Overview
Along with the development of Industrial Revolution, 4.0 in doing digital transformation in Cambodia. The Digital Government Committee has created Rachana, to assist with the digital transformation process with the goal to strengthen government agencies to create digital services that are quick, responsive, and easy to use. Additionally, the Rachana system also contains sample components, design patterns, and templates.
The Rachana system has a strong emphasis on modularity, and a unified code base to assist in development, eliminate inconsistency, and improve efficiency.
What is Rachana?
Rachana consists:- Components: A collection of open-source, front-end components that you can reuse or customise to build websites quickly while not compromising on specific needs. All components have been checked to ensure they adhere to accessibility standards.
- Templates to jump-start website development.
- Theme Customizer to customise components and colours according to your needs. It also features a built-in colour contrast checker to help with accessibility checks;
- Patterns for common use cases rather than having to build them on your own. All patterns have been checked to ensure they adhere to accessibility standards; and
- Design files for Figma is provided to help designers start designing without having to set everything up from scratch.
Why Should Rachana be Adopted?
The benefits of Rachana include:- Greater Scalability: Rachana aims to provide adaptable UI components, catering to the specific needs of government digital services in Cambodia, ensuring enhanced scalability.
- Trust: Rachana seeks to build user trust by implementing recognizable design patterns and elements, fostering confidence in government digital platforms.
- Focus on User Experience: Rachana will follow CGDS’s example in emphasizing user experience, enabling a focus on crafting intuitive user flows while minimizing time spent on styling.
- Easy Maintenance and Low Cost: Rachana aims to reduce technical debt by adopting evolving design choices, ensuring efficient and low-maintenance digital services.
- Faster Prototyping: Rachana aspires to expedite the prototyping process by providing plug-and-play components, allowing government agencies to experiment and innovate with digital services.
- UI Standardization: This design system will serve as the factor design system for the whole government of Cambodia.
How Do You Use Rachana?
There are three main use cases for Rachana:-
Static Informational Websites are basic and easy to build. They only provide client-side content in the form of HTML pages (alternatively, CSS or JavaScript), and do not require server-side processing. To launch such websites, agencies can make use of the Rachana CSS/JavaScript with template package and incorporate it into any open-source static site generator like Jekyll. Alternatively, agencies can also use the Rachana package as a base to start building their websites.
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Dynamic Informational Websites also provide client-side content. However, unlike Static Informational Websites, Dynamic Informational Websites generate such content using a server and database. To launch such websites, agencies can use the Rachana WordPress or Sitefinity package to develop locally.
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Transactional Websites are the most complex among the three. They support transactions such as online banking and retail purchasing. Agencies are able to use Rachana to start building or choose which components they require for their websites.
Future Plan
- Furnish/Improve existing features and implement it onto WordPress.
- Rachana team are planning to integrate the Rachana design system with frameworks such as React, Vue, and Angular.
