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Back to basics in the age of AI
on June 18, 2024
The federal government is abuzz with conversation about the way that artificial intelligence (AI) is going to change the game. Since 18F partners with agencies to drive technology modernization forward, our ability to navigate the opportunities and risks associated with AI is critical. But as we’re learning new things, we also find ourselves going back to basics. As we evaluate and use AI, we can rely on many of the same practices that we apply to any other new technology. Read on for a quick overview of AI, its place in government today, and the techniques and frameworks we’re using as we navigate this new landscape.
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Customer experience: beyond surveys
on March 5, 2024
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.
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“Hi” from the 18F design chapter
on May 2, 2023
Designing technology-enabled public services requires deep expertise in how different elements of the experience come together (or don’t!). The 18F design chapter comprises four discipline-specific cohorts — service design, user experience (UX) design, product design, and content strategy.
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We asked our design team: what did you learn in 2022, and what are you looking forward to in 2023?
on February 13, 2023
We asked our design team what they learned in 2022, and what they are looking forward to in 2023. Here’s what some of our team members had to say.
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Creating a culture of innovation at your agency
on September 12, 2022
When we talk about "innovation" in government tech, what do we mean? 18F surveyed multiple digital innovation groups in cultural heritage institutions and federal agencies on this very question. As an innovation group ourselves, the results both challenged us and strengthened our confidence in the importance of trying new approaches in the government space.
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Content design for beta.ada.gov: writing for action and flexibility
on July 13, 2022
We worked with a team at the Department of Justice to redesign ADA.gov. We helped them launch beta.ada.gov, and we’ve designed new content for some of the most sought-after ADA topics.
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We asked our coworkers: What have you learned from other 18F designers?
on January 21, 2022
We asked 18F designers what they've learned from fellow designers while working together. Here's what they said.
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Building a user-centered data strategy
on April 1, 2021
18F can help agencies with the process of developing an effective data strategy. Our principles of user-centered design, agile, and iterative delivery can increase your agencies’ chance for success in using data more effectively.
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The 18F Public Benefits Portfolio reflects on the last year
on March 31, 2021
Pairing our deepening domain knowledge of the unique nuances of benefits administration and delivery across programs and levels of government with our core expertise in modern technology and digital service delivery, 18F’s Public Benefits Portfolio team helped empower our partners to take some important leaps forward to rise to the critical challenges of the current moment, and we’re thrilled to highlight some of their achievements from this past year.
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Doing user research to design the next-gen WDFN
on August 6, 2020
The USGS Water Resources Mission Area is striving to make their water data easier to access for their users. This involves stepping back and reviewing how users currently use waterdata.usgs.gov so that we can make informed decisions moving forward.
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Introducing the UX Guide
on August 4, 2020
At GSA’s 18F, one thing we do on every project is human-centered design. We use the broader term user experience (UX) design to refer to a set of human-centered methods and practices we use in our work. Our new UX Guide documents some of our practices and holds helpful resources.
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Transforming how DOJ's Civil Rights Division engages with the public
on July 7, 2020
In order to be more responsive to the public’s changing communication needs and the increased reporting volume,the Civil Rights Division, in close collaboration with 18F, has launched a user-friendly online submission experience at civilrights.justice.gov that transforms the way the Division collects, sorts, and responds to civil rights reports.
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Design & research in critical times
on June 2, 2020
18F staff is distributed across the country and the majority of our research has been and will continue to be facilitated remotely. We are sharing our experience to help guide designers and researchers as they adapt to new ways of working and provide some additional considerations to keep in mind while conducting research in critical times.
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Barriers to Government’s Adoption of User-centered Design — And How To Address Them
on November 7, 2019
Last summer, we embarked on a 10x project to explore (and potentially improve) user-centered design practices across the federal government.
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Six ways we’ve recently improved TTS’s Design Research Guild
on March 7, 2019
A few months ago, the TTS’s Design Research Guild started brainstorming ways to better position itself for success. In this post, we’ll share the six ways we’ve recently worked to improve the guild.
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Walking the talk: what went into the Method Cards’ tune up
on September 21, 2017
Recently, 18F released a new version of the Method Cards, a collection of tools that offer simple, “how-to” descriptions of research and design methods with a special emphasis on the use of those methods in government work. With this new release, the Method Cards have become easier to read and understand, as well as easier to print and circulate.
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Managing custom software development in government when you're not a software engineer
on September 20, 2017
As custom software development becomes integral to accomplishing any program’s mission, many managers in government find themselves faced with handling the unfamiliar: overseeing the design and implementation of a digital product that is functional and user-friendly.
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Writing for the web is easy. Writing for users is not.
on October 26, 2016
Government websites are written for an extraordinarily diverse group of users. They come to our websites with different knowledge, backgrounds, and abilities. Fortunately, there are steps we can take to make sure the content we care about reaches the audience we want (and is useful to them).
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USA.gov updates vote.gov: now it’s leaner, faster and multi-lingual
on September 27, 2016
One year ago this week, we launched vote.gov. It was a concise and simple site with a single mission: direct citizens through the voter registration process as quickly as possible. Today, on National Voter Registration Day, we're launching this new version.
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Build empathy with stakeholder interviews, part 2: Conversation
on July 22, 2016
In the first post of this series, I covered what stakeholder interviews are, why they’re valuable, and how to prepare for them. In this second post, I’ll cover how to actually run the interviews as well as some tips for synthesizing and socializing what you learn.
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Build empathy with stakeholder interviews, part 1: Preparation
on June 20, 2016
In this post, I'll cover what stakeholder interviews are, why they’re valuable, and how to prepare for them. In the second post, I’ll cover how to actually run the interviews as well as some tips for synthesizing and integrating the results into the team’s shared understanding.
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How design consistency helps users navigate federal websites
on March 25, 2016
We launched the Draft U.S. Web Design Standards last September, and over the next month, we plan to explore various topics related to design standards. In this post, we detail how our user research informed the decision decisions we made.
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Making the Draft U.S. Web Design Standards better through your feedback
on March 16, 2016
Since our launch of the Draft U.S. Web Design Standards last September, hundreds of people have provided feedback on the project through GitHub issues and via email. We’ve received dozens of feature requests as well as over 400 contributions from the open source community.
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Designing services that are accessible, transparent, and easy for all to use
on March 11, 2016
We're publishing a full report to better understand the public's overall experience interacting with the federal government and their attitudes about sharing information with government agencies. Today we end the series with a look at what we’ll focus on in the next stage of research.
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What people think about before deciding to share personal information with the government
on March 10, 2016
Over the next two weeks, we’re publishing a full report with findings from our research to better understand the public's overall experience interacting with the federal government and their attitudes about sharing information with government agencies. In today’s installment, we'll share what people think about before deciding to share personal information with the government.
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Trust as a two-way street between the government and the people it serves
on March 9, 2016
Over the next two weeks, we’re publishing a full report with findings from our research to better understand the public's overall experience interacting with the federal government and their attitudes about sharing information with government agencies. In today’s installment, we'll detail when people decide to trust the federal government and how they view the federal government vs. private companies.
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Too many options make complicated decisions harder
on March 8, 2016
Over the next two weeks, we’re publishing a full report with findings from our research to better understand the public's overall experience interacting with the federal government and their attitudes about sharing information with government agencies. In today’s installment, we'll talk about how choice overload affects decision-making.
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Transparency within government helps build public trust
on March 7, 2016
Over the next two weeks, we’re publishing a full report with findings from our research to better understand the public's overall experience interacting with the federal government and their attitudes about sharing information with government agencies. In today’s installment, we detail the need for transparency in government so that the public can “see” the process they’re undergoing when they’re interacting with federal agencies and programs.
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How people use proxies to interact with the federal government
on March 4, 2016
Over the next two weeks, we’re publishing a full report with findings from our research to better understand the public's overall experience interacting with the federal government and their attitudes about sharing information with government agencies. In today’s installment, we detail how people interact with the government using proxies.
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How people learn to navigate government services
on March 3, 2016
Over the next two weeks, we’re publishing a full report with findings from our research to better understand the public's overall experience interacting with the federal government and their attitudes about sharing information with government agencies. In today’s installment, we detail how people learn to navigate government services and what barriers exist to accessing services.
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Strategies people use when interacting with the federal government
on March 2, 2016
Over the next two weeks, we’re publishing a full report with findings from our research to better understand the public's overall experience interacting with the federal government and their attitudes about sharing information with government agencies. In today’s installment, we detail the strategies people use when interacting with the government.
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What we learned after interviewing dozens of people about their interactions with the federal government
on March 1, 2016
Over the next two weeks, we’re publishing a full report with findings from our research to better understand the public's overall experience interacting with the federal government and their attitudes about sharing information with government agencies. In today’s installment, we detail our initial research questions and what we learned.
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Informing the future of the Federal Front Door
on February 29, 2016
Today, we’re publishing a full report with findings from our research on the Federal Front Door, as well as a microsite that will contain future research findings related to these topics. In the coming days, we’ll also be publishing the complete report on the 18F blog.
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Tips for capturing the best data from user interviews
on February 9, 2016
User interviews are, at a minimum, an opportunity for you to ask your intended audience about their expectations, what their needs are and to get direct feedback on the work you’ve done so far or on what you plan to do. But an interview is only as good as the data you get out of it.
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Choose design over architecture
on November 17, 2015
Conventional wisdom often encourages engineers to start with a big architectural overview, but this kind of a grand plan usually leads to technical-debt. Instead of using an architecture-first plan, you should focus on user experience design and software design to help your project avoid technical debt.
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Every Kid in a Park: Why we can’t stop smiling
on October 21, 2015
Our projects are iterative, which means we keep working on them after they launch. In keeping with that practice, we’ve kept a close eye on everykidinapark.gov, which went live September 1. We’re excited to share a few of our improvements and updates with you today.
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This is how we start a new project from scratch at 18F
on October 6, 2015
We built the first iteration of Federalist in a matter of months. Today, we’re lifting the curtain and looking at what went into building the platform, so you can get a sense of what it looks like when 18F starts a project from scratch.
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How to design a government site for kids
on September 3, 2015
Every Kid in a Park gives U.S. fourth graders free access to all federal lands and water for a full year. Here at 18F, we were proud to develop the site in partnership with the U.S. Department of Interior and other federal land management agencies.
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Show me the money: 18F works with Treasury on #TheNew10
on July 17, 2015
Shortly after joining 18F Consulting, the opportunity to work on a Department of the Treasury project came my way. I didn’t stop smiling for what seemed like an hour (or three) after I found out the scope: Treasury was putting a woman on the $10 bill!
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18F discussion: Should project teams code first or design first?
on April 3, 2015
Recently, three members of our team sat down for a conversation about when teams should start coding on a project.
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New resources at CareerOneStop
on March 2, 2015
When the Employment and Training Administration’s CareerOneStop team set out to redesign the career, training, and job resources sections of the CareerOneStop site, they didn’t immediately begin rewriting code. Instead, they embraced a user-centered approach that focused on the user experience (UX). Read on to learn more about their findings.
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Five ways to turn a bad idea into a great one: Steve Portigal event recap
on February 26, 2015
In February, consultant and author Steve Portigal left behind the California sunshine to speak at the 18F headquarters. Steve — principal at Portigal Consulting, author, podcaster, and ramen aficionado — expounded on the topic of bad ideas: Namely, how they add value to the creative process and why we should seek them out.
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Five questions with Steve Portigal
on February 18, 2015
Since October, 18F has been bringing in noted individuals from the software development world to discuss their work, and we’re excited to kick off a new, design-focused series this Friday, February 20 (10:30 a.m. ET) with Steve Portigal, author of Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights and host of the Dollars to Donuts podcast.
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Slides from the inaugural 18F Demo Day
on May 16, 2014
The presentations given at the inaugural 18F Demo Day on May 9, 2014 are online and available at Speaker Deck. If you would like more information on any topic, please feel free to contact the individual speaker.
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Make government APIs better with user experience
on May 10, 2014
An API is a product just like a car, a website or a ballpoint pen. It’s designed to help someone do something. Products are either designed well—they meet expectations and deliver value—or they are designed poorly and create frustration and confusion. Inevitably, bad products are abandoned without a thought, like an old T-shirt with holes in it.
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How a pepperoni pizza inspires open government
on April 12, 2014
Easy access to detailed tracking of processes has become more and more popular. Whether using Amazon.com, UPS, Uber or United Airlines, people expect instant feedback. They want to immediately see the status of a process upon which they depend.
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