain their content on the website.

Content specialists introduce and teach user-centered methods for content design and hold workshops with a working group. They also provide support to the staff involved in the work on behalf of organization that take part in Ísland.is digital journey.

The Districts Commissioners office was the first to move its content into Ísland.is. It was a large collaboration project between the Districts Commissioners Office staff, Digital Iceland and Stefna. Since then, 15 other institutions have joined the group, with even more waiting to begin work on moving the content over and closing the current website.

Join us

Organizations interested in joining the digital journey are incouraged to apply for collaboration with Digital Iceland.