News and Updates

The API Briefing: FRED® and ALFRED® Serve Up a Buffet of Economic Data

The federal government captures almost every economic data trend through several agencies. The Federal Reserve of St. Louis offers 238,000 economic trends through FRED® (Federal Reserve Economic Data). FRED® data can be accessed through the FRED® website or the FRED® mobile app (Android | Apple). FRED® data can

Bill Brantley

Nov 26, 2014

Usability Events Round-Up: 2014

This past year DigitalGov University has hosted at least one Usability event per month and we thought we’d give you a round-up of those events. After all, November 13th was World Usability Day. Since this year’s theme of World Usability Day is Engagement it would be great to take a look at the event recap

Alycia Piazza

Nov 26, 2014

Help Shape Public Participation

Public participation—where citizens help shape and implement government programs—is a foundation of open, transparent, and engaging government services. From emergency management and regulatory development to science and education, better and more meaningful engagement with those

Corinna Zarek

Justin Herman

Nov 25, 2014

Trends on Tuesday: What Are You Asking Your Phone?

What’s the weather like? When does the next movie start? What time does Target close? These are just a few questions that I may ask my phone on any given day. According to a recent Mobile Voice Study led by Google, I’m not the only having conversations with my phone. 55% of teens aged 13-18 use voice

Treci Johnson

Nov 25, 2014

Jumpstart Your Government-Sponsored Initiative in a Tight Budget Climate: Try Crowdfunding

There are many ways to apply crowdfunding in the government space. This case study highlights the U.S. Department of State’s utilization of an online crowdfunding platform (CFP) to launch the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund 2.0 (AEIF 2.0). Through this fundraising platform, exchange program alumni were able to work on innovative solutions to the world’s toughest

Minette Wilson

Nov 24, 2014

Placeholder Text: Think Outside the Box

The verdict is in. Placeholder text is harmful in search boxes. Searchers are on your site to complete a task. Having placeholder text inside a search box distracts from the task and it reduces the usability and accessibility of the search box. Placeholders look simple, but are in fact very tricky to use. When people

Rachel Mundstock

Nov 24, 2014

Results: 2014 Federal User Experience Survey

The Federal User Experience (UX) Survey helpsus to learn how we can best improve the effectiveness, ease-of-use, and value of federal digital systems by connecting their teams to their customers.

Jonathan Rubin

Nov 21, 2014

Join the Global Climate Change Conversation with NASA’s Earth Now

Wanna join the global climate change conversation? Arm yourself with real-time facts about Earth’s vital signs from NASA’s Earth Now mobile app. Earth Now is an app that visualizes recent global climate data, including surface air temperature, carbon dioxide, carbon

Kevin Downey

Nov 20, 2014

The API Briefing: Keeping an Eye on Crime with the National Crime Victimization Survey API

Every year, the Bureau of Justice Statistics surveys nearly 80,000 households and over 143,000 individuals about crime victimization. What is unique about this survey is that both reported and unreported crimes data is collected. The survey has a well-documented API which offers data in the CSV, XML, and JSON formats. Let’s examine the documentation to

Bill Brantley

Nov 19, 2014

Young Entrepreneurs Hang Out With Government Virtually… and in Spanish

It’s a well-known fact that the Hispanic population is growing at a rapid pace, and among the areas seeing the most interest and growth is business. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), there are more than 3 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S. today, a number that is growing at three times the national

Victoria Bitzer-Wales

Nov 19, 2014

Trends on Tuesday: Speed Matters When Measuring Responsive Web Design Performance Load Times

In the mobile world, every second matters. Mobile users are a finicky bunch. They want their information anytime, anywhere and quickly. As members of the MobileGov Community of Practice have noted last year, mobile user experience is about emotion. If that emotion is not happy, you will lose the user. For this month’s DigitalGov user

Jacob Parcell

Nov 18, 2014

User Experience Impossible: The Line Between Accessibility and Usability

Bob goes to a popular federal government site, using his assistive technology, and starts reading a teaser for an article. Just below the teaser, there’s an embedded video on the page. He presses the tab key, trying to navigate to a link for the full article, but suddenly he’s trapped—he can’t tab past the video.

Angela Hooker

Nov 17, 2014

Institute of Education Sciences – Usability Case Study

After struggling with jargon-filled solicitations and a confusing website, some applicants were ready to give up on seeking grants from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Their complaints prompted a Plain Language makeover for the Institute’s funding materials. As the research arm of the U.S. Education Department, IES’s mission is to provide rigorous and relevant evidence

Katina Stapleton

Nov 14, 2014

ICE Expands Reach of App Designed to Locate Child Predators

Catching child predators? There’s an app for that, and it’s expanding its reach to Android smartphones. Operation Predator—the first U.S. federal law enforcement app designed to seek the public’s help with identifying and locating fugitive and unknown suspected child predators—is now

Kevin Downey

Nov 13, 2014

World Usability Day 2014 theme: Engagement

There are many buzzwords thrown around in the digital government universe, but the most impactful ideas are rooted in one action: engagement. Whether it is a tweet, a mobile app, or a community of practitioners, every digital program or service requires interaction between an organization and its customer. Engagement is also the foundation of all

Jonathan Rubin

Nov 13, 2014

The API Briefing: The Fun Finder – The Recreation Information Database

Back in 2000, I worked at a dot-com building website applications such as a real-time stock ticker ribbon and a real estate listings search engine. One of my favorite applications was an app for mobile phones. At that time, I used the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP), which displayed information using a special version of XHTML.

Bill Brantley

Nov 12, 2014

Follow the Clicks: A Look at Click-through Rates on Government Websites

How important is it to show the most relevant result at the top of your search results page? Very. Searchers expect to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily—and without scrolling—when they search on government websites. If a Web page isn’t “above the fold” as one of the first listings on the first results

Ammie Farraj Feijoo

Nov 12, 2014

Several federal agencies and offices have worked together to create a free and easy way for public health partners to incorporate our Web content, images, video, data, and infographics into other sites, apps, and social media. Through digital media syndication, the science-based resources of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Disease Control and

Christen Geiler

Nov 10, 2014

4 Tips on Great Survey Design

Whether they pop up while perusing an e-commerce site or land in your inbox after your bumpy flight in from Chicago, surveys are used in many different industries to gauge customer satisfaction and glean insight into user motivations. They are a useful tool in the kit of a user experience designer or anyone

Georgia Gallavin

Nov 10, 2014

Welcome to User Experience Month!

One challenge with digital government: it’s hard to see people. If you work at a U.S. Post Office, you interact with your customers, talk with them, and even see what they are feeling by looking at their faces. You can understand their experience fairly easily. In the digital world, technology decreases physical distance but increases

Jonathan Rubin

Nov 07, 2014