News and Updates

Innovative work, news, and ideas from people and teams in government

18F practices in action (spoiler: this stuff works)

How well do 18F software development practices work? The 18F team reflected on a recent project for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) .gov registry to gauge the effectiveness of six recommendations aligned with what they actually did.— via 18F

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Apr 03, 2024

How USAGov uses data to improve content

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

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Apr 01, 2024
Join the U.S. Web Design System team for a lesson on customizing and extending the design system.
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2024

18F at ten

We’re celebrating all the ways we continue to realize our founding vision: bringing technologists into government, launching shared digital services, and helping partner agencies build user-centered technology.— via 18F

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Mar 19, 2024

Search.gov year in review: 2023 report

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

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Mar 15, 2024
Annual Gathering

Spring 2024 Community Summit

Digital service experts across the federal government will share case studies and best practices on delivering a digital-first public experience.
2024

Equity in action: GSA’s study on remote identity-proofing technologies

The Biden-Harris President’s Management Agenda (PMA) emphasizes an effective, equitable and accountable government. As part of this effort, the General Services Administration (GSA) is conducting a study on the equity of remote identity proofing. The study aims to assess and improve the accessibility and equity of remote identity verification technologies such as facial matching systems. Learn more about the context, purpose, and progress of the study, and how it supports GSA’s goal of enhancing digital government services and prioritizing equitable design practices.— via Performance.gov

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Mar 13, 2024

Customer experience: beyond surveys

Want to measure customer experience? Surveys aren’t the only way! Consider these guiding questions to help your team select an approach based on what you want to learn.— via 18F

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Mar 05, 2024

Balancing priorities and values

This article summarizes four priorities and values that simply take time: consideration of the public’s time, privacy, accessibility and equity, and scope.

Feb 08, 2024

Getting the word out about voter registration: Vote.gov’s first social media takeover with USAGov

Last fall, vote.gov and the USAGov program partnered for their first-ever social media takeover on National Voter Registration Day. The campaign, which encouraged the public to register to vote, reached 36,000 people across USAGov’s platforms and generated over 2,000 engagements. The partnership raised awareness for vote.gov, boosted vote.gov’s website traffic, and laid the groundwork for the future collaborations and resource-sharing between the two entities. This collaboration between vote.gov and USAGov offers a model for social media takeovers and partnerships between federal agencies and teams.— via USA.gov

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Feb 06, 2024

Gathering feedback with customer panels

Explore behind-the-scenes process of creating customer panels for the .gov domain registrar, managed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). By engaging with current users through a customer panel, the team gained direct insights, identified areas for immediate improvement, and discovered new features for the product roadmap. Learn the approach involved and how the outcomes highlight the panel’s impact on defining language, improving usability, and generating ideas for future features.— via 18F

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Feb 01, 2024

Designing with empathy

Discover the transformative power of empathy in design with USAGov’s benefit finder. From simplifying applications to a mobile-first approach, the revamped tool not only functions efficiently in two different languages and cultural contexts, but demonstrates the consideration for users in challenging situations. Explore how empathy turned a government service into a compassionate lifeline, creating a product that genuinely understands and meets people where they are.— via USA.gov

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Jan 25, 2024
This month the Design System team will talk about the development and rollout of their new accessibility tests for components.
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2024