The redesign effort was the result of months of research, analysis and content updates designed to meet the following goals for portal users:

• More intuitive organization of information – By definition, a web portal is a “website that provides a starting point, a gateway, or portal, to other sources on the Internet.” The Virginia.gov portal includes a wealth of information. This redesign uses easy to read classifications for various portal areas to give users a quick way to find information. Meaningful icons serve as visual cues about content and topics. The focus on improved content organization creates a citizen friendly gateway to Commonwealth information and services.
  
  
• Virginia Initiatives – Virginia.gov is now more tightly integrated with Virginia’s current events and issues. The historical “look” coincides with Jamestown’s 400th anniversary. Important Commonwealth issues, such as economic development and transportation, are emphasized through the Business Portal (business.virginia.gov) and links to regional traffic information in our Communities Map Service.
  
  
• New and revamped portal services – New features, such as Richmond’s (Virginia’s capital) weather and the Commonwealth calendar on the homepage give users more immediate access to information. The Community Map Service enables website visitors to find information about counties and cities via both image and text based interfaces. Our “I Want To” feature enables users to enter keywords to find services and forms available throughout Virginia.
  
  
• Expert content delivery – By creating partnerships with agencies, such as the Department of Business Assistance, The Virginia Department of Transportation and Virginia Tourism, subject matter experts have a greater impact on portal content delivery. Information and press release feeds exist in various sections of the portal to ensure the most up to date content for Commonwealth users.
  
  
• Encouraging repeat visitors – Another goal of the redesign was to promote portal usage for everyday activities. From a new “Fact of the Month” feature to display of citizen photography, we hope portal visitors will feel an increased sense of home - in addition to – purpose – when using the Virginia.gov website.