A Modern Face for a Digital Pioneer – eGA 2.0

A global mission in need of a digital upgrade

The e-Governance Academy (eGA) has spent years shaping how governments go digital, helping countries build secure, transparent, and citizen-friendly societies. Yet, while eGA was busy teaching the world about digital governance, their own website was ready to work on getting a diploma in modernity.

In 2024, they asked for an accessible and truly future-proof website to properly reflect their global mission and growing portfolio. And that’s where our web development team stepped in.

After winning the public procurement, we were selected to develop and launch the new eGA website and ensure its long-term success through a year of dedicated maintenance and support.

A partnership built on trust and speed

The project officially kicked off in August 2024, and frankly, working with eGA was an absolute dream. The collaboration felt like a true partnership from day one. They were organized, decisive, and exceptionally quick to respond, which meant the entire process zipped along efficiently.

We quickly established a consistent workflow with weekly check-ins and locked-down communication channels, keeping everyone perfectly aligned. Our core technical goal was to provide expert web development to take the design created by a third-party agency and bring it to life on our highly accessible, modular WordPress foundation.

Halfway through the process, we hit an unexpected curveball – the external design agency decided to call it a day and closed shop. Suddenly, we had an almost finished creation in our hands, missing a few pieces.

We immediately initiated a rapid and intensive design and web development sync. This session was critical as we reviewed existing elements, identified areas that could be simplified for efficiency, and reframed technically complex features. This way, we were able to quickly sketch, test, and refine the missing pieces ourselves, ensuring seamless integration and keeping the entire project on track.

The new eGA website was successfully launched in December 2024 – on time and on scope.

Technical deep dive

The scope required solving several complex logistical and technical puzzles. We viewed these hurdles not as blockers, but as an opportunity to prove the robustness of our modular web development approach.

Accessibility first – conquering high contrast mode

Accessibility was a primary focus for eGA, extending beyond standard requirements to include a fully functional high contrast mode (H.C.M.). We quickly found that H.C.M. isn’t just a simple color flip. Every single element – borders, icons, buttons, and backgrounds – had to be manually reviewed and adjusted to ensure maximum contrast and usability for users who rely on this functionality.

The great legacy content migration

Years of mission-critical content from the old site needed to be moved to the new structure. What sounded simple was a painstaking process requiring time and care to ensure data integrity and clean formatting. The successful migration resulted in a consistent and easy-to-manage content library moving forward.

Layout gymnastics and logic puzzles

Two front-end features required intense technical precision:

• The projects view filter: This was arguably the most technically demanding feature. It required custom logic to pull and group content from multiple, non-uniform data sources – a real logic puzzle that demanded precision and patience to solve correctly.
• The insights grid layout: This deceptively simple visual design required alternating between rows of two and three cards, mirrored with each new line. Achieving this perfect, flexible layout across all screen sizes took careful calculation and meticulous layout tuning.

Results

1. A modern, accessible, and future-ready website that reflects eGA’s global mission.
2. Simplified content management through a modular and flexible WordPress setup.
3. Extended partnership – after launch, eGA trusted us with the development of KnowCyber.eu and CyberDiplomacy.ee , plus ongoing support and improvements.
4. A strong collaboration with one of Estonia’s most internationally recognized digital organizations.

eGA’s collaboration with gotoandPlay began in 2024. Their work is characterized by impressive professionalism, speed in resolving issues, and accuracy in implementing solutions and handling administrative matters. For larger web development projects, the work is divided into blocks that are clear and understandable to the client, which allows smooth tracking of the development process. Any issues that arise during development are addressed in a timely manner, and solutions are proposed to overcome them. All of this makes the collaboration smooth and effective. Therefore, it’s no surprise that deadlines are met and the results are both visually pleasing and make the work easier.

Anu Vahtra-Hellat, Communications Manager e-Governance Academy

Read more about our vision and meet the minds powering projects like e-Governance Academy here .