The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ new website offers users an enhanced browsing experience, serving as a practical tool to strengthen the relationship between the Ministry and its users
For the Ministry’s institutional website, the daily challenge is to meet the needs of a diverse, multilingual audience seeking everything from information on the Ministry’s areas of responsibility to access to services that have a direct impact on citizens’ personal and professional lives. Against this backdrop, the redesign process has focused on making information and services more accessible and easier to navigate, with the aim of bringing the Ministry closer to citizens and businesses through more intuitive, efficient and user-centred navigation paths.
The Designers Italia Approach in Action
To achieve this objective, the Ministry embarked on an ongoing collaborative effort with Designers Italia — the initiative promoted by the Department for Digital Transformation of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Agency for Digital Italy (AGID) — through a series of joint working sessions aimed at developing an innovative website design model fully compliant with the Design Guidelines for Public Administration websites and digital services. The project went hand in hand with a comprehensive reorganisation of the website’s content and was driven by the overarching goal of improving the overall user experience, with particular emphasis on making the most frequently requested information and services easier to find and access. From the earliest stages of the project, the Ministry benefited from the resources and specialist expertise made available by Designers Italia, including the experience of its multidisciplinary team, its Design resources and operational tools, as well as the reusable software components provided by the Design system .italia, which ensure that website code is developed consistently with AGID’s design standards.
The initiative also forms part of the objectives established under the Ministry’s organisational reform, launched by Minister Antonio Tajani and implemented at the beginning of 2026, which inevitably required a comprehensive review of the website’s content architecture. Within this framework, the redesign of the information architecture was conceived to create increasingly intuitive, clear and immediate pathways to information and services, adopting an approach driven by users’ needs rather than by the Ministry’s internal organisational structure.
This evolution is already evident on the homepage, which is organised into thematic sections designed to guide visitors from their very first interaction with the website through a more intuitive visual navigation experience. Users can browse the main menu without leaving the homepage, thanks to an initial overview of the available content that allows direct access to the relevant section or subsection of interest. The same logic also underpins the homepage’s two main content areas: “Services and Opportunities” and “Topics”.
The “Services and Opportunities” section has been designed around the needs of three distinct user groups — Italian citizens, foreign nationals and businesses — identified through user research and analysis. These audiences are addressed through straightforward, user-oriented questions such as “Do you have an emergency?”, “Do you need a visa?”, or “Would you like to export or expand your business into foreign markets?”. This approach immediately directs users to the relevant sections of the Ministry’s website or to dedicated portals where they can access the services and opportunities they require. The objective is to minimise the number of steps needed to reach the desired content, guiding users directly to the service they need and simplifying their interaction with the Ministry.
The “Topics” section, by contrast, is designed to help users quickly navigate the Ministry’s wide range of responsibilities and activities in the fields of political, economic, social and cultural relations with foreign countries. Each topic serves as an entry point to dedicated content, including in-depth information on areas such as economic diplomacy and regional relations. Here too, the objective is to provide a more intuitive and immediate browsing experience, enabling users to identify the information most relevant to their needs with greater speed and ease.
At the same time, given that Esteri.it is one of the Ministry’s primary sources of information for journalists covering foreign policy, diplomacy and international affairs, particular attention has been devoted to creating a website structure that also better serves the needs of public communication and the media. The new architecture facilitates rapid access to the most relevant institutional content and current affairs. For example, the hero banner displayed beneath the header highlights the day’s most significant topics and activities, while the “News and Press Releases” section provides real-time visibility to the Ministry’s latest announcements and the issues of greatest public and media interest. This same approach also underpins the decision to give greater prominence to key quantitative data relating to the Ministry’s services and opportunities, as well as to practical information designed to help users navigate the Italian diplomatic and consular network worldwide.
Another key area of intervention concerns the progressive alignment of Esteri.it with the accessibility requirements established by AGID, together with the related monitoring processes governing the “Transparent Administration” section of Public Administration websites, recently strengthened by ANAC. Accessibility is, in fact, an essential prerequisite for ensuring that all users can fully access digital content and services, helping to make the Ministry’s activities increasingly inclusive, transparent and responsive to the needs of citizens.
The redesign of Esteri.it, developed in partnership with Designers Italia and illustrated here through some of its principal features, has enabled the Ministry to offer users a significantly enhanced browsing experience, supported by a completely new organisation of content and services and by a more functional, intuitive and accessible interface.
The new website is far more than a graphic and technological upgrade. It is a practical tool designed to strengthen the relationship between the Ministry and its users by facilitating access to the information, services and opportunities offered through Italy’s diplomatic and consular network around the world.
Through a more intuitive navigation experience, content increasingly shaped around users’ needs, and a growing commitment to accessibility and transparency, Esteri.it brings the Ministry closer to citizens and businesses alike. The website is intended not merely as an institutional information portal, but as an increasingly simple, effective and user-friendly gateway to the services, opportunities and initiatives promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, fully aligned with today’s digital habits for searching, consulting and accessing information.