Challenge
The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) faced significant challenges with its legacy website. This outdated platform was not only difficult for the public to navigate but also cumbersome for internal teams to maintain. Moreover, the website did not comply with important accessibility standards (Section 508), making it hard for all users to access the information they needed.
Solution
NexGen Technologies has spearheaded a comprehensive redesign and modernization of the National Interagency Fire Center's (NIFC) official website, NIFC.gov, leveraging the advanced capabilities of the Drupal 9 platform. This initiative was aimed at enhancing the site’s content management system (CMS) to provide a robust, user-friendly, and mobile-responsive interface. The upgraded public-facing site now serves as a critical resource for eight federal agencies involved in Wildland Fire Management and Emergency Response operations.
Utilizing Design Thinking and Sprint methodologies, our team crafted a digital environment tailored to diverse user personas, ensuring an intuitive and inclusive user experience. Over 100 webpages underwent meticulous design and development, transitioning to the new Drupal 9 platform. The homepage features a dynamic and engaging layout with a scrolling Hero image, assorted content blocks, and up-to-date Fire statistics that captivate and inform site visitors.
In line with the latest design trends, the website incorporates cascading menus for streamlined navigation, integrated social media feeds to enhance engagement across platforms, and libraries of reusable images and videos to support content versatility. To drastically reduce the labor involved in updating Fire statistics, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) was implemented, cutting down data processing time from hours to mere minutes—a reduction of 80 to 90 percent.
Furthermore, the site adheres to the newest accessibility standards, including Section 508 compliance. It features an innovative "toggle" capability, allowing users to customize how they view content based on their accessibility needs.
This commitment to accessibility underscores our dedication to creating a site that is not only functional and efficient but also inclusive, ensuring all users have equal access to vital information.
About NexGen:
NexGen Technologies (NexGen) provides the people, processes, and solutions that help make innovative IT transformation possible across your systems and applications.
We specialize in delivering top-tier IT support services, specifically tailored for the unique needs of the federal government. Our dedicated team combines cutting-edge technology with deep industry expertise to ensure your projects meet the highest standards of quality and security.
For more information, please contact NexGen at info@nexgeninc.com or (720) 377-1800.
