A digital foundation for the future of government services

Government digital services are often held up as the worst examples of online user experience. Information is scattered across siloed agency websites without any shared structure or guidance to get users the information they are looking for. New York State’s website was an example, it was failing to serve its residents.

New York State's website had not been redesigned since 1999 — New York State’s website had not been redesigned since 1999

I led the Code and Theory User Experience (UX) team on the relaunch of NY.Gov. In less than ten months launched both ny.gov and governor.ny.gov. This meant a unique collaboration with the team of Rachel Haot — the Chief Digital Officer for New York State — and the different governmental agencies.

My team saw an opportunity to develop a service-oriented, localized, engaging government website that unifies all agencies under one streamlined user experience. The new responsive website aims to be the source for the most important transactions that constituents have with their government. It moves away from a decentralized experience into a more centralized, consistent one.

“Customer service is our primary goal.” Rachel Haot, Chief Digital Officer for New York State

My approach was to two-fold, first tackling user needs, and then applying systems-design. I used my previous experience as a consultant for Accenture, an international technology consulting company, and working at startups to focus my team on function rather than marketing. The result: a beautiful yet functional site.

The site was built within a responsive framework in less than 10 months.

The team I led was in charge of user research, data analysis, content strategy, information architecture, feature development, gathering requirements and functional documentation. We continued to maintain the site with usability testing to identify and make ongoing improvements.

Organizing Information

Our goal was to shift from a link-based portal and create a consistent experience for citizens (while aligning agencies). We defined a universal navigation to be shared by more than a hundred websites.

This unifying experience within the universal nav embodies our creative strategy:

It supports contextual service discovery through search
It is a consistent experience that spans the entire ecosystem
It rebuilds trust by surfacing guiding content and communication government action

Collaborating with content strategy

I defined the methodology for our data analysis. This data informed our content roadmap. My team provided content requirements and strategy. We also established a workflow in which content is published by a small team of content managers with a consistent editorial framework.

We develop content guidelines to ensure the user never gets lost.

Also created a new program template to communicate action through initiatives to engage communities.

Designing for different contexts

Safety and security are government most important duties. The design needed to adapt to different contexts. We developed a special emergency templates tailored to present high-demand information.

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Results

A website that was once held up to ridicule has been mentioned in the press as an example of a highly functional government tool.

Traffic has already more than doubled and mobile use is up.
The site works seamlessly on mobile phones and provides customized information based on your location.

The Wall Street Journal