Delaware Hunter and Trapper Registration System Adds Third Award to Collection

The W3 Awards has selected Delaware’s Hunter and Trapper Registration Web application (HTR) as the recipient of the 2014 W3 Silver award in the Website category. The W3 Awards honor creative excellence on the Web. Winning entries were selected by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts and judged on their creativity, usability, navigation, functionality, visual design, and ease of use. This marks the third award HTR has won this year.

HTR is designed and developed with a mobile-first approach to accommodate a range of screen sizes and form factors. With the ever growing variety of devices that connect to the internet, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Division of Fish and Wildlife wanted to create a Web application that worked well and looked great no matter which device was being used. This provides hunters and trappers the convenience of registering from the field.

“We wanted to make sure the new system looked slick by updating the user interface,” says Matthew DiBona, wildlife biologist with Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife. “We incorporated Delaware wildlife into the design and made sure to use images consistent with this goal. We have been very pleased with the overall look and feel.”

Previous DNREC sites were developed with fixed layouts that did not translate easily to mobile or tablet screens. With responsive design, the layout of HTR is able to adapt to small, medium, and large screen devices. This saves DNREC the cost and maintenance of developing both a website and a native mobile application. The fluid layout of HTR allows page elements to grow or shrink, thus accommodating a wide range of devices. This provides easy ability for hunters and trappers to obtain required registration and permit numbers from any device or location with connectivity.

This year, the system has already processed over 6,500 records since registrations began for the 2014/2015 hunting season, with peak season arriving in November.

To encourage online usage, this season DNREC is offering users who register via a computer or mobile device the opportunity to be entered into a drawing to win a $50 gift card to a local sporting goods store. Winners are selected monthly.

The Hunter Trapper Registration system is a collaborative effort between the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Division of Fish and Wildlife, the Government Information Center, and Delaware Interactive, LLC.

About the W3 Awards

The W3 Awards honor creative excellence on the web. It is sanctioned and judged by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA), an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts. The AIVA is dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of interactive media. W3 winners were judged based on a standard of excellence in their category determined by the AIVA. For additional information about the W3 is available at http://www.w3award.com/. To learn more about the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, please visit http://aiva.org/.

About Delaware Interactive

Delaware Interactive is part of the eGovernment firm NIC’s (EGOV) family of companies. Its focus is accelerating the number of online services available to Delaware citizens and businesses through the state’s official portal, Delaware.gov.

About NIC

Founded in 1992, NIC (EGOV) is the nation's leading provider of official government websites, online services, and secure payment processing solutions. The company's innovative eGovernment services help make government more accessible to everyone through technology. The family of NIC companies provides eGovernment solutions for more than 3,500 federal, state, and local agencies in the United States. Forbes has named NIC as one of the “100 Best Small Companies in America” five times, most recently ranked at No.11 (2013), and the company has been included three times on the Barron’s 400 Index. Additional information is available at http://www.egov.com.