Information and Decision Support Center, Cairo, Egypt: Website An Online Knowledge Hub with Simple Clicks IDSC

IDSC launched its website in April 2000, making it one of the pioneering
Egyptian government entities to establish an online presence. Through
this, it declared its vision, strategic objectives, and organizational
structure to the world. The website has undergone multiple
development phases since its inception, culminating in the launch of the
latest version in July 2023. This new iteration of the website serves as a
reflection of the prominent role of IDSC as a leading governmental think
tank. The center is dedicated to supporting decision-making, providing
data, analysis, and accurate assessments to specialized researchers in
political, economic, social, and technological domains. This
commitment stems from the government's recognition of the
significance attached to information accessibility.

Constant Evolution: The Dynamic Purpose Behind IDSC Website’s Ongoing Journy.

Since the beginning of the millennium until the latest version of the website, several iterations have been launched. Each version was tailored to meet the evolving requirements and expectations of users while keeping pace with rapid technological advancements. These upgrades aimed to enhance interactivity, align with user needs.

The website holds significance for decision-makers, the research and academic community, as well as media
and oversight bodies alike. It provides up-to-date and well-documented data, detailed studies, and
comprehensive information to assess and monitor the impact and implementation of policies on both the
national and sectoral levels. The website also offers a wide array of research outputs, whether in written, audio,
or summarized forms, including informational 'infographics', addressing a diverse audience with varying
information needs.

Total 630 words used.

Exploring the Upgrades in the LatestVersion of the Website

The new version of the website is part of the commitment to providing
research and informational services through the latest technological tools.
This effort aims to support general citizens and researchers alike in accessing
various knowledge and research content more easily and swiftly. The
redesigned website facilitates access to a diverse range of research
publications, covering economic, social, administrative, technological, and
other fields, totaling over four thousand publications. The new version
introduces new tools that allow users to select specific sectors of interest,
thereby displaying knowledge or research content tailored to those choices.
This enhances the ease of research and access to various Center
publications and knowledge services in a segmented manner.

Notably, the new version witnessed a significant enhancement in
the main search engine on the homepage of the website. This
upgrade enhances the accuracy of search result displays and the
extraction of required information. The engine is equipped with
the latest advanced search features, contributing to rapid
navigation between the website's pages based on pre-defined
user choices. This feature, in turn, amplifies page views and
interactions on the Center's website, which has already achieved
approximately 7 million views since January 2022.

Moreover, the new version allows each user to create a personal
account to save their preferences, including publications,
research, indicators, and more. This feature saves users the
hassle of searching for materials during each visit, thereby
increasing the number of visits to the Center's website, which
attracted around 2 million visits during the past year, after initially
drawing about 1.5 million visitors.

The development of the website relies on
Progressive Web Application (PWA)
technology, one of the latest web
development techniques worldwide. This
technology can be installed on various
devices, enabling users to install the
Center's website as a standalone
application on smartphones or computers.

This provides users with direct access from their
device's home screen, eliminating the need to
access the website through a browser. Additionally,
the technology allows for automatic updates of the
installed version whenever new content is added to
the website, as long as the user's device is
connected to the internet.

Key Elements of the Latest Website
Version: A Comprehensive Overview
The redesigned website features six main sections:
"Research Programs" - housing prominent political, strategic,
and economic studies, as well as studies promoting sustainable
development policies, digital transformation, and cybersecurity.
"Data Hub" - presenting essential local, African, and Arab
economic indicators, statistics, and local and global price
trends. It includes the "Egypt in Figures" system, detailing the
nation's developmental efforts both nationally and by sector.
Additionally, it hosts the National Studies Database containing
approximately 15,000 diverse studies, as well as 138 statistical
indicators, known for their comprehensiveness, accuracy,
consistency, and currency, covering all development areas in
Egypt.
"Featured Topics" - featuring an advanced search system for
the Center's knowledge content. Results are filtered and
presented according to main and sub-topics and keywords,
along with recommendations for related content. This ensures a
seamless browsing experience and easy access to information.

"Smart Infographics" - in response to the digital
transformation and rapid technological advancements in
handling big data, the Center offers a collection of
intelligent infographics, a first-of-its-kind in Egypt. These
infographics display the temporal evolution of
interconnected economic indicators over more than a
quarter-century, providing updated information in interactive
graphic formats that support economic decision-making.

"Media Corner" - focused on disseminating the Center's
intellectual production in simpler and more engaging
formats, such as infographics, videos, and podcasts. The
new version includes 873 infographics, 529 videos, and 963
audio posts. This enables visitors to access diverse
published materials through new tools, in addition to the
textual news and reports produced by the Center, of which
there are currently 2231 on the website.