AbstractDEISA (Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputer Applications) is collecting experience with science gateways in different scientific areas and aims at combining all current efforts. This paper describes the development of the DEISA material sciences and plasma physics Web portal application from the view of a project engineer and software architect. It analyzes user requirements, motivates technology choices, and describes the realization of an application that is very similar to the first release candidate. The outlook gives insight into the development steps currently being undertaken towards a release and the planning phase for a future release, as well as the DEISA aims. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.