News and Updates

Twitter Chats as Effective Outreach—For over a decade, USA.gov and USAGov en Español have used Twitter to reach the public, amplifying information for our agency partners in English and Spanish. See six of the best practices followed and lessons learned during a two-hour live Twitter chat with the Federal Trade Commission and Social Security Administration for National Consumer Protection Week 2021. — via USA.gov

GSA Future Focus: Web Scraping—Often referred to as screen scraping, web harvesting, or web crawling, web scraping is a process that extracts unstructured data and text from web pages, and converts it into a form that can be easily analyzed. Learn how GSA’s Emerging Tech team has identified some best practices to help agencies use this technology responsibly and effectively. — via General Services Administration

Your Experience Matters—The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provides a broad range of services to internal and external customers, including researchers, visitors, educators, genealogists, students, veterans, information technologists, federal agencies and more. Archivist of the United States (AOTUS) David Ferriero has hired the agency’s first Chief Customer Experience Officer, Stephanie Bogan, to help focus as an agency on the public’s experience. The agency’s management team has also been deputized to become their Customer Experience Executive Council in order to make customer-focused decisions for the agency and move it forward. — via National Archives and Records Administration

Making It Easier for People to Find Federal Agencies—Finding contact information for a federal department or agency is a top task at USA.gov and USAGov en Español. Our A-Z Index of U.S. Government Departments and Agencies directory is a popular feature and the result of many years of user testing and website user metrics. — via USA.gov

Accessibility: Usability for Every Ability—Accessibility enables full participation, and everyone who works on government websites has a role to play in making federal resources accessible and inclusive. — via U.S. Web Design System