Personas: learn how to discover your audience, understand them, and pivot to address their needs
Advice from five federal experts on creating user personas.
Research
News and Events on Research
232 posts
Modernizing a federal government website with user-centered design
In this blog post, we break down our process for redesigning a federal government website (onrr.gov) into six detailed sections. This blog serves as a helpful guide for other agencies looking to do a major website redesign.— via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
Call for participation: Government UX summit 2023
The UX Summit will be a one day virtual event on June 14, 2023. New and experienced UX practitioners are encouraged to participate.
GSA’s Office of Evaluation Sciences shares how five offices worked with the public to improve digital forms.
2023
USER EXPERIENCE AND WEB MANAGERS
Increasing public participation in user research
Join GSA’s 10x team as they share their report on creative incentives and tools for increased public participation in user research.
Watch Video
2023
User Research
Managing Stakeholder Feedback: Lessons from Experience
During the 2022 Plain Language Summit, Stephanie Morrison from the Department of Health and Human Services provided five tips for managing reviewers when asking for feedback.
WEB CONTENT and USER EXPERIENCE
Improve Your Website With User Testing
Get tips and lessons learned from the Environmental Protection Agency on how to conduct user testing to improve customer experience.
2022
User Experience
DHS Usability Testing Kit — So Easy, Anyone Can Do It
Join us for an overview of the Department of Homeland Security’s new Usability Testing Kit, including its four approaches to usability testing.
2022
The 18F Engineering Sandwich for Cloud-based Web Apps
The 18F Engineering Sandwich for Cloud-based Web Apps—18F Engineering is often thought of as a technology shop, but that’s too broad. There are very few technology choices we actually make at the project level, so, more often than not, we combine a limited set of technologies to make our applications. To explain this, we’ll use the metaphor of a sandwich shop.— via 18F
Measuring and Justifying the Government Experience
Measuring and Justifying the Government Experience—Private sector organizations use revenue as the primary measurement to justify improving experiences. Many government services don’t have revenue as a lever, so how can we justify work to improve experience? The Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) leveraged a few metrics on their team that fall into three categories: laws and regulations, improving the experience for users, and saving time for employees.— via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
Content Design for beta.ADA.gov: Writing for Action and Flexibility
Content Design for beta.ADA.gov: Writing for Action and Flexibility—18F worked with a team at the Department of Justice to redesign ADA.gov. They helped them launch beta.ada.gov, and designed new content for some of the most sought-after ADA topics.— via 18F
10x Announces 25 New Projects Launching This Fiscal Year
Starting with a pool of nearly 200 ideas, 10x is excited to announce new projects to be funded at the Phase One Investigation level for FY22. Here’s how we got there, some observations made, and next steps.
User Experience
2022 Government UX Summit
A two-day summit—June 7 and June 8—with experts who will share their experiences as UX practitioners in the federal government.
2022
Plain Language
Plain Language + Compassion Help People in Crisis
Meet the content strategists who worked to transform FindTreatment.gov to connect people in crisis with the help that they need.
2022
User Experience
Call for Participation: 2022 Government UX Summit
Learn more about the User Experience Summit submission process, and submit your presentations for consideration!
User Experience
Open-source Information Architecture Design: Using the Tools You Have To Conduct Card Sorting and Tree Testing
Learn how we used GitHub to conduct a card sort and tree testing to improve the information architecture for onrr.gov.
Plain Language
Keynote Speaker Recap: Would More Plain Language Have Saved Us From the Worst of the Pandemic?
A summary of Cynthia Baur’s keynote at the 2021 Plain Language Summit.
Plain Language
Webinar Recap: Key Takeaways on Simplifying Hazard Communications With Plain Language
An overview of the presentation by Danielle Nagele of NOAA at the 2021 Plain Language Summit. Learn how she and her team used feedback to decrease confusion and increase impact.
USWDS
Webinar Recap: U.S. Web Design System September 2021 Monthly Call
For our September call, we focused on the future of the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS): Where does the design system go from USWDS 2.0? What did we learn from our 1.0 and 2.0 releases? Read key points and takeaways from this month’s presentation.
Plain Language
2021 Federal Plain Language Summit
On 9/21/21, PLAIN’s Fourth Federal PL Summit showcases federal employees’ plain language projects. Topics include COVID-19 agency responses, accessibility, user experience, and career enhancement.
2021
