The U.S. Web Design System team will share their exploration of Web Component-based design systems and best practices.
Watch Video
2024
Design
Understand how and why design impacts user experience
Guidance, resources, and community to help you use design to create government websites that meet customer needs, work well on any device, and follow federal web requirements.
Related Policy
21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act
Design: Essential knowledge
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Federal website standards
The federal website standards help agencies provide high-quality, consistent digital experiences for everyone. They cover common visual technical elements and reflect user experience best practices.
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An introduction to design
How to design government websites that meet customer needs, work well on any device, and follow federal web requirements.
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An introduction to design systems
If your organization needs to ensure compliance with a design standard or align to a brand, a design system can help you achieve those goals more easily than building a site from scratch. Learn how a design system can help you and what you need to know to get started.
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USWDS design principles
Earn trust by following consistent design principles.
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Understanding design in 10 questions
Learn how the discipline of design can help your agency improve customer experience.
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Bringing design in-house
What is design, who are designers, and how can they help your agency? Learn how to build a design team that can help your agency solve “wicked problems” and be more innovative.
Design events
The U.S. Web Design System team will answer community questions and give an update on their work developing web components for the design system.
Watch Video
2024
The U.S. Web Design System team will give an update on their work developing web components for the design system.
Watch Video
2024
The U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) team will chat with Center for Civic Design co-founder Whitney Quesenbery about designing accessible civic spaces.
Watch Video
2024
The U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) team will go over some basics of Web Components and how they apply to the design system.
Watch Video
2024
Design news
Making the case for human-centered design: A Department of Justice case study
The Access DOJ initiative shares nine lessons on making services more accessible, effective, and efficient.
Delivering a digital-first public experience: One agency’s plan
Learn how the U.S. General Services Administration is tackling the 100+ requirements of OMB memo M-23-22, Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience.
A revised and expanded guide for de-risking government technology projects
18F recently launched an updated version of the 2020 De-risking Government Technology Guide, offering a new section on vendor management, and combining the State Software Budgeting Handbook and Federal Field Guide into one unified resource. The guide offers practical methods for reducing risks in government tech projects, drawing from 18F’s experience and state employee input. This revision reflects the evolving needs of government agencies, providing key insights on custom software development, vendor collaboration, and performance-based contracting.— via 18F
How the Open Data, Design, and Development team implemented state and offshore region navigation pages with hallway testing
User feedback is key to creating great digital products, but limited resources can hinder research efforts. Hallway testing provides a quick, useful solution. By conducting informal interviews, the Open Data, Design, and Development team at the Department of the Interior gathered insights to improve navigation to state and offshore region pages on the Natural Resources Revenue Data website. After testing prototypes, the best option was implemented, streamlining access white minimizing resource use. The team’s next steps include monitoring performance, evaluating the addition of maps on select pages, and continued hallway testing.— via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
A journey of improvement: Creating a self-assessment for digital experience
Memo M-23-22 from the Office of Management and Budget provides guidance to federal agencies on delivering a digital-first public experience. To quantify its compliance with the memo, the Open Data, Design, and Development team at the Department of the Interior created and conducted a self-assessment of its digital products. The team used a scoring spreadsheet to measure compliance across categories like accessibility, design consistency, and mobile responsiveness. The results helped the team develop a plan to prioritize improvements and engage with leadership for support on other initiatives.— via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
Resources on Design
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Hurricane Milton guidance for U.S. government websites and social media
Addressing web and digital communications related to Hurricane Milton
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Hurricane Helene guidance for U.S. government websites and social media
Addressing web and digital communications related to Hurricane Helene
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An introduction to design
How to design government websites that meet customer needs, work well on any device, and follow federal web requirements.
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Making the big move: Search in support of federal web modernization
In this special report, we discuss a website redesign’s nine phases and their impact on search.
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An introduction to design systems
If your organization needs to ensure compliance with a design standard or align to a brand, a design system can help you achieve those goals more easily than building a site from scratch. Learn how a design system can help you and what you need to know to get started.
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Embedding Equity in Civic Design to Transform Customer Experience
This case study describes how two civic designers at different agencies embed equity in civic design to transform federal customer experience.
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Lessons from the 2021 Federal Plain Language Report Card
This event recap highlights best practices, a short case study video, and examples of federal web content that received both high and low scores in the 2021 Plain Language Report Card.
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Multilingual Huddle: Designing for Translation
In this webinar, Laura Godfrey and Fedora Braverman share tips for translating content in the digital context.
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Deceptive Design: How to Identify and Combat Consequence Design
Consequence design is part of everyday life. Deceptive techniques like “dark patterns” and “hostile design” trick people into taking unintended actions — learn how to prevent them from sneaking into our design work.
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Addressing Barriers to User-Centered Design
An overview of the most common barriers and how federal agencies might address them.
Tools and Services
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18F
We help government agencies fix technical problems, build products, and improve how government serves the public through technology.
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Presidential Innovation Fellows
We help government agencies fix technical problems, build products, and improve how government serves the public through technology.
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U.S. Digital Service
We deploy small, responsive groups of designers, engineers, product managers, and bureaucracy specialists to work with and empower civil servants.
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10x
Provides funding for new technology projects or products across government, from the TTS office of investments.
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DotGov Registry
We make it easy to register and manage a .gov domain for US-based government organizations.
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The Lab at OPM
A team of designers with diverse backgrounds that help agencies address complex challenges and build human-centered design capacity across the federal government.
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U.S. Web Design System
A toolkit of principles, guidance, and code that helps agency digital teams build accessible, mobile-friendly government websites for the American public.
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Directory of services, tools, and teams
Free and low-cost shared services and tools offered by the GSA and other agencies.
More News and Events on Design
271 posts
Making the case for human-centered design: A Department of Justice case study
The Access DOJ initiative shares nine lessons on making services more accessible, effective, and efficient.
Delivering a digital-first public experience: One agency’s plan
Learn how the U.S. General Services Administration is tackling the 100+ requirements of OMB memo M-23-22, Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience.
The U.S. Web Design System team will share their exploration of Web Component-based design systems and best practices.
Watch Video
2024
A revised and expanded guide for de-risking government technology projects
18F recently launched an updated version of the 2020 De-risking Government Technology Guide, offering a new section on vendor management, and combining the State Software Budgeting Handbook and Federal Field Guide into one unified resource. The guide offers practical methods for reducing risks in government tech projects, drawing from 18F’s experience and state employee input. This revision reflects the evolving needs of government agencies, providing key insights on custom software development, vendor collaboration, and performance-based contracting.— via 18F
How the Open Data, Design, and Development team implemented state and offshore region navigation pages with hallway testing
User feedback is key to creating great digital products, but limited resources can hinder research efforts. Hallway testing provides a quick, useful solution. By conducting informal interviews, the Open Data, Design, and Development team at the Department of the Interior gathered insights to improve navigation to state and offshore region pages on the Natural Resources Revenue Data website. After testing prototypes, the best option was implemented, streamlining access white minimizing resource use. The team’s next steps include monitoring performance, evaluating the addition of maps on select pages, and continued hallway testing.— via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
A journey of improvement: Creating a self-assessment for digital experience
Memo M-23-22 from the Office of Management and Budget provides guidance to federal agencies on delivering a digital-first public experience. To quantify its compliance with the memo, the Open Data, Design, and Development team at the Department of the Interior created and conducted a self-assessment of its digital products. The team used a scoring spreadsheet to measure compliance across categories like accessibility, design consistency, and mobile responsiveness. The results helped the team develop a plan to prioritize improvements and engage with leadership for support on other initiatives.— via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
The U.S. Web Design System team will answer community questions and give an update on their work developing web components for the design system.
Watch Video
2024
Digital front door: Expanding access to VA
More Veterans are turning to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for healthcare and benefits, accessing these services online through tools like the VA Health and Benefits mobile app and VA.gov. With over 2.28 million app downloads and 17.8 million monthly visitors on VA.gov, these digital tools provide faster, easier, and more inclusive access to VA services. Learn more about how these technologies are often Veterans’ first interaction with VA by watching their latest video, Digital Front Door: Expanding Access to VA.— via U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
The U.S. Web Design System team will give an update on their work developing web components for the design system.
Watch Video
2024
Case study: Removing barriers to applying for a presidential pardon
At the Department of Justice, Access DOJ and the Office of the Pardon Attorney (PARDON) partnered to simplify and streamline the presidential pardon application process. By conducting usability testing and gathering feedback, they identified key issues with the existing application, such as its complexity and length. See how redesigning the forms to be more accessible and understandable led to a more efficient process for both applicants and staff.— via Department of Justice
Equity study reaches 4,000 participants
Launched last fall, the General Services Administration equity study on remote identity proofing aims to determine if biases exist in the algorithms used for online identity verification. The study has now reached its goal of recruiting 4,000 participants from diverse communities, and experts are ready to begin analysis of the data. Learn how the team at GSA plans to conduct this data analysis, and how their findings will lead to improved equitable services delivery in technology across the government.— via General Services Administration
The U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) team will chat with Center for Civic Design co-founder Whitney Quesenbery about designing accessible civic spaces.
Watch Video
2024
One year with the new USAGov
It has been a year since USA.gov and USAGov en Español were relaunched using human-centered design principles. Using task backlog, the USAGov team has addressed content gaps, improved discoverability, and implemented technical updates. Through usability tests, visitor comments, and click behavior the team was able to unravel and respond to user feedback and unmet needs, leading to noticeable increases in visitor satisfaction and task accomplishment. Moving forward, the focus will shift to enhancing public engagement with the government, improving the search for benefits-related content, and exploring interactive and personalized user experiences.— via USA.gov
The U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) team will go over some basics of Web Components and how they apply to the design system.
Watch Video
2024
Progress towards delivering a digital-first public experience
Each year, more than 400 million individuals, families, businesses, organizations, and local governments get information and services from about 430 federal agencies and sub-agencies. The Biden-Harris administration is driving a bold vision for how government agencies serve their customers digitally with OMB’s ten-year roadmap for a modern digital experience. Agencies have already made significant strides. Learn about recent successes by the IRS, CDC, NASA, and FEMA, and how OMB will continue to collaborate with agencies to ensure ongoing improvement in digital government services.— via The White House
Justice department to publish final rule to strengthen web and mobile app access for people with disabilities
On April 8, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland signed a final rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to ensure the accessibility of web content and mobile applications for people with disabilities. This final rule clarifies the obligations of state and local governments to make their websites and mobile applications accessible. Learn more about this rule and why the Attorney General believes it will “break down barriers that have kept people with disabilities from fully participating in American Life.”— via Department of Justice
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
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
Join the U.S. Web Design System team for a lesson on customizing and extending the design system.
Watch Video
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
