The Joinup platform plays many roles such as being an online repository of shared and reusable ICT solutions, a collaborative space, an observatory of all things Open Source and eGovernment-related. New enhancements are required in order to keep Joinup in line with the policy needs and to help further improve digital public services for businesses and citizens while assisting Member States in doing so with less effort and costs.

The first steps towards this goal have been taken – by listening to you, the users. The Joinup Team has been meticulously collecting, sorting and categorising all incoming user feedback. Your responses and opinions have set in motion a process that aims to challenge existing Joinup concepts such as its philosophy, visual and user interaction, as well as its technical underpinnings. Your input made one thing clear from the onset: sometimes, you need to judge a book by its cover. Joinup’s user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) was a common denominator in your feedback.

It was now clear where to start from. The Joinup Team launched a UX audit from which valuable feedback and insights were gathered regarding the platform’s current state of human-computer interaction. On top of that, the team sought further input via dedicated virtual meetings, like the recent Joinup User Group Meeting, and arranged related online brainstorming sessions with key Joinup stakeholders.

This page will serve as a space in which all major UI/UX improvement activities will be announced, as they happen on the platform. In order to ensure a smooth transition, and allow user familiarity, these improvements will first be put through a testing phase and showcased to users via Joinup’s Demo environment. As usual, your feedback will be highly appreciated and welcomed during this stage.

We are all in this together.

The Joinup Team

 

UI/UX Improvement Activities

Date	Description	Status
February - July 2022	Gradually apply new theme to the platform	In progress
January 2022	Release of new Advanced Search Page	Completed
29 November 2021	Release of new Home Page	Completed
November 2021	Migration to EC’s corporate Drupal pipeline that offers full automation for Continuous Integration/Deployment (CI/CD) with full DevOps support	Completed
October 2021	Testing of intermediate Home Page design in the Joinup Demo environment by invited users	Completed
March - June 2021	Initiation of backend UI/UX implementation on Home Page and Search/Advanced Search pages	Completed
January - February 2021	Brainstorming sessions with Joinup stakeholders	Completed
November 2020	Joinup User Group Meeting -- Presentation of UX recommendations/UI prototype & brainstorming on the future of the platform	Completed
October - November 2020	Creation of UI prototype based on UX audit results & user interviews	Completed
October 2020	UX audit results & recommendations	Completed
August - September 2020	UX audit process	Completed