Case study — Government
Three public portals for the Czech state, one shared platform
The Ministry of the Interior, the Police of the Czech Republic, and the Fire Rescue Service replaced a sixteen-year-old system with a single shared platform — accessible, compliant, and built on the official gov.cz Design System.
Ministry of the Interior
One platform, three institutions
Three institutions, one shared platform
A small core team publishes for the entire portfolio and administers the shared platform — one system, three institutional identities.
Roughly 600 active editors (around 1,300 in total) manage content across regional directorates, departments, and agendas with branch-level permissions.
Around 100 editors maintain national and regional content on the same trusted tree structure and editorial workflow.
3
Institutions (MVČR, PČR, HZS)
gov.cz
Design System
WCAG
Accessible public portals
2025
Ongoing since
One platform, three institutions
One foundation — three institutions, three independent identities
Each institution keeps its own domain, its own visual identity, and its own content tree that mirrors its real org structure — regional directorates, departments, agendas. What is shared is the infrastructure, the editorial workflow, the compliance baseline, and the team that maintains it all. Browse the three live homepages below.
Ministry of the Interior
The homepage puts the most-searched citizen agendas front and centre, flows into curated news and key policy topics, and closes with live social-media feeds.
The challenge
Sixteen years of legacy, three institutions, one mandate to modernise
For sixteen years the web presence of the Ministry of the Interior, the Police, and the Fire Rescue Service ran on an ageing proprietary editorial system with deep vendor lock-in. It could no longer keep pace with today's accessibility, security, and legislative obligations — and every change meant negotiating with the technology rather than the content.
Classified as a Významný informační systém (VIS), the platform has to stay continuously available and resilient under heavy traffic spikes during crisis events and against DDoS. It had to satisfy the Czech accessibility act (zák. 99/2019) and WCAG, and align with NIS2, GDPR, and free-access-to-information rules — all on a modern, sustainable, open-source-friendly stack with no vendor lock-in.
What we delivered
Full-scope delivery of the public portals — not just a redesign
We delivered the citizen-facing portals end to end and built the editorial platform behind them. Every discipline below fed into one outcome: accessible, compliant public websites the state genuinely owns.
Inside the portals
Real public services, shipped and in production
Every screen below is a live capture of the delivered portals — and every one of them is content published and managed through SDX Sites.
Built on SDX SitesThe editorial platform all three portals run on — our product.Explore the productPlatform scope
One platform, a portfolio of e-services
Beyond the three portals, the same foundation powers a broad portfolio of public e-services — traffic-accident records, persons and vehicle search, invalid-document checks, the register of political parties, public collections, and more. Each institution runs its own services, yet they share one design system and one publishing infrastructure.
- Distinct public subdomains for each institution, all unified under one CMS.
- A consistent gov.cz Design System across every application keeps accessibility intact throughout.
- Services span law enforcement, civil records, and emergency services — managed from a single platform.
Information architecture
A deep information architecture, fully structured
We designed and delivered the full information architecture for all three institutions — the Ministry of the Interior, the Police, and the Fire Rescue Service. The map shown here is the Police: policie.gov.cz spans nine top-level sections and dozens of nested pages, from citizen services like the emergency line and crime reporting to specialist databases and prevention resources. SDX Sites manages each institution's tree, so editors always know exactly where every page lives.
Snapshot: the Police site map (policie.gov.cz) — delivered the same way for MVČR and HZS.
- Nine primary sections covering the full public-service scope — from citizen reporting to procurement.
- Editorial workflow states (published, pending, highlighted) are visible directly in the content tree.
- Specialist sections — central firearms registry, crime maps, accident statistics — show deep, domain-specific organisation.
Example: the Pátrání po osobách application, integrated into the Police portal.
Integrated application
An integrated persons-search application
Pátrání po osobách is one example of a Police application we integrated into the portal. Its live data — wanted and missing persons — is surfaced directly inside the gov.cz Design System, so a specialised source system reads as a seamless part of the public site rather than a separate tool.
- An existing Police application integrated into the portal — its data flows in live, with no separate interface to learn.
- Surfaced natively in the gov.cz Design System, so the integrated app matches the rest of the site.
- Structured filters (status, name, place of residence) and priority categories for the most urgent cases.
Redesigned feature
A vast contact directory, made navigable
The Police maintain a huge directory of units and contacts across the whole country, and the previous version was cumbersome to navigate. We redesigned it into something genuinely usable: clear, structured contact cards — GPS, data box, phone, email, and territorial jurisdiction, with building and officer photos — plus an address search that routes citizens straight to the responsible station.
- Redesigned from a cumbersome legacy directory into a clean, scannable layout.
- Built to carry the Police's very large volume of units and contacts without overwhelming the visitor.
- Structured cards (GPS, data box, phone, email, jurisdiction) and an address-based station finder.
Shown: an article — just one of many page types editors compose from these blocks.
Content building blocks
Far more than text and images
An article is just the start. Editors compose pages from a rich set of blocks within the gov.cz Design System — from submittable forms to media, galleries, and embedded applications — and publish straight into an accessible layout.
- Submittable forms citizens fill in and send directly on the page.
- Audio and rich media embedded inline.
- Contacts and photo galleries as ready-made blocks.
- Embedded applications surfaced inside a page.
- Nested subpages for structuring larger sections.
Cross-institution service
A unified civil-service vacancy board
Vacancies across the Police, the Customs Administration, and the Fire Rescue Service are published through a single searchable interface on the Ministry of the Interior site. Citizens filter by corps, rank, tariff grade, region, and availability date — and subscribe to receive new postings by email.
- Positions from multiple security corps — Police, Customs, Fire Rescue — searchable in one place.
- Granular filters (rank, tariff class, region, selection procedure) narrow results without free-text search.
- Email subscription keeps candidates informed of new openings automatically.
Campaign page
A full recruitment landing page, editor-built
The Police recruitment experience runs on SDX Sites, bringing the whole "join us" journey into the gov.cz Design System. Hero, role portraits, benefit cards, news, and a contact form coexist on one accessible page — composed and kept current by editorial staff, with no developer involvement.
- Hero, role portraits, feature cards, news, and a contact form — all composed through the CMS.
- Structure and visual language conform to the gov.cz Design System and the accessibility act.
- Editors update portraits, role descriptions, and news independently to keep content current.
Integration
A live map, embedded inside the official portal
Map-based information is rendered natively inside the gov.cz Design System layout — no redirect, no third-party frame. An interactive GIS map sits in the same page as everything else, with incident detail popups showing location, time range, and description inline, so citizens never leave the official domain.
- An interactive GIS map embedded natively in the gov.cz Design System page layout.
- Incident popups display location, time range, and description inline on the map.
- Map data is surfaced through the standard CMS content pipeline.
Accessibility
Responsive and accessible by default
The portals deliver a consistent, fully responsive experience from mobile to desktop. A persistent accessibility toolbar gives every visitor direct control over high contrast, font size, and an easy-to-read mode — meeting the Czech accessibility act (zák. 99/2019) and WCAG without plugins or workarounds.
- A persistent accessibility toolbar — high contrast, font-size controls, easy-to-read mode — on every page.
- A fully responsive layout keeps the same content and navigation across mobile and desktop.
- Emergency number 158 and key help links stay prominent and reachable at every screen size.
Architecture & compliance
A stack the state genuinely owns
Modular, API-first microservices, containerised on Kubernetes across multiple environments and two data centres — delivered through CI/CD with automated accessibility and security scanning, on an open-source-friendly stack with no vendor lock-in.
Technology stack
Compliance & standards
Built on SDX Sites
Everything you just saw is published through one system
The public sites are the visible surface. Behind them sits SDX Sites — the editorial platform we deliver, operate, and keep developing. Every article, form, recruitment page, map, and official notice is content managed through the same system.
Crossing safely
Before stepping into the road, always look both ways and make eye contact with the driver. After dark, reflective elements make a real difference — they raise visibility and shorten stopping distance.
Tip: Wear the reflective band on the side closest to traffic — drivers will spot you sooner.
| Conditions | Visibility, no reflectives | With reflectives |
|---|---|---|
| Dipped headlights | 18 m | 55 m |
| Full beam | 30 m | 200 m |
| Rain and fog | 12 m | 40 m |
What the system does
- WYSIWYG article editor — images, tables, callouts
- Submittable forms with responses & statistics
- Media library & file attachments
- Tree-structured content & branch-level permissions
- Users, roles & groups
- Newsletter & official notice board (úřední deska)
- Audit trail & editor takeover
SDX Sites — the product behind the portals
See the editorial system, the tree-structured content model, branch-level permissions, and the full capability set.