Blogs

Government teams are improving digital experiences every day. Gain insights from their stories, case studies, and innovations.

Functionality and Usability Testing Resources

Functionality testing verifies that the functions of a product or service is working as intended. Each function is tested by providing appropriate input, verifying the output and comparing the actual results with the expected results. Usability testing measures the ease of use and intuitiveness of a product or service by asking users to perform a

May 25, 2013

NASCIO Launches Mobile Apps Catalog

The federal government’s Mobile Code Catalog has company! This month, NASCIO released a new State Mobile Apps Catalog, a collection of over 160 state and territory native mobile apps that users can browse and download for smart phones and tablets. The apps are searchable by state/territory,

May 24, 2013

/Developer Kit

These are the elements that make up a well-rounded developer hub. Homepage The API efforts of any agency should all be accessible via one easy to reach developers hub. This Web page should provide a path to all public APIs and any associated resources. Once an agency has begun to publish multiple APIs, certain resources

May 21, 2013

Google Analytics and the New Healthcare.gov

The new Healthcare.gov will sort content according to user demand with a new plugin developed for the site. For a content-heavy site like healthcare.gov, this option will allow HHS to serve popular content to readers quickly. In April we told you about Jekyll. The new Healthcare.gov will use this

May 21, 2013

API Release Kit

These are the elements you should include in your federal API release. Homepage Each of your public APIs needs a page to serve as a hub to provide access to all information and tools associated with it. By using the page’s sidebar, footer, and sub pages, you can directly include or link to each of

May 16, 2013

CDC Mobile Tools

The Center’s for Disease and Control has developed a mobile website and a mobile app so users can access information anytime, anywhere, on any device. The mobile website was developed to allow users to access a subset of CDC’s content on mobile devices. These sections include

May 16, 2013

What is a Civic Hacker?

The National Day of Civic Hacking is bringing together thousands of civic hackers on June 1st and 2nd. But what is a civic hacker, anyway? “Civic hackers” as we think about it for the National Day of Civic Hacking are technologists, civil servants, designers, entrepreneurs, engineers –

May 15, 2013

Federal Mobile Code Sharing Catalog Is Here

Federal agencies have a new resource to help them make content and services available anytime, anywhere, and from any device–the federal Mobile Code Catalog sponsored by the Digital Services Innovation Center. This catalog is hosted on GitHub (more on why that matters in a moment).

May 13, 2013

USPS Mobile App Updates

The U.S. Postal Service Mobile app can help you find a post office, calculate shipping prices and track packages. Since we last featured this app, the USPS has added the ability to schedule pickups and order supplies. Last month, USPS Mobile version 3.8 was released. The new version allows users

May 09, 2013

We the People API

“APIs for WhiteHouse.gov? What in the heck does that mean?” Like President Obama, you may be asking the same question.

May 09, 2013

Planning an Apps Challenge

Apps challenges are a great way to spur innovation and help your agency meet its mission. But before you jump in, learn about how apps challenges work, to ensure yours is successful. Design Concept or Functioning App? What kind of product do you want from your apps challenge? A working app; or A concept for

May 08, 2013

The New Healthcare.gov Uses a Lightweight Open Source Tool

Last week, we told you about the upcoming relaunch of Healthcare.gov and its use of the Jekyll website generator. Jekyll allows users to build dynamic websites served by static pages. To help manage large websites using Jekyll, developers working on the new healthcare.gov published the ‘Prose.io’ editing interface

May 07, 2013

Cracking the Mobile Contracting Nut

Mobile is a fast moving technology leaving many agencies feeling behind the contracting eight-ball. Between finding those rockstar mobile developers, figuring out what to ask for in a statement of work (SOW), the time it takes getting a contract to get those expert resources, agencies are challenged in making

May 06, 2013

Don’t include Internet music, video, or graphics in your video unless you understand the copyright. Yes, this is a pain, but companies take copyright very seriously and regularly file both takedown notices and lawsuits against offenders.

May 04, 2013

The National Gallery of Art has released a free mobile application about the treasures in the permanent collection. Your Art app, available for iOS, enriches the experience of on-site visitors and expands the Gallery’s reach by bringing its masterpieces to art lovers across the globe. Some of this app’s

May 02, 2013

Internet Time Travel

The first public page on the world wide web went live twenty years ago on April 30, 1993. Take a look because this is the page that explains all things www at the time.

May 02, 2013

Why Government Websites Need SEO

As the SEO Specialist for Brighton College, I have come across many frustrating, un-optimized, information-rich government websites which are difficult to find on the Internet. Although government websites may have an advantage over commercial websites pertaining to search engine optimization (SEO), without an intentional SEO strategy

May 02, 2013