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Guidance on building better digital services in government
Consequence design is part of everyday life. Deceptive techniques like “dark patterns” and “hostile design” trick people into taking unintended actions — learn how to prevent them from sneaking into our design work.
18F’s Alan Atlas and Alan Brouilette cover the fundamentals of Agile.
18F’s Alan Atlas and Alan Brouilette cover the fundamentals of Agile.
Covers the basic principles research: informing and getting consent, and managing personally identifiable information (PII)
An overview of the most common barriers and how federal agencies might address them.
Best practices for distributed teams.
The Federal Field Guide to De-risk Government Technology offers guidance to federal agencies on how to structure software development teams, write contracts, and oversee agile software activities to reduce risks and improve outcomes for end-users.
How to ensure the most useful information makes its way back to your team for further analysis
Best practices on doing product management well
We help government agencies fix technical problems, build products, and improve how government serves the public through technology.
122 posts
Around 800,000 low-income American families receive cash assistance through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) each month. 18F and the Administration for Children & Families’ Office of Family Assistance partnered on building a new data portal for TANF. We caught up with Office of Family Assistance leaders to see how their agency is continuing with the work. — via 18F
Accessible design and development practices help us build inclusive experiences. But we can lose sight of the people we serve if we don’t steadily work to better understand our users. To create accessible experiences, avoid these mistakes. — via 18F
At 18F, we partner with government agencies to help them deliver new or modernized digital services and help set them up for success after we conclude the project. To support these outcomes, we set up our work to track on four levels: Project management, Product development, Post-18F sustainability and Learning to the broader government community. — via 18F
Designing technology-enabled public services requires deep expertise in how different elements of the experience come together (or don’t!). The 18F design chapter comprises four discipline-specific cohorts — service design, user experience (UX) design, product design, and content strategy — each of which has a primary focus, with corresponding tools, methods, and techniques. — via 18F
In December 2020, the United States Tax Court introduced DAWSON, a modern open-source case management system developed with assistance from an industry partner and 18F. DAWSON streamlined Court operations and changed the way the public interacts with the Court. — via 18F
At 18F, we like to keep in touch with our project partners. 18F partnered with the USGS Water Resources Mission Area from March 2020 to June 2022 on a wide variety of projects together. We caught up with Emily Read, Chief for the Web Communications Branch at USGS Water Resources Mission Area. — via 18F
The beginning of the year is a good time to hunker down, reflect on the past, and envision the future. We brought some of that reflection into a design chapter meeting, where we asked the team: “What did you learn in 2022? What are you looking forward to in 2023?” Here’s what some of our team members had to say. — via 18F
18F partnered with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from December 2017 to June 2020 on the development of a product called eAPD — a user-friendly, modern product to streamline the creation, submission, review, and approval of the Advance Planning Documents that states use to request IT grant funding from CMS. We caught up with Jerome Lee of CMS, the product owner of eAPD. — via 18F
When we talk about innovation in government tech, what do we mean? During a recent project, 18F partnered with a government innovation lab to help them understand the impact innovation can have at their organization. — via 18F
The 18F Engineering Sandwich for Cloud-based Web Apps—18F Engineering is often thought of as a technology shop, but that’s too broad. There are very few technology choices we actually make at the project level, so, more often than not, we combine a limited set of technologies to make our applications. To explain this, we’ll use the metaphor of a sandwich shop. — via 18F
Senior Executives Part 5: Use Stories as Leading Indicators—Executives often rely on productivity metrics to measure success, but these measures can obscure whether the software is actually working for users. Stories are a better resource to build a strategy between a senior executive and a product team. This is part five in a series on how senior executive and tech teams can be better allies. — via 18F
Senior Executives Part 4: Initiate More Direct Interaction To Build Rapport—It’s critical that senior executives and product teams make small decisions over time about important technology initiatives to be able to adjust plans as things change. How does that work? What works well? — via 18F
Senior Executives Part 3: Use Short-term Initiatives To Build Confidence in Long-term Decisions—Deadlines often force executives to make long-term decisions about technology without certainty it’ll be successful. Modern software development strategies help reduce this risk by leveraging a product team to incrementally test software upfront. — via 18F
Senior Executives Part 2: Work Outside the Traditional Hierarchy To Set up an Initiative for Success—In order to ultimately succeed at delivering human-centered software, two critical groups need to work closely together: the product team and a champions group. This is part two in a series on how senior executives and tech teams can be better allies. — via 18F
Senior Executives Are the Allies Tech Teams Need, Part 1—Successfully delivering software in government requires people to work differently. Without clear answers for how to do this, well-intentioned executives and teams default to existing processes that risk undermining their own success. This is part one in a series on how to evolve that relationship. — via 18F
What Agile Looks Like at the Office of Natural Resources Revenue—Agile at the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) started with 18F. They reflect on where they are today, five years later. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
Content Design for beta.ADA.gov: Writing for Action and Flexibility—18F worked with a team at the Department of Justice to redesign ADA.gov. They helped them launch beta.ada.gov, and designed new content for some of the most sought-after ADA topics. — via 18F
If you’re one of the many federal employees carrying out your mission through contracting, you might have an important question: how do I know if my contractor is doing a good job? Even if you don’t have a strong technical background, there are steps you can take to build your confidence in the project’s maintainability and sustainability. — via 18F
The Weekly Ship: What It Is, Why It’s Useful, and How To Create Your Own—The weekly ship has been a staple of 18F projects for years. It is a way to engage partners, inform teammates, and reflect on our work. — via 18F
Digital.gov
An official website of the U.S. General Services Administration
