User Experience

Continuing our look at user profile patterns

Sunsetting Go.USA.gov: Final User Statistics

The digital landscape has changed significantly since we launched the Go.USA.gov service in 2009. Over the last two years the team looked carefully at the program holistically, taking into consideration the future of the program, the current landscape related to using shortened URLs and alignment with strategic business goals. In early 2022 we made the difficult decision to initiate steps to sunset the service. — via USA.gov

Nov 15, 2022

Join us for an overview of usability test reports on the next version of USA.gov.

Joanne McGovern

Jean Fox

Incorporating Evaluation into Digital Forms

The American public spends approximately 11.5 billion hours per year filling out federal government forms. Form complexity can result in lack of submission or completion, and errors on forms can cause processing delays and affect whether the form is accepted — which can have far-reaching consequences. Learn how Five GSA offices and the American public worked together to improve federal forms. — via General Services Administration

Oct 24, 2022

We’ll discuss our approach to developing User Profile design patterns, look at some specific guidance, and talk about why it’s so important.

Dan Williams

Get tips and lessons learned from the Environmental Protection Agency on how to conduct user testing to improve customer experience.

Judy Suzuki

Beth Martin

Join us for an overview of the Department of Homeland Security’s new Usability Testing Kit, including its four approaches to usability testing.

Dana Chisnell

How do we help users find content in their preferred language? Join us as we take a closer look at the language selection patterns we’re developing for USWDS.

Dan Williams

Laura Godfrey

Join the best and brightest plain language practitioners from across the federal government.

Dr. Rachael Bradley Montgomery

Heather Holland

Laura Rabuck

Amanda Damewood

Stephanie M. Morrison, MPH

Join us to learn more about design patterns and how they fit into the design system.

Dan Williams

DHS Usability Testing Kit

Usability testing is a way to learn how easy or difficult it is for people to use something by observing them actually using it. The resources provided in this kit can help you systematize the process, produce reliable findings, and generally expand your ability to test service materials (i.e., paper and digital forms, mobile applications, web pages, etc.) thoroughly with real users — before you launch them out into the world.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Jun 13, 2022

A two-day summit—June 7 and June 8—with experts who will share their experiences as UX practitioners in the federal government.

Jean Fox

Beth Martin

IT Modernization

Technology-boosting TMF Investments Deliver Benefits for the American Public

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) is working to transform the way the government uses technology to deliver for the American public in an equitable, secure and user-friendly way. It strategically invests in priority IT modernization projects that are aligned with the fast pace of changing technology and agency needs. Here are a few examples of how the TMF has invested in multiple projects that are helping many agencies deliver what people need when they need.

GSA Blog Team

May 23, 2022

USAGov Content Design Team: 2021 Highlights

USAGov Content Design Team: 2021 Highlights—Our mission at USAGov and USAGov en Español is to make it easy for anyone to find and understand the government information they need. We’re excited about what we accomplished in 2021; we connected with the public 117 million times through our websites, social media, email, and phone and chat contact center support. And with our “data first” mindset, we’re more confident that our content is addressing our users’ needs. — via USA.gov

May 10, 2022

Two Years of Federal Student Aid’s Virtual Assistant Lead to Lessons Learned and a Clear Vision of the Work Ahead

Education’s FSA team behind Aidan® shares what they’ve learned over the past two years to help drive improvements and expand the product to a wider range of users.

Laura Nadel

Christine Wilkes

May 02, 2022

Our friends at Digital.gov will join us to talk through their experience migrating to USWDS 3.0.

Dan Williams

Matthew Bogdan

Why We Created a Troubleshooting Guide

Why We Created a Troubleshooting Guide—The Open Data, Design, and Development team at the U.S. Department of the Interior added a troubleshooting guide to accompany contact information on onrr.gov. This is their process. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue

Apr 20, 2022

Creating a New Way for People To Discover Government Benefits

Creating a New Way for People To Discover Government Benefits—To make it even easier for everyone to find services and benefits without needing to understand government structure, we’re developing a new digital tool in partnership with 10x, GSA’s incremental technology fund. BEARS, the Benefits Eligibility Awareness Resource Service, is an important step forward in providing an integrated, simple solution for federal benefits to improve the customer experience and will eventually cover all federal benefits from all agencies. — via USA.gov

Mar 15, 2022

Lessons from the 2021 Federal Plain Language Report Card

During the Digital.gov and Plain Language Community event, Results of the 2021 Federal Report Card, speaker David Lipscomb gave examples of web content that received both high and low scores in the 2021 Plain Language Report Card. Here’s what we learned.