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Guidance on building better digital services in government
Use thoughtful exploration and learning to support continuous, strategic decision-making
Research is an important tool to help you understand real user needs, behaviors, and experiences. By using tools like surveys, analytics, and interviews, you can make informed decisions on products, programs, and projects.
Learn how user-initiated feedback can help you shape your customer experience approach.
Explore common questions related to the Paperwork Reduction Act, a law governing how federal agencies collect information from the public.
Understand the needs and behaviors of your users so you can develop a product or service that supports them.
Use personas in the research and design phase of a project to ensure user experience is considered. — via Section508.gov
Get an overview of what user research and user testing are in a federal context. Learn what policies apply and what resources are available.
User feedback is key to creating great digital products, but limited resources can hinder research efforts. Hallway testing provides a quick, useful solution. By conducting informal interviews, the Open Data, Design, and Development team at the Department of the Interior gathered insights to improve navigation to state and offshore region pages on the Natural Resources Revenue Data website. After testing prototypes, the best option was implemented, streamlining access white minimizing resource use. The team’s next steps include monitoring performance, evaluating the addition of maps on select pages, and continued hallway testing. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
Discover how USA.gov tailors its benefit finder experience for both English and Spanish-speaking users through culturally nuanced content. Through dual-track language research, a bilingual support team, and A/B testing, USA.gov ensures that more users receive relevant, empathetic, and user-friendly content. The USA.gov team also identified and addressed recruitment challenges to interatively improve its ongoing research processes. — via USA.gov
User research is an important part of customer experience transformation. Different types of research require different approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). Through seven case studies, the U.S. Digital Service shows how agencies conducted valuable user research that did not require PRA approval and successfully integrated findings into their projects. Their work illustrates how thoughtful user research transforms delivery of services and helps agencies build trust in government. — via U.S. Digital Service
Personas are semi-fictional characters that you can use to portray an individual or group of users to improve the design, development, and accessibility of your electronic information or digital service.
A resource with four approaches to help federal employees perform usability testing.
How the Lab at OPM drives innovation through design education
Get started making usability fixes to your website or product.
What to do and what not to do, that is the question
Low-cost, low-lift actions that any federal employee can take to improve customer experience.
59 posts
Get an overview of what user research and user testing are in a federal context. Learn what policies apply and what resources are available.
User feedback is key to creating great digital products, but limited resources can hinder research efforts. Hallway testing provides a quick, useful solution. By conducting informal interviews, the Open Data, Design, and Development team at the Department of the Interior gathered insights to improve navigation to state and offshore region pages on the Natural Resources Revenue Data website. After testing prototypes, the best option was implemented, streamlining access white minimizing resource use. The team’s next steps include monitoring performance, evaluating the addition of maps on select pages, and continued hallway testing. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
Discover how USA.gov tailors its benefit finder experience for both English and Spanish-speaking users through culturally nuanced content. Through dual-track language research, a bilingual support team, and A/B testing, USA.gov ensures that more users receive relevant, empathetic, and user-friendly content. The USA.gov team also identified and addressed recruitment challenges to interatively improve its ongoing research processes. — via USA.gov
User research is an important part of customer experience transformation. Different types of research require different approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). Through seven case studies, the U.S. Digital Service shows how agencies conducted valuable user research that did not require PRA approval and successfully integrated findings into their projects. Their work illustrates how thoughtful user research transforms delivery of services and helps agencies build trust in government. — via U.S. Digital Service
Learn how the Open Data, Design, and Development (ODDD) team at the Department of the Interior (DOI) transitioned from Google Analytics - Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4! Discover how the ODDD team coordinated with the Digital Analytics Program, developed explorations (instead of custom reports), and set up their own DOI agency property. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
The Open Data, Design, and Development (ODDD) team has replaced signed consent forms with a more accessible user research agreement process, offering multiple opt-in points. This ensures informed consent and participant autonomy. Explore why and how the ODDD team implemented this comprehensive participant consent process in their user research. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
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
Learn what types of information people searched for on federal websites in 2023, see emerging trends the team is exploring to improve customers’ search experience in 2024, and check out three new updates. The data tab provides insightful summaries for 13 popular topic areas—and lists the public’s top 25 search terms, in their own words, for each. — via Search.gov
This article summarizes four priorities and values that simply take time: consideration of the public’s time, privacy, accessibility and equity, and scope.
As a bilingual program, USAGov aims to give English and Spanish-language audiences the information they want in the cultural context they need. Here are a few main things the team learned when transcreating messaging through the USAGov and USAGov en Español outreach channels. — via USA.gov
Advice from five federal experts on creating user personas.
In this blog post, we break down our process for redesigning a federal government website (onrr.gov) into six detailed sections. This blog serves as a helpful guide for other agencies looking to do a major website redesign. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
The UX Summit will be a one day virtual event on June 14, 2023. New and experienced UX practitioners are encouraged to participate.
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