Our Work

Our Customer is Your Customer: Working Together to Improve Search on .Gov Websites

We know search engines aren’t Magic 8 Balls, but that’s still how we expect them to behave. We want them to answer our complex and burning questions based on just a few words. And we’ve felt that frustration when the top search results don’t serve our needs, and the results page itself makes us work.

Dawn Pointer McCleskey

May 14, 2015

Sites Shares Its Path to Improve the Customer Experience

As the product manager of Sites, my job is to make sure that our service delivers what we offer: provide an easy, fast and cost‐effective solution for federal agencies that want to create a secure government website to reach the public. With 40 websites that are currently live or in active development, our program is

Coqui Aspiazu

May 12, 2015

Progress with Open Opportunities: Notes from the Field

As a task creator with an ambitious agenda and limited resources, I’ve got a great deal of incentive to make the most use that I can of Open Opportunities. And indeed, Open Opportunities participants have made a concrete and positive difference in the operations of our office, the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office, part of

Dannielle Blumenthal

May 01, 2015

Announcing Speakers and Agenda for the 2015 Summit

We are busting at the seams with excitement because the DigitalGov Citizen Services Summit is less than a month away! Today we are announcing the working agenda and confirmed speakers.

Alycia Piazza

Apr 22, 2015

Updated: Live Blogging the Analytics Dashboard on #TaxDay

2 a.m. EDT, April 16 Looks like the traffic peak for #TaxDay was around 3:00 pm when 194,301 people were on government sites. We’re now less than one-quarter of that traffic, and the more regular patterns of top sites are reasserting themselves. We’re talking about YOU, NASA astronomy picture of the day and that wonderful

Ashley Wichman

Apr 14, 2015

Attend the DigitalGov Summit – Virtually, or Host an Expo Table

Sign up now to watch the DigitalGov Summit from the comfort of your desk! We are excited to announce that although we’ve sold out in-person attendance for the DigitalGov Citizen Services Summit, we have just opened up registration to attend virtually. Virtual attendance will be an awesome way to experience the event with extras not

Alycia Piazza

Janelle Thalls

Apr 08, 2015

Turning Government Data into Better Public Service

Every day, millions of people use their laptops, phones, and tablets to check the status of their tax refund, get the latest forecast from the National Weather Service, book a campsite at one of our national parks, and much more. There were more than 1.3 billion visits to websites across the federal government in just

Mar 19, 2015

Showcase Your Innovation Program at the 2015 Spring Summit

Here’s another other opportunity to show DigitalGov innovators what you got! The spring Digital Citizen Services Summit will host an expo, like we did in 2014, where you can showcase your program or service. This way participants will get a chance to meet

Alycia Piazza

Mar 18, 2015

Data, Code, and API Event Round Up

DigitalGov University has hosted some great events over the last year in partnership with Data.gov, the MobileGov Community and 18F to bring you information on opening data and building APIs. This month we’ve rounded up the events over the past year so that you can see what’s

Alycia Piazza

Mar 11, 2015

What is the Digital Analytics Program (DAP)?

The Digital Analytics Program (DAP) is a cornerstone of the 2012 Digital Government Strategy’s mission to improve the citizen experience by streamlining the collection and analysis of digital analytics data on a federal

Tim Lowden

Marina Fox

Mar 04, 2015

Digital Analytics Program Among Finalists for Igniting Innovation Award

The federal government has IT challenges, and innovative federal projects are tackling those challenges head-on. As projects gain momentum, outside organizations have taken notice. Recently, Data.gov and DigitalGov’s Digital Analytics Program (DAP) were recognized by the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC), among 30 other finalists for the Igniting Innovation Award. ACT-IAC’s

Karen Trebon

Feb 24, 2015

Trends on Tuesday: Mobile Web Lessons From the CrowdSource Mobile Testing Program

Practice makes perfect. But in the mobile world, it’s testing that makes products better. For federal agencies that have developed their own apps or mobile-friendly sites, the CrowdSource Mobile Testing Program offers a simple way to collect feedback on compatibility testing. Since the program’s inception in March 2013, eight federal mobile websites (including responsive design)

David Fern

Feb 24, 2015

Top 10 Things (We Think) You Don’t Know about DigitalGov

Things you don’t know about this website, DigitalGov.gov, that is. It’s our first birthday, and we’re celebrating by sharing some fun facts with you. A more sober look at our strategy can be read on our 6-month post, but this is a party post! w00t! 10. We’ve published an impressive 480 articles and counting (this

Gwynne Kostin

Feb 19, 2015

Don’t Forget the Long Tail: It Can Deliver Value

Top tasks matter. Visitors come to your website with specific goals in mind. Using a top-task methodology can be particularly useful when redesigning your homepage. But, top tasks aren’t the whole story. Our government websites also have a large range of tiny tasks that, when managed carefully, have the potential to deliver value. In The

Ammie Farraj Feijoo

Feb 13, 2015

Vote to Make the Spring Summit a Success

Thanks to your awesome input on the Citizen Services Summit agenda and the rallying of the Summit Sounding Board, we now have more than 70 ideas and 50 comments on those ideas. Vote early and Vote often! We’ve opened up the voting floodgates for these 70 ideas until February 28th! Now

Alycia Piazza

Feb 06, 2015

You may have seen this icon on our calendar recently. This icon indicates a DigitalGov “friend event.”

Alycia Piazza

Feb 03, 2015

DigitalGov University 2015 Training Watch

Performance Analytics for Social Media Decision Making. Creating Adaptive Content. Usability Testing. These are just some of the areas of programming we are putting together. After taking a look at the most widely attended events in 2014, we decided to gather ideas we received from community and program leads for our 2015 events lineup through

Alycia Piazza

Jan 28, 2015

Training Trends in 2014

In recent years, DigitalGov University (DGU) has evolved from a prescriptive training program to a more agile program looking to federal government leaders like you to share the innovations, tools, resources, hurdles and case studies of how you work to meet the digital expectations of the 21st century citizen customer better. Whew. That’s a mouthful.

Alycia Piazza

Jan 23, 2015

Last Chance: Submit Your Summit Idea

You might remember in the post Crowdsourced Digital Citizen Services Summit we said “Go to Citizen Services Summit 2015. Go there now!” Well if you haven’t yet, there is still time to go there and propose a session, idea, or speaker. Anyone

Alycia Piazza

Jan 21, 2015

Walking in Our Customers’ Shoes

The General Services Administration’s (GSA’s) focus on customer experience can be traced back to its inception on July 1, 1949, when President Truman created a new federal agency to manage and store government records, handle emergency preparedness, and stockpile strategic supplies for wartime. While our customer focus has stayed with us, GSA’s mission has morphed

Phaedra Chrousos

Jan 16, 2015

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