User Experience

IT Modernization

Technology-boosting TMF Investments Deliver Benefits for the American Public

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) is working to transform the way the government uses technology to deliver for the American public in an equitable, secure and user-friendly way. It strategically invests in priority IT modernization projects that are aligned with the fast pace of changing technology and agency needs. Here are a few examples of how the TMF has invested in multiple projects that are helping many agencies deliver what people need when they need.

GSA Blog Team

May 23, 2022

USAGov Content Design Team: 2021 Highlights

USAGov Content Design Team: 2021 Highlights—Our mission at USAGov and USAGov en Español is to make it easy for anyone to find and understand the government information they need. We’re excited about what we accomplished in 2021; we connected with the public 117 million times through our websites, social media, email, and phone and chat contact center support. And with our “data first” mindset, we’re more confident that our content is addressing our users’ needs.— via USA.gov

May 10, 2022

Two Years of Federal Student Aid’s Virtual Assistant Lead to Lessons Learned and a Clear Vision of the Work Ahead

Education’s FSA team behind Aidan® shares what they’ve learned over the past two years to help drive improvements and expand the product to a wider range of users.

Christine Wilkes

Laura Nadel

May 02, 2022

Our friends at Digital.gov will join us to talk through their experience migrating to USWDS 3.0.

Dan Williams

Matthew Bogdan

Why We Created a Troubleshooting Guide

Why We Created a Troubleshooting Guide—The Open Data, Design, and Development team at the U.S. Department of the Interior added a troubleshooting guide to accompany contact information on onrr.gov. This is their process.— via Office of Natural Resources Revenue

Apr 20, 2022

Creating a New Way for People To Discover Government Benefits

Creating a New Way for People To Discover Government Benefits—To make it even easier for everyone to find services and benefits without needing to understand government structure, we’re developing a new digital tool in partnership with 10x, GSA’s incremental technology fund. BEARS, the Benefits Eligibility Awareness Resource Service, is an important step forward in providing an integrated, simple solution for federal benefits to improve the customer experience and will eventually cover all federal benefits from all agencies.— via USA.gov

Mar 15, 2022

Lessons from the 2021 Federal Plain Language Report Card

During the Digital.gov and Plain Language Community event, Results of the 2021 Federal Report Card, speaker David Lipscomb gave examples of web content that received both high and low scores in the 2021 Plain Language Report Card. Here’s what we learned.

Gabby Fratanduono-King

Mara Goldberg

Mar 11, 2022

Meet the content strategists who worked to transform FindTreatment.gov to connect people in crisis with the help that they need.

Amanda Costello

Katherine Spivey

Katina Stapleton

From Fellowship To Full-time: How a CFPB Software Engineer Helped Protect Consumers and Built a Career in Civic Tech

Anselm Bradford, a front-end engineer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), is using his tech skills to protect American consumers.

Chris Kuang

Mar 07, 2022

Tips to help you improve access to your non-English digital content.

Watch Video

Ammie Farraj Feijoo

Laura Godfrey

Michael Mulé

User Experience

Call for Participation: 2022 Government UX Summit

Learn more about the User Experience Summit submission process, and submit your presentations for consideration!

Beth Martin

Jean Fox

Jan 19, 2022

Policy

Go-Live Checklist for Federal Websites

Covering the breadth of federal web policy, the new downloadable checklist organizes policy requirements into nine categories and explains what your agency needs to do to meet each requirement.

Rachel Flagg

Jan 13, 2022

Learn how to overcome resistance to data analytics and visualization, ask the right questions, and improve customer experience.

Adam Korengold

Dan Wendling

Jean Fox

Tim Lowden

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.

Lindsay Goldstein

Maroya Faied

Shannon McHarg

Jan 06, 2022

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.

Gabby Fratanduono-King

Katherine Spivey

Mara Goldberg

Jan 04, 2022

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.

Rebecca Nelson

Jan 04, 2022

David Lipscomb from the Center for PL will review the results of this year’s Federal Plain Language Report Card and answer questions.

David Lipscomb

Katherine Spivey

Katina Stapleton

Strategy

Digital Meets Culture: Getting Your Culture in Line With Your Digital Strategy

Learn how digital service teams in government navigate through the currents of organizational culture and implement change at their agencies.

Ruxi Giura

Sep 28, 2021

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.

Katherine Spivey

Katina Stapleton

User Experience

Building a Bureau-Wide Usability Collaboration Group: Lessons Learned from the U.S. Geological Survey

Learn about the U.S. Geological Survey’s Usability Collaboration Area in this short interview with the group’s organizer.

Holly Chandler

Sep 01, 2021

User Experience

Technology-boosting TMF Investments Deliver Benefits for the American Public

USAGov Content Design Team: 2021 Highlights

Two Years of Federal Student Aid’s Virtual Assistant Lead to Lessons Learned and a Clear Vision of the Work Ahead

USWDS Monthly Call - April 2022

Why We Created a Troubleshooting Guide

Creating a New Way for People To Discover Government Benefits

Lessons from the 2021 Federal Plain Language Report Card

Plain Language + Compassion Help People in Crisis

From Fellowship To Full-time: How a CFPB Software Engineer Helped Protect Consumers and Built a Career in Civic Tech

Language Connections: Tips to Create, Maintain, and Present Non-English Digital Content

Call for Participation: 2022 Government UX Summit

Go-Live Checklist for Federal Websites

Overcoming Your Fear of Data

Open-source Information Architecture Design: Using the Tools You Have To Conduct Card Sorting and Tree Testing

Keynote Speaker Recap: Would More Plain Language Have Saved Us From the Worst of the Pandemic?

Webinar Recap: Key Takeaways on Simplifying Hazard Communications With Plain Language

Results of the 2021 Federal Report Card

Digital Meets Culture: Getting Your Culture in Line With Your Digital Strategy

2021 Federal Plain Language Summit

Building a Bureau-Wide Usability Collaboration Group: Lessons Learned from the U.S. Geological Survey

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