DUBAI — The Dubai e-Government Department has launched the 2011 edition of the Government Websites Guidelines (GWG) for Dubai Government entities.
The 2011 GWG was reformulated after rigorous international benchmarking, regional and local government customisation; feedback from key stakeholders in Dubai Government and also builds upon the success of previous Dubai Government websites guidelines and evaluations.
Government entities will be able to view or download the new edition via Dubai e-Government’s corporate website on www.deg.gov.ae.
Ahmed bin Humaidan, Director-General of Dubai e-Government Department, said: “It is very encouraging to see that our government partners in Dubai have responded positively to previous editions of the Government Websites Guidelines. As a result of such a comprehensive GWG standard, the overall Dubai Government websites evaluation results increased from an overall average of 61 per cent in 2006 to 86 per cent in 2010.
However, taking the cue from His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who advised us that the path of excellence and distinction does not stop at a certain stage, we have decided to raise the bar even further and have therefore reformulated the GWG to ensure that we remained customer-focused, and abreast with technology and latest website trends.”
Bin Humaidan said that the new model and the related guidelines for Dubai Government websites will set a new target and benchmark for the government entities in the continuous journey to excellence. “We sincerely believe that compliance with the new guidelines will enhance the customer experience in our governmental websites leading to increased customer satisfaction and higher usage.” Dubai e-Government Department has been evaluating Dubai Government websites since 2006 after providing the required guidelines and standards to ensure a certain level of uniformity and compliance among government websites. The 2011 guidelines are part of this quality initiative and were established after a rigorous international benchmarking exercise including compliance with recommendations laid out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), as well as taking into account the particularities of the Dubai Government. The newly-formulated GWG is based on a strategic ‘Government Websites Excellence Model’ (GWEM) which was developed internally by Dubai e-Government Department. The GWEM is built around a customer-focused concept and consists of 46 guidelines around accessibility, usability and design, content and policies.
The Dubai e-Government Department will conduct biennial (every two years) evaluations of Dubai Government websites for compliance with the new GWG standards.
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