News and Updates

Go.USA.gov Creates Short, Trustworthy .gov URLs

Short URLs are useful for tracking clicks, but they can create a poor user experience because the person clicking the link can’t see the final destination. That’s why Go.USA.gov was created—to show users that they would reach official government information. To maintain this trust, Go.USA.gov is only open to government employees and only shortens government

Michelle Chronister

Aug 21, 2014

How to Find Your Open Data Hotshots

How can you find the top 5 users of your open data? We were recently asked this question on the Open Data listserv, and while this information can be a good measure of success for open data programs, we also figured some of the answers shared would be of interest to the broader community. This blog

Nick Sinai

Aug 21, 2014

Paper Prototyping PTSD Coach

The PTSD Coach mobile app from the Department of Veterans Affairs, provides veterans and users with information about PTSD and professional care, along with self-assessment tools and aid in finding support opportunities. The app has been downloaded over 100,000 times in 74

Katie Steffy

Aug 21, 2014

Top 5 Reasons to Use Government-wide Open and Structured Content Models

Content models provide an opportunity for agencies to structure, organize, distribute, and better publish information in multiple forms and on multiple platforms. Federal agencies discussed why content models are important for future-facing content in our What Structured Content Models Can Do For You Webinars in May and June.

Katie Steffy

Aug 20, 2014

The API Briefing: Back to School – U.S. Department of Education APIs

As the new school season approaches, it is a good time to see what federal datasets are available for educational app developers. Visit the developers’ page at ED.gov to find 36 educational datasets for educational levels. The datasets can be accessed in CSV, JSON,

Bill Brantley

Aug 20, 2014

White House SocialGov Summit Aims to Improve Open Data Innovation

More than 100 digital engagement and open data managers from across government met with leaders in the private sector startup community August 7 at the White House for a summit on integrating our digital services with public participation to create more

Justin Herman

Aug 19, 2014

Trends on Tuesday: What’s Currently the No. 1 Smartphone in the U.S.?

Do you ever find yourself conducting unofficial smartphone research? Ever since my agency decided to develop a mobile app, I know I do. Luckily, new data from ComScore on the U.S. smartphone subscriber market share can help eliminate the guesswork. Here are a few of the key trends ComScore found in the U.S. smartphone industry

Treci Johnson

Aug 19, 2014

Redesigning with Customer Feedback: Child Support Enforcement Usability Case Study

The Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement at the Administration for Children and Families had a visually appealing website after an agency-wide redesign of program websites. The problem: Key stakeholders complained they could no longer easily find needed information. Their feedback prompted us to facilitate a UX-minded focus group to recommend improvements that met both users’ business needs and the redesign goals.

Crystal Peeler

Aug 19, 2014

How to Choose a User Experience Technique

The good news: Your boss is interested in User Experience! The news: She wants you to do something about it… NOW. Well, don’t be alarmed; you can start by figuring out two simple things.

Pooja Sawant

Aug 18, 2014

The Minimum Viable Building Blocks For a Federal Government API Hub

My name is Kin Lane, I am the API Evangelist, and a round two Presidential Innovation Fellow. I spend each day looking through the developer portals and hubs for API across the private sector. Recently I’ve also spent time looking at 77 federal government API developer portals and 190 APIs, and

Kin Lane

Aug 18, 2014

The Contributor’s Guide to 18F: Code for the Common Good

Introduction Transparency in coding makes code more secure. Open-source development is development in the light, sometimes a harsh light, that shows every blemish. At 18F we strongly believe this improves the rapidity of our coding and the quality and security of the code. We keep the code open to each other, which allows us to

Robert L. Read, PhD

Aug 15, 2014

Get Out of the Jargon Trap: Plain Language Training Can Help

The Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN) is the official federal working group designated to help agencies with plain language, including training. PLAIN offers free 3.5-hour classes in the principles of plain language and plain language for Web writing.

Wendy Wagner-Smith

Aug 15, 2014

Census PoP Quiz Mobile App Challenges Knowledge of State Statistics

The U.S. Census Bureau today released Census PoP Quiz, a new interactive mobile application that challenges users’ knowledge of demographic facts for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The new app, which draws from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, aims to raise

Aug 14, 2014

Challenge, Contract or Grant – Which tool is right for the job?

Choosing between a contract, a grant, or a public prize competition to get solutions to the problems your agency faces is a difficult task. Each is a tool that has different qualities and each might be the best choice for varying situations.

Tim Lowden

Aug 14, 2014

The API Briefing: Writable APIs – The Federal Register.gov Commenting Feature

FederalRegister.gov just released a writable API that allows citizens to comment directly on proposed regulations. When a user is viewing a regulation on FederalRegister.gov, he or she can click on the “Submit a Formal Comment” button. A textbox appears, and the comment is recorded for that particular regulation.

Bill Brantley

Aug 13, 2014

Photo Carousels on Mobile Websites: Use With Caution!

You might recognize them by the user controls, if provided, that allow you to move from one newsy item to the next. They go by various names, including: carousel, slider, slideshow, banner, and gallery. Many government homepages have them. In a recent email exchange on

Beth Martin

Aug 13, 2014

Delivering a Customer-Focused Government Through Smarter IT

As technology changes, government must change with it to address new challenges and take advantage of new opportunities. This Administration has made important strides in modernizing government so that it serves its constituents more effectively and efficiently, but we know there is much more to do. Last year, a group of digital and technology experts

Steven VanRoekel

Todd Park

Beth Cobert

Aug 12, 2014

Heat Mapping Case Study: Epa.gov Homepage

Most people relate the term “heat map” with something they see during the weather forecast on the nightly news, those colorful maps that vividly illustrate how hot it’s going to be during an impending heat wave. The word “heat map” may not usually however, conjure up images of a widely used Web usability tool; but for those

Georgia Gallavin

Aug 12, 2014

Trends on Tuesday: The Rise of Mobile App Super Users?

A recent Trends on Tuesday post cautioned against becoming another statistic in the treacherous, desolate wasteland known as the App Graveyard. Thankfully, there is some research that shows the likelihood of your app being banished to its grave is receding. Trends indicate that not only are app retention rates rising, user engagement is increasing. According

Zeshan Khan

Aug 12, 2014

The Power of Email Marketing

If you aren’t currently including email marketing in your digital outreach efforts, you’re missing out.

Nicholas Garlow

Aug 11, 2014