25 Years – CCG and the first steps of web technology in Portugal

CCG has proved to be an important actor in the first steps of the web design in Portugal, being one of the driving forces of web technology in this country, through the development of national reference websites.

Expo’ 98 website

The Center for Computer Graphics was responsible for the development of the first version of the Expo ’98 website.

Homepage Expo’ 98, 1994 website

It was with the development of the first version of Expo ’98 website, in 1994, when Expo did not even have a domain or server, that the Center for Computer Graphics gained visibility in the web area in Portugal.

At this point hardly anyone consulted Internet pages, the programs for building Web pages were non-existent or rudimentary, influences were few and the concept of web design was practically nil.

According to Maria Ferrand, a designer at CCG, “… there was a huge set of technical limitations, ranging from the limitation of color usage (256), compulsory font usage, the impossibility of kerning, uncertainty the size perceived by the user, reduced size (Kbs) of the images, etc. ”

In addition to this website, CCG worked on the Virtual Oceanarium project (1996 -1998), which recreated the environment of the Lisbon Oceanarium, at the time the largest in Europe, through Virtual Reality technologies.

Jornal de Notícias website

Thanks to the visibility of the Expo ’98 website and the refurbishment of the CCG’s own website, the opportunity arose to build the first website of Jornal de Notícias in 1995, the first website of a Portuguese media.

This project with Jornal de Notícias was a milestone in the history of national media and was also one of the first examples of technology transfer projects carried out in the CCG.

“It was in research centers like this that Web technology was being developed in Portugal.”

Homepage do JN, URL: www.jnoticias.pt. Revista Topics, April 1996

From this first version of JN’s website few traces remained.

“We did not have the notion of being part of any ‘story’, we were simply working, solving problems. (…) And why should we have to file something so elementary? ” Maria Ferrand

LNEC website

In 1996 the CCG develops the site of LNEC, the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering.

Homepage do LNEC, URL: http://www.lnec.pt, 8th July 1997, Portuguese web archive

CP – Comboios de Portugal website

In 1996 the CCG starts to develop the first website of CP – Comboios de Portugal (Trains of Portugal), one of the members of the CCG.

Later the CCG would elaborate the system of schedules of the CP and would conceive a complete revision and extension of the web server of the CP.

 

CP Website

“The CCG has never positioned itself as a producer of simple websites, embracing on the other hand challenges of greater technological complexity that would bring some innovation. In this particular case, it was a question of developing a set of server-side functionalities that facilitated and allowed for easy content updating on the site (similar to what is nowadays called backoffice)” César Páris, programmer and researcher at CCG.

Website Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha

Mosteiro de Santa-Clara-a-Velha website

With the Santa Clara-a-Velha Virtual project, CCG proceeded to build the virtual environment of Santa Clara-a-Velha (from the 14th to the 20th century), a place that has an extensive exploration potential at very different levels. This site could be discovered online through the website developed by CCG, an excavation support site, prior to the construction of the museum.

Subsequently, the CCG would develop another project linked to the monastery Virtual Tour – Visita Virtual: Santa Clara-a-Velha.

---

Source of testimonials: Antunes, Sandra. (2015). Interfaces para um museu do Web design português. 10.13140/RG.2.1.2158.6645.