Following its strategy to strengthen information and knowledge management, BIREME and the Centro Nacional de Información de Ciencias Médicas (Infomed) developed an action to restructure and update contents of the VHL Cuba portal.
The new VHL interface was developed based on a careful analysis of the contents already identified and available in the previous portal, and studies on users to identify their main needs, based on focal groups tests and analysis and on access data, as well as on the alignment of the VHL visual identity with other Infomed portals.
Considered an important advance for the country, the relaunch of VHL Cuba was held on December 21st, 2017, in a virtual session coordinated by BIREME and Infomed, aimed to share the portal restructuring with the entire Network.
Dr. Ileana Alfonso, Infomed Director, said that “the update aimed to address the principle of equity in access to sources of information, renewed in the commitment to human development based on health as an irreplaceable value. The Centro Nacional de Información de Ciencias Médicas presents this new VHL architecture based on the information technology paradigm, with decentralized production of text and multimedia sources, and renewed graphic interface.”
The new VHL Cuba introduces a new approach directed to its target audience, i.e., users specialized in Health Sciences. Thus, its new structure brings a method to organize contents according to Infomed priority, intentionality, and function, and customizes and releases contents to different user groups, including: students, specialists, and patients, in addition to facilitating an integrated search in all information resources, both national and international, and specialized information services for these users. This new version enables the user to access the VHL from different platforms, since its interface can be used in various mobile devices.
“The construction of this new face for VHL Cuba follows BIREME’s strategy to promote technical cooperation in information in and between countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the objective of responding to countries’ emerging needs of producing and operating web-integrated health-related sources of information.” (Dr. Ileana Alfonso Sanchez, Infomed director).
Networking achievements
The work of restructuring VHL Cuba with Infomed opened room for the development of a standard visual identity document for the VHL, including page headers and footers. The objective is to strengthen the VHL brand through standardization and good practices in the application of the VHL logo and model, once BIREME has been working to increasingly offer products and services customized to user needs. The document was presented during the launch of the new VHL Cuba and it is available for public consultation to the entire VHL Network in Standard VHL Identity: headers and footers.
With the use of new technologies adopted by BIREME for information and knowledge management, this work mostly focuses on providing information to those users who need it, considering the relation between a product and its user, under the concepts and methodology of User Experience and Information Architecture.