Inovação em serviços públicos: proposta de um sistema de gestão de certificados para a Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic transformed habits globally, accelerating the use of digital means for the provision of products and services by private and public organizations. The Brazilian Digital Government Strategy (EGD) establishes guidelines for digital transformation in the federal public sector, yet its implementation in public university environments has been marked by slow progress and fragmented solutions, resulting in low citizen adherence to digital public services. At the Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD), the management of certificates for extension events, tutoring programs, and teaching projects lacks standardization, centralization, and secure validation mechanisms, leading to delays, rework, and legal uncertainty. This research aimed to propose a digital certificate management system grounded in User-Centered Design and aligned with the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD) and the EGD. The Triple Diamond method was adopted, integrating qualitative and quantitative stages, including a systematic literature review, an online questionnaire, in-person interviews, technological prospection, a co-creation workshop, and usability testing. Results highlighted organizational barriers as the most critical obstacles to digitalization, functional gaps in existing solutions, and a strong demand for selfservice, centralization, and robust validation and security mechanisms. CertiGestor UFGD, a functional prototype developed in JavaScript, fully automates the certification workflow, centralizes access, and makes certificates available exclusively to participants—eliminating batch generation and third-party access—while also enabling QR-Code-based validity verification. Usability testing achieved an overall mean score of 4.64 (on a 1–5 scale), with 78.6% of maximum scores for perceived usefulness. This research offers theoretical (a contextual barriers framework), methodological (application of User-Centered Design in the public sector), and technological (a validated and replicable prototype) contributions, aiming to meet the five pillars of PROFIAP: innovation, applicability, complexity, adherence, and impact.