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Guidance on building better digital services in government
Make use of content strategy to deliver great digital experiences.
Content strategy involves planning, creating, delivering, and governing content that meets the needs of its users and achieves an organization's goals. Content strategy is an essential element of effective digital web services and communication for government agencies.
Learn how to transform how people find, understand, share, use, and reuse government information.
Learn how to create websites that people trust.
Learn how and why to use translation technology to create multilingual content.
Create communication that is clear and easy to understand for your target audience.
Learn how to write and design web content that is accessible for everyone.
Learn about the life cycle of content, how content comes across to the user, and how to develop a content management strategy.
Creating quality digital content is not a one-time endeavor. Explore these approaches to managing and improving excellent digital content over time.
Learn how to work with social media influencers to achieve your goals, while accounting for different budgets.
Testing for accessibility ensures that digital services are usable for everyone. Explore how the Office of Natural Resources and Revenue (ONRR) streamlined their manual testing process with plain language instructions to create a more uniform testing methodology across their agency. By balancing detail with usability and continually updating resources, ONRR empowers both their small team and subject matter experts to meet Section 508 compliance.— via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
Learn how the U.S. General Services Administration is tackling the 100+ requirements of OMB memo M-23-22, Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience.
Addressing web and digital communications related to Hurricane Milton
Learn how to use multilingual glossaries to share common translations and contribute to consistent communication across government.
Addressing web and digital communications related to Hurricane Helene
Learn how to partner with social media influencers and design, implement, and measure an influencer program.
The CDC Clear Communication Index is a research-based tool to help you develop and assess public communication materials.
Report: Assessment of compliance with Section 508 requirements.
Best practices for creating clear, useful, digital content for federal websites and digital services.
If you’re moving to .gov from another top-level domain, like .com, .org, or .us, here are some best practices to help you plan that transition.
A resource to help federal employees write in plain language and comply with the Plain Writing Act of 2010.
Publishing content as modular pieces of information that are tagged with machine-readable descriptions can transform how people find, understand, share, use, and reuse government information.
We help government agencies fix technical problems, build products, and improve how government serves the public through technology.
Guidance on the use of plain language for government communications and training for federal employees.
We help government agencies fix technical problems, build products, and improve how government serves the public through technology.
Get help with the PRA, planning and submitting an information request, and finding your agency’s PRA contact.
We deploy small, responsive groups of designers, engineers, product managers, and bureaucracy specialists to work with and empower civil servants.
Provides funding for new technology projects or products across government, from the TTS office of investments.
We make it easy to register and manage a .gov domain for US-based government organizations.
An identity management service that provides secure and private online access to participating government programs.
Discover opportunities across government that will help you build and make connections.
A publishing platform that helps federal partners launch, maintain and manage Government websites.
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Learn about the life cycle of content, how content comes across to the user, and how to develop a content management strategy.
Creating quality digital content is not a one-time endeavor. Explore these approaches to managing and improving excellent digital content over time.
Learn how to work with social media influencers to achieve your goals, while accounting for different budgets.
Testing for accessibility ensures that digital services are usable for everyone. Explore how the Office of Natural Resources and Revenue (ONRR) streamlined their manual testing process with plain language instructions to create a more uniform testing methodology across their agency. By balancing detail with usability and continually updating resources, ONRR empowers both their small team and subject matter experts to meet Section 508 compliance.— via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
Learn how the U.S. General Services Administration is tackling the 100+ requirements of OMB memo M-23-22, Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience.
Memo M-23-22 from the Office of Management and Budget provides guidance to federal agencies on delivering a digital-first public experience. To quantify its compliance with the memo, the Open Data, Design, and Development team at the Department of the Interior created and conducted a self-assessment of its digital products. The team used a scoring spreadsheet to measure compliance across categories like accessibility, design consistency, and mobile responsiveness. The results helped the team develop a plan to prioritize improvements and engage with leadership for support on other initiatives.— via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
The Department of Justice recently marked the 24th anniversary of Executive Order 13166, which aims to improve access to federal services for individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP). Its Civil Rights Division reviewed language access plans across federal agencies, emphasizing progress in hiring and staff training, improving language assistance services, and expanding multilingual content. The department is committed to eliminating language barriers in federal programs, improving communication and access for all communities.— via Department of Justice
In September 2024, Benefits.gov will be discontinued, with its services and information moved to USA.gov and USAGov en Español. This change, which aligns with Executive Order 14058: Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government, aims to create a seamless, user-friendly experience for accessing government benefits in both English and Spanish. The new platform, with a focus on equitable access to information, will feature improved navigation and benefit-finding tools.— via General Services Administration
The Office of Natural Resources Revenue’s Open Data, Design, and Development (ODD) team is taking on management of a fourth website, despite being short-staffed. As a result, they have revisited and reprioritized their yearly goals. To do so, they utilized a prioritization matrix, developed a structured impact assessment, and laid out a transition plan. Their process ensured realistic workload adjustments, improved team morale, and highlighted the importance of practical goal-setting, especially when teams are short-staffed.— via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
The Department of Homeland Security’s Customer Experience Directorate developed a customer experience (CX) toolkit to help agencies implement CX strategies using a human-centered design approach. The toolkit offers resources to enhance service delivery, processes, and systems, following a “Ready, Set, Grow” framework for planning and implementation. It aims to serve as a reference for organizations bringing CX practices to their own agencies.— via Department of Homeland Security
The User Experience (UX) team at USA.gov’s Public Experience Portfolio recently conducted a study to analyze the experiences of individuals who access USA.gov through assistive technology. The team partnered with a local organization to gather insights from a diverse group of participants, many of whom are blind or deaf. The study revealed various habits and challenges faced by these users, such as a preference for mobile sites, difficulty with website carousels, and a reliance on clear headings and action-oriented descriptions. These findings can guide improvements in accessibility, such as clever link labeling and better navigation aids for assistive technology users.— via USA.gov
The summit highlighted digital transformation, emphasizing the significance of recent OMB memos for improving accessibility and customer experience.
More Veterans are turning to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for healthcare and benefits, accessing these services online through tools like the VA Health and Benefits mobile app and VA.gov. With over 2.28 million app downloads and 17.8 million monthly visitors on VA.gov, these digital tools provide faster, easier, and more inclusive access to VA services. Learn more about how these technologies are often Veterans’ first interaction with VA by watching their latest video, Digital Front Door: Expanding Access to VA.— via U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
At the Department of Justice, Access DOJ and the Office of the Pardon Attorney (PARDON) partnered to simplify and streamline the presidential pardon application process. By conducting usability testing and gathering feedback, they identified key issues with the existing application, such as its complexity and length. See how redesigning the forms to be more accessible and understandable led to a more efficient process for both applicants and staff.— via Department of Justice
At USA.gov and USAGov en Español, the goal is to make content more useful to the public, and meta descriptions are one way to help people quickly find the government information they’re looking for. These brief summaries of webpage content appear in search engine results to entice users to click through, attracting visitors to agency websites. Regularly updating these descriptions based on user data can enhance their effectiveness. Read in more detail about their three tips to create effective meta descriptions: identify commonly searched keywords, write engaging and actionable descriptions, and ensure each one is unique.— via USA.gov
It has been a year since USA.gov and USAGov en Español were relaunched using human-centered design principles. Using task backlog, the USAGov team has addressed content gaps, improved discoverability, and implemented technical updates. Through usability tests, visitor comments, and click behavior the team was able to unravel and respond to user feedback and unmet needs, leading to noticeable increases in visitor satisfaction and task accomplishment. Moving forward, the focus will shift to enhancing public engagement with the government, improving the search for benefits-related content, and exploring interactive and personalized user experiences.— via USA.gov
Each year, more than 400 million individuals, families, businesses, organizations, and local governments get information and services from about 430 federal agencies and sub-agencies. The Biden-Harris administration is driving a bold vision for how government agencies serve their customers digitally with OMB’s ten-year roadmap for a modern digital experience. Agencies have already made significant strides. Learn about recent successes by the IRS, CDC, NASA, and FEMA, and how OMB will continue to collaborate with agencies to ensure ongoing improvement in digital government services.— via The White House
Each month, USAGov’s content designers spend many hours ensuring that the content on USA.gov and USAGov en Español is up-to-date, accurate, and meets user needs. Learn how their team does holistic reviews of each topic section based on a rolling calendar with the goal of updating all content at least every 6 months.— via USA.gov
The Biden-Harris President’s Management Agenda (PMA) emphasizes an effective, equitable and accountable government. As part of this effort, the General Services Administration (GSA) is conducting a study on the equity of remote identity proofing. The study aims to assess and improve the accessibility and equity of remote identity verification technologies such as facial matching systems. Learn more about the context, purpose, and progress of the study, and how it supports GSA’s goal of enhancing digital government services and prioritizing equitable design practices.— via Performance.gov
Digital.gov
An official website of the U.S. General Services Administration
