User Experience
User experience involves every interaction a user has with an agency.
Websites and digital services provide better results when they are designed and delivered with the user in mind. In the current digital landscape, it is critical to adopt a user-centered approach to understand and respond to the individual needs of users. By evaluating the user experience on federal websites and digital services, agencies can increase customer satisfaction, build public trust, and reduce burden on the public.
Related Policy
21st Century IDEA & M-23-22
![21st Century IDEA & M-23-22](https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/legislative-stamp-card-logo-600.png)
User experience: essential knowledge
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How to apply user experience principles and methodologies to deliver results
Learn from case studies and best practices from federal UX practitioners to drive innovation through inclusion.
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An introduction to design
Understand how and why design impacts user experience.
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DHS usability testing kit
Use the kit’s guidelines and templates to test the usability of your services and solutions.
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U.S. Web Design System: Design principles
Align on common goals and drive better user experiences on government websites.
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18F Methods: Human-centered design tools
Use this collection of tools to put human-centered design into practice. They are focused on digital services, but can also be adapted to non-technical projects.
User Experience events
USWDS Monthly Call - November 2023
USWDS Monthly Call - October 2023
USWDS Monthly Call - September 2023
Cultivating a dynamic career in UX
User Experience news
A small team’s journey through digital maturity
As a small team, Digital.gov adopted user research and customer experience early. That foundation helps develop evidence-based strategies for today.
Evaluating your agency’s accessibility just got a whole lot easier with GSA’s OpenACR Editor
To help agencies evaluate the accessibility of their digital products, GSA is making it easier to create Accessibility Conformance Reports through its new OpenACR Editor.
Unsolicited data: A valuable resource for digital customer experience enhancement
Optimizing federal service touchpoints involves analyzing both actively-sought and spontaneous feedback, introducing new metrics and data points.
How the U.S. Department of the Navy is delivering IT that just works
The U.S. Navy’s Program Executive Office for Digital and Enterprise Services is working to revolutionize how information technology is acquired.
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
![whitehouse logo](/https/digital.gov/logos/whitehouse-logo.png)
Resources on User Experience
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An introduction to privacy
Introductory guidance on implementing privacy protections for users of federal websites.
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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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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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U.S. Web Design System
A design system for the federal government that makes it easier to build accessible, mobile-friendly government websites for the American public.
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Department of Homeland Security: Usability Testing Kit
A resource with four approaches to help federal employees perform usability testing.
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An advanced approach to accessibility
A deeper look at accessibility: what to do, how to do it, and why it matters.
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An Introduction to USWDS 3.0
A design system for the federal government that makes it easier to build accessible, mobile-friendly government websites for the American public.
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Required web content and links
Various policies require you to have certain content—or provide links to content—from specific places on your website.
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18F Accessibility Guide
A resource for developing accessible products.
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Accessibility for Teams
A guide to making products more accessible for everyone.
Tools and Services
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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.
More News and Events on User Experience
448 posts
A small team’s journey through digital maturity
As a small team, Digital.gov adopted user research and customer experience early. That foundation helps develop evidence-based strategies for today.
Evaluating your agency’s accessibility just got a whole lot easier with GSA’s OpenACR Editor
To help agencies evaluate the accessibility of their digital products, GSA is making it easier to create Accessibility Conformance Reports through its new OpenACR Editor.
Unsolicited data: A valuable resource for digital customer experience enhancement
Optimizing federal service touchpoints involves analyzing both actively-sought and spontaneous feedback, introducing new metrics and data points.
How the U.S. Department of the Navy is delivering IT that just works
The U.S. Navy’s Program Executive Office for Digital and Enterprise Services is working to revolutionize how information technology is acquired.
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
![whitehouse logo](/https/digital.gov/logos/whitehouse-logo.png)
Delivering seamless customer journeys
GSA shares a 4-step process used to measure and analyze related websites, and additional plans to improve customers’ digital experience.
Spring 2024 Community Summit
Equity in action: GSA’s study on remote identity-proofing technologies
The Biden-Harris President’s Management Agenda (PMA) emphasizes an effective, equitable and accountable government. As part of this effort, the General Services Administration (GSA) is conducting a study on the equity of remote identity proofing. The study aims to assess and improve the accessibility and equity of remote identity verification technologies such as facial matching systems. Learn more about the context, purpose, and progress of the study, and how it supports GSA’s goal of enhancing digital government services and prioritizing equitable design practices.— via Performance.gov
![performancegov logo](/https/digital.gov/logos/performancegov-logo.png)
Getting the word out about voter registration: Vote.gov’s first social media takeover with USAGov
Last fall, vote.gov and the USAGov program partnered for their first-ever social media takeover on National Voter Registration Day. The campaign, which encouraged the public to register to vote, reached 36,000 people across USAGov’s platforms and generated over 2,000 engagements. The partnership raised awareness for vote.gov, boosted vote.gov’s website traffic, and laid the groundwork for the future collaborations and resource-sharing between the two entities. This collaboration between vote.gov and USAGov offers a model for social media takeovers and partnerships between federal agencies and teams.— via USA.gov
![usagov logo](/https/digital.gov/logos/usagov-logo.png)
Making GSA’s public art collection more accessible
GSA’s Fine Arts team recently leveraged modern product development practices to launch the new collection website.
Delivering on 21st Century IDEA: A case study from the GSA SmartPay team (Part 1)
The GSA SmartPay program, the largest government charge card and commercial payment solutions program in the world, celebrated their 25th anniversary by launching three new websites with a user-centered, agile approach.
USWDS Monthly Call - November 2023
Cultivating a dynamic career in user experience
Dynamic careers are derived from creativity, accountability, influence and strategic planning. Learn about how enhancing job skills builds resilience in today’s work environment.
Decoding public sentiment: Harnessing open data to gain insights into service delivery
Exploring High-Impact Service Provider performance through open source data analysis to enhance customer experience with federal services.
USWDS Monthly Call - October 2023
5 things we learned from our scams wizard usability test
USAGov’s usability (UX) team developed a step-by-step process for visitors to easily report a scam. Here are 5 things the team learned from performing usability testing on the tool.— via USA.gov
![usagov logo](/https/digital.gov/logos/usagov-logo.png)
New IDManagement.gov is refreshing the conversation about Zero Trust
IDmanagement.gov has received an update that makes it easier for users to find exactly what they need.
Why the American People Deserve a Digital Government
OMB released new policy guidance for government that includes a variety of actions and standards to help federal agencies design, develop, and deliver modern websites and digital services. Memo M-23-22, Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience, will make it seamless for the public to obtain government information and services online, and help agencies fully implement the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (21st Century IDEA).— via The White House
![whitehouse logo](/https/digital.gov/logos/whitehouse-logo.png)