{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
    "content" : "news",
    "type" : "single",
    "title" : "Sharing the Essentials of Animated Gifs for Public Services |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Sharing the Essentials of Animated Gifs for Public Services",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/04/24/sharing-the-essentials-of-animated-gifs-for-public-services/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Sharing the Essentials of Animated Gifs for Public Services","summary" : "Animated gifs are increasingly found throughout the digital experience of today’s users.","date" : "2015-04-24T13:33:00-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"jherman" : "Justin Herman"},"topics" : {
        
            "accessibility" : "Accessibility",
            "content-strategy" : "Content strategy",
            "multilingual" : "Multilingual",
            "multimedia" : "Multimedia",
            "social-media" : "Social media"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2015-04-24-sharing-the-essentials-of-animated-gifs-for-public-services.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2015/04/2015-04-24-sharing-the-essentials-of-animated-gifs-for-public-services.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/04/2015-04-24-sharing-the-essentials-of-animated-gifs-for-public-services.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/04/2015-04-24-sharing-the-essentials-of-animated-gifs-for-public-services.md","slug" : "sharing-the-essentials-of-animated-gifs-for-public-services","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/04/24/sharing-the-essentials-of-animated-gifs-for-public-services/","content" :"\u003cp\u003eAnimated gifs are increasingly found throughout the digital experience of today’s users. They offer a dynamic presentation of information in a format that can be both more performance-effective and cost-effective than standard video or images, making them valuable for federal teams looking to bring their programs to the modern digital space and improve customer satisfaction.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo find out how animated gifs can be developed to measurably improve public services, we hosted “Essentials of Animated Gifs for Gov” for almost 200 managers in the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/communities/social-media/\"\u003eSocialGov Community of Practice\u003c/a\u003e through \u003ca href=\"https://digital.gov/digitalgov-university/\"\u003eDigitalGov University\u003c/a\u003e. We’d like to share with you the recording of this webinar, along with along with key highlights from our presenters.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNotably, this became the highest rated SocialGov webinar based on user feedback from a post-event survey. By popular demand, we will follow-up with another article highlighting the practical and efficient ways other agencies are using this training to develop and use animated gifs in their digital programs.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"define-your-objectives-and-bring-services-to-where-citizens-are\"\u003eDefine your objectives and bring services to where citizens are\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/560-x-280-odni.gif\"\n    alt=\"An animated gif for an Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) event\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMichael Thomas of the \u003ca href=\"http://icontherecord.tumblr.com/\"\u003eOffice of the Director of National Intelligence\u003c/a\u003e often hears when it comes to social media the saying, “well, if the intelligence community can do it…”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt ODNI, they are embracing animated gifs as an effective medium for communication, including web design infrastructure. He said that his team is responding to their audiences’ need for immediacy and information saturation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThomas also said that there are lots of tools available to make gifs, but the real key to getting started is a use case including:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eContextualize a quote or event\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCondense information\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCondense time or process\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCreate a narrative\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCreate a meta-narrative\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePortray a juxtaposition\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUse as a design element\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/Animated-gifs-and-the-Office-of-the-Director-of-National-Intelligence-Michael-Thomas-ODNI.pptx\"\u003eAnimated gifs and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (.pptx presentation, 10 MB)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"repurpose-user-generated-content-for-cost-efficient-programming\"\u003eRepurpose user-generated content for cost-efficient programming\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/kids-handshake.gif\"\n    alt=\"kids handshake\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eErika Brown of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.peacecorps.gov/\"\u003ePeace Corps\u003c/a\u003e has a world of content to choose from—literally—when generating gifs for her own site or something clever for a third-party. She said:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLeverage user generated content to tell your organization’s story, and find opportunities to give quality content a second life.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMake sure to get approvals from appropriate stakeholders, most importantly, the people who created the content.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/Peace-Corps-and-Animated-Gifs-Erika-Brown.pptx\"\u003ePeace Corps and Animated Gifs (.pptx presentation, 5 MB)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"create-eye-catching-and-easy-to-follow-tutorials-and-instructions\"\u003eCreate eye catching and easy to follow tutorials and instructions\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/screenshot-18f-code.gif\"\n    alt=\"18f animated code\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMelody Kramer of \u003ca href=\"https://18f.gsa.gov/\"\u003eGSA’s 18F\u003c/a\u003e has been on the cutting edge of new media, but shares how she uses animated gifs in the most practical way: for tutorials and education. She demonstrated how and why she creates instructional gifs, which any organization can do.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the webinar, she demonstrated how to:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUse animated gifs to explain how people can do a certain task, such as how to sign into a website, or how to set privacy settings on a website. For example, 18F used animated gifs in a tutorial for \u003ca href=\"https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/03/03/how-to-use-github-and-the-terminal-a-guide/\"\u003ehow to use the command line and the terminal\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTry a free, open source program called \u003ca href=\"http://www.cockos.com/licecap/\"\u003eLiceCap\u003c/a\u003e to create tutorial and instructional animated gifs.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.slideshare.net/DigitalGov/animated-gif-tutorials-with-18-f-melody-kramer\" title=\"Animated Gif Tutorials with 18F\"\u003eAnimated Gif Tutorials with 18F\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"animated-gifs-should-meet-accessibility-standards\"\u003eAnimated gifs should meet accessibility standards\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/pokemon-player.png\"\n    alt=\"Pokemon in a player\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eVictoria Wales of \u003ca href=\"http://www.usa.gov/\"\u003eUSAGov\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https://www.usa.gov/espanol/\"\u003eUSAGov en Español\u003c/a\u003e (\u003cem\u003eformerly known as GobiernoUSA.gov\u003c/em\u003e) educates federal managers on the importance and the process of enhancing the accessibility of digital services for citizens with disabilities: animated gifs are no different and present their own unique challenges.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn order to help meet those challenges, she suggested:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEnsure animated content is sufficiently described in text, using best practices outlined on \u003ca href=\"https://www.webaccessibility.com/\"\u003eWebAccessibility.com\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEnsure elements like blink or flash are in a safe threshold (the guideline is to avoid anything that flashes more than three times a second) using \u003ca href=\"https://www.webaccessibility.com/resource-library/platform/?platform=11\"\u003ebest practices\u003c/a\u003e and the open source \u003ca href=\"https://trace.umd.edu/peat/\"\u003ephotosensitive epilepsy analysis tool (PEAT)\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/Accessibility-for-Animated-Gifs-Victoria-Wales-USAgov-GobiernoUSAgov.pptx\"\u003eAccessibility for Animated Gifs (.pptx presentation, 3 MB)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"use-us-government-records-to-bring-history-to-life\"\u003eUse U.S. government records to bring history to life\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/plane-washington-monument.gif\"\n    alt=\"A black and white animated gif of a gyrocopter flying past the Washington Monument.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eDarren Cole of the \u003ca href=\"http://todaysdocument.tumblr.com/\"\u003eNational Archives and Records Administration\u003c/a\u003e showcased the diverse source documents used to create compelling animated gifs that breathe new life into historical records, including images from the last time a gyrocopter flew to Capitol Hill almost 100 years ago. He recommended:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUse animated gifs to make your content engaging and government records relevant to modern communities.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMake your own .gov gifs with free, public domain sources from \u003ca href=\"https://catalog.archives.gov/\"\u003ethe National Archives catalog\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/Gifs-from-Government-Records-Darren-Cole-National-Archives-and-Records-Administration-NARA.pptx\"\u003eGifs from Government Records (.pptx presentation, 3 MB)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDisclaimer\u003c/strong\u003e: All references to specific brands, products, and/or companies are used only for illustrative purposes and do not imply endorsement by the U.S. federal government or any federal government agency.\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}