Marti HearstUC Berkeley School of Information

AND

Chief IT StrategistUS Patent and Trademark Office

Disclaimer:These views are my own and do not necessarily represent my organizations’ views.

BRINGING HCI TO THE U.S. FEDERAL

GOVERNMENT

ACM CHIMIT 2011

Why is HCI difficult to employ anywhere?Why is HCI (and good IT design) difficult to

employ in government?Recent changes for the better.Recent developments in HCI at the USPTO.What you can do to help.

OUTLINE

WHY IS HCI DIFFICULT TO INTRODUCE TO ANY

ORGANIZATION?

Engineering leads the decision makingDevelpers unaware of UCD practicesConcern that it “takes too long”The HIPPO decides

(Highest Paid Person in the Organization)

Waterfall development method

ROADBLOCKS FOR HCI: ANY ORGANIZATION

Example:ACM Manuscript

Central

Do you know this building?

HCI IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Executive Office of the President

OMBManagement and Budget

OIRA Information and

RegulatoryAffairs

e-Gov and ITCIO

And manyother offices

Or are very behind schedule and over cost.According to the Government Accountability Office

(GAO): Planned federal IT spending > $81 billion for fiscal year

2012. Many are critical to the health, economy, and security of the nation. Unfortunately, frequently fail or have overruns while yielding little value.

Recent Examples: After $127M over 9 years on an outpatient scheduling system,

the VA had to start over. After $40M and 7 years, FEMA canceled insurance and claims

system as it did not meet user needs.

PROBLEM: MOST BIG GOVERNMENT IT PROJECTS FAIL

Oversight and funding models make modern IT design methods nearly impossible.

Problems related to contracting.Lack of IT expertise by IT project leaders.Lack of focus from executives and

changeover in leadership.Lack of a user-centered design tradition.

And serious legal hurdles to HCI.

WHY DO THEY FAIL?

Paperwork Reduction Act Goal: ensure that information collected is useful and

minimally burdensome for the public.To ask a question of 10 or more people, must:

Clear internal legal process, then 60 days in the Federal Register

May need to iterate based on comments Submit documents to OMB Another 30 day federal register notice period ~60 days for OMB review

May need to iterate and even start againUsually a 6 month process.

HCI LEGAL HURDLES: PRA

LEGAL HURDLES TO ADOPTING OFF-THE-SHELF WELL-DESIGNED SOFTWARE

TOSPIIOWACS COOP508 Cookies

LEGAL HURDLES TO ADOPTING OFF-THE-SHELF WELL-DESIGNED SOFTWARE

TOS (Terms of Service)

PII (Personally Identifiable Information)

OWACS (Security requirements)COOP (Disaster recovery requirements)508 (Accessibility Standards)Cookies (Persistent Cookie Restrictions)

Campaign: Emphasis on design and use of IT

Governing: Emphasis on improving government, including:

Emphasis on reaching and involving citizens Open data, visualization, online dialogues

Emphasis on modernizing IT practices: Elevation of Federal CIO position Introduction of Federal CTO position Improving procurement Encouraging agile development

CHANGES WITH A NEW ADMINISTRATION

SETTING A GOOD DESIGN EXAMPLE

Example: Dan Siroker on Obama for America’s website and video design

decisions. Easy to measure the outcome: it is in money donated. http://www.siroker.com/archives/2009/05/14/obama_lessons_learned_talk_at_google.html

USING IT (AND ANALYTICS) TO WIN

USING IT (AND ANALYTICS) TO WIN

Released by OMB in June 15, 2011Part of the administration’s customer service emphasis

President's Executive Order (EO) 13571, on "Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service,” April 2011.

OMB clearance in 5 days! Applies to information collections that focus on

the awareness, understanding, attitudes, preferences, or experiences of stakeholders

relating to existing or future services, products, or communication materials.

Specifically includes: Focus groups Remote usability testing Online surveys for customer feedback purposes

However, public distribution of results cannot be intended.

NEW: PRA FAST TRACK

Apps.govSetting up (somewhat) pre-approved software that addresses these hurdles.

Howto.gov Explicitly addresses many customer service how-to questions

Usa.gov/webreform Improving government web sites

NEW: TOOLS TO HELP GOV’T IT

Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra, Dec 2010 http://www.cio.gov/modules/itreform/

“Successful organizations using modular development base releases on requirements they define at a high level and then refine through an iterative process, with extensive engagement and feedback from stakeholders. …

To maintain the discipline of on-time and on-budget, organizations push out additional functionality and new requirements for major changes into future releases and prioritize critical needs and end-user functionality.”

NEW: 25 POINT PLAN FOR IMPROVING GOVERNMENT IT

“Evidence shows that modular development leads to increased success and reduced risk. …

Many existing government processes – from planning to budgeting to procurement – naturally favor larger, more comprehensive projects.

As such, far too many Federal IT programs have multi-year timeframes well beyond the now accepted 18- to 24-month best practice. …

Moving forward, Federal IT programs must be structured to deploy working business functionality in release cycles no longer than 12 months, and, ideally, less than six months, with initial deployment to end users no later than 18 months after the program begins.”

NEW: 25 POINT PLAN FOR IMPROVING GOVERNMENT IT

25 POINT PLAN

A cross-agency group of web managers eGovernment Act of 2002 created an Interagency

Committee on Government Information They asked web managers to weigh in

This developed into a more substantial organization in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 Government agencies needed to “stay in their lanes”

Now a very active group Promotes social media use, user-centered design, addresses

questions such as cookie policy from a customer standpoint Representatives from all major agencies plus subject matter

experts Has a charter, elections, regular meetings, a community of

practice, and a community feeling. Runs the Federal Govtment’s Web Manager University Manages howto.gov

HCI PRACTICE FORMING: FEDERAL WEB MANAGERS COUNCIL

A NEW GAO REPORT

(Published Oct 2011) examined what went right with those projects that were successful.

Many of the factors were user-centered:

Common Critical Success Factors1. Program officials were actively engaged with stakeholders.2. Program staff had the necessary knowledge and skills.3. Senior department and agency executives supported the programs.4. End users and stakeholders were involved in the development of requirements.5. End users participated in testing of system functionality prior to formal end user acceptancetesting.6. Government and contractor staff were stable and consistent.7. Program staff prioritized requirements.8. Program officials maintained regular communication with the prime contractor.9. Programs received sufficient funding.

(Patent and Trademark Office)

INTRODUCING HCI TO THE USPTO

Director: David KapposEntire budget ~ $2.5BIT budget ~ $350MEmployees ~ 10,000

Patents ~7000Trademarks ~600

US PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE QUICK FACTS

USPTO INNOVATING WITH IT

User-centered design is driving the biggest, highest profile IT development projects.

Have created a new Usability and Design group within OCIO; completed 3 hires.

In the process of changing the official IT development process to: Require user-centered requirements gatheringRequire usability as a criteria for software acceptance

USPTO RECENT MAJOR CHANGES

PATENTS END-TO-END IT PROJECT

An entirely new IT system for patent examinationDesigned with and for the Patents CorpsThree projects in parallel:

New SoftwareArchitecture

User Researchdesign IT right

Process Reengineering

DESIGN IT RIGHT PROCESS

UCD is driving the design of the entire system

June ‘10 Jul-Sep ‘10 Oct-Jan ‘11

Tasks Analysis:Interviews, FocusGroups, and Online Input

Iterative TestingOf Mocked-up InterfacesInterviews, Focus Groups, and Online Input

Based on user research, wrote a SOW describing desired new functionality Bidders required to present an initial designThis worked so well it is being repeated.

Three UI design firms were selectedThey refined their designs working with examiners and managers, from Nov – Jan 14, 2011.

The entire Patent Corps was invited to evaluate these three designs online.

DESIGN AND SELECTION PROCESS

DESIGN A

Design D

Design K

Each vendor made an external website with:A clickable prototype (not full functionality)Videos illustrating the functionalityFeedback tool for commenting on specific features

USPTO made an internal website with:An overview introductionLinks to each vendors’ landing pageA survey for each vendor’s designA summary survey for ranking the designs

EVALUATION PROCESS

More than 2000 participantsDesigns A and D were tied in preferenceOverall scores were highly positive

The two winning vendors are now working together.

EVALUATION RESULTS

SCREENSHOTS OF NEW SYSTEMS GO

HERE

Using Agile software development techniques with our new contractors

Front end design team develops user stories and wireframes; these are the software requirements.

Front end development team designs service architecture and code with stubs for backend.

Backend team develops support for services. Requirements setting is a few weeks ahead of

backend development. Daily scrum meetings are held Periodic software releases are evaluated by front

end team with real users. Frequent software releases to production.

AGILE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED

A brand new program! Started Fall 2011 Part of the 25 Point Plan to Improve IT

www.cio.gov/techfellows/ 2 year paid fellowship Rotate among agencies

Builds on the highly successful Presidential Management Fellows program

Trains leaders for Federal Government Service Usually a terrific cohort

Must apply in the Fall before you graduate with a masters or PhD

But very few opportunities for non-US citizens

BECOME A PRESIDENTIAL TECHNOLOGY FELLOW

Example: The National Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites

PARTICIPATE IN GOVERNMENT DIALOGUES

Independent non-profits, bloggers, university groups can have real impact.

They do this work on their own initiative.

Examples: Technology developed by OMB Watch for fedspending.org

used in relaunch of USASpending. Sunlight Foundation compiled lists of strategies for govt to

address the OGD. UC Berkeley iSchool faculty posted guidelines on how to

improve the design of recovery.gov; had a big influence. Open gov how-to workshops and websites.

CONVERT YOUR KNOWLEDGE INTO EASILY DIGESTIBLE HOW-TO’S

(From EPA)

SAMPLE USEFUL HOW-TO ON SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE

Example Idea: Usability ClinicProfessors teaching usability courses

Have their students critique a web site as a homework exercise

Commit to a particular time period Organizations sign up for the clinic

Govt, non-profits, small businessesMay turn into longer-term projects

Think it’s a good idea? Organize it!

PARTICIPATE WITH CLASSWORK

Build tools that use govt dataExpose inefficienciesCreate new, useful functions

Example:Analyze hiring latency on a per-agency basisData isn’t there?

Comment on agency’s opengov websites Ask for time-to-hire data for each agency Be persistent if necessary

PARTICIPATE WITH DATA ANALYSIS

Example: OSTP Request for Comments Federal Register, May 21, 2009

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2009/05/opengov.pdf Also on the OSTP blog

Sought advice on Open Government topics: What alternative models exist to improve the quality of decision

making and increase opportunities for citizen participation?

What are the limitations to transparency?

What strategies might be employed to adopt greater use of Web 2.0 in agencies?

What policy impediments to innovation in government currently exist?

What performance measures are necessary to determine the effectiveness of open government policies?

PARTICIPATE BY ANSWERING REQUESTS FOR COMMENT

A RECENT FEDERAL REGISTER REQUEST FOR COMMENT

Join in on the government conversations. Set up alerts on www.federalregister.gov

Make and teach practical guidelines.Create clinicsHelp automate information design,

organization, linking, normalization.Analyze the open government data and

then publish insightful findings. Join the government (even temporarily)!

SUMMARY:HOW TO GET INVOLVED

It is still very difficult to successfully develop IT in government.

However, some recent changes are greatly improving the situation. An IT-savvy administration The change in PRA guidance The 25 point plan Additional changes in procurement

guidance. Academics, researchers, and practitioners

can all help!

SUMMARY:HCI IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT