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We Are All Stakeholders
Elizabeth BuieLuminanze Consulting
@ebuie
Usability in GovernmentSystems
User Experience Designfor Citizens
and Public Servants
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Who Am I?
• I’ve specialized in UI/usability/UX since theBeginning of Time
• I’ve worked on governmentsystems even longer
• I’ve worked in a very largefirm, a very small firm, and asolo practice (current)
1978
1975
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Some Notes on Terminology
• “Usability” — effectiveness, efficiency, andsatisfaction (from ISO 9241)
• “User experience” (UX) — users’ subjectiveexperience surrounding their use of a product
• Good usability is (usually) necessary for a gooduser experience, but they are not the same thing
• We can design FOR good user experience, butwe cannot (for the most part) design theexperience itself: “UX design” is a shorthand
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We Are All Stakeholders
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How many lives do govt. systems affect?
Can you think of anyone whose life is NOTtouched in some way by a government system?
– Their own govt.• national• state/regional/local
– Nearbygovernments
– The USGovernment
About 6.8 billion lives
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The audiences of government systems
What do you think of when you hear this phrase?
Gov 2.0?Voting?
Agency websites?
“usability in government”
It’s all of these, and more.
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Two kinds of audiences
• Public: citizens andothers– citizens– non-citizen residents– visitors and potential
visitors to the area– hopeful immigrants
• Internal: public servants– employees– contractors
• At all levels: national, state/regional, local
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Major goals of public-facing systems
• Provide information and services to thebroadest possible audience
• Conduct transactions with the public– Optional
• e.g., find a library book and put it on hold
– Required (but doing them on line may be optional)• e.g., pay taxes, renew vehicle registration
• Encourage citizen participation (Gov 2.0)• Protect citizen privacy
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Some major goals of internal systems
• Conduct the work of the government aseffectively and efficiently as possible
• Maintain national/regional/local security
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Internal systems: some examples
• Defense systems• Air traffic control, spacecraft control
– some of these are defense related
• Agency intranets• Emergency response systems• Management of critical infrastructures• Legislative drafting (lawmaking)• Internal social media applications (e.g., the US
Department of Transportation’s IdeaHub)
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Public and internal share many concerns
• Content strategy• Plain language• Accessibility• Mobile access• Security• Biometrics (fingerprints,
iris recognition, etc.)
• Cross-cultural issues
Photo by NIST
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Usability and UX in the process
• Getting UX work into the contract• Use of usability process standards• User-centered requirements engineering• User-centered software development• Usability evaluation
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Public-facing systems are not the problem
• Government often sees the public as customers• A good experience motivates people to use the
site or system• Governments want to be responsive to their
citizens
of democracies
^
I redesigned this interaction, yay.
biggest
^
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Internal systems can be a bigger challenge
• Internal users are a captive audience• Using the system is part of their jobs
*with some exceptions
**
• Systems can be very complex
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Internal: Usability more sellable than UX
• Effectiveness• Efficiency• Satisfaction ?
– Not quite as easy– Can be couched in terms of employee morale
and therefore productivity– Less important than the other two, but a case
can be made
• But experience? Surely you jest.
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What makes govt. projects different?
• Effect of national politics– Priorities– Direction– Funding
• Access to users in advance– Once an RFP is issued, bidders
cannot talk to users• Contract structure
– Usability and UX may not bementioned in the RFP
– Can be difficult to bid it if not
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What makes govt. projects special?
• Number and diversity of usersaffected
• Potential to affect importantaspects of many people’slives
• Potential to help makegovernment itself moreeffective and efficient
Dare I say “more satisfying”too?
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Challenges to UX in the govt. process
• Getting usability into the contract (or the RFP, ifyou’re on that side of the project)
• Working it into the project if it’s not in the RFP• Getting awesome UXers
– Being seen as sexy– Paying as well as commercial
I do have to confess, though,that NASA, ESA, and theInternational Space Station arepretty dadgum sexy projects.
*
*
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Flexibility is essential
• Do what’s called for in each project• Pay as much attention to the users’ subjective
experience as we can, within constraints
Any improvementis good news.
• I offer my motto:
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And finally, some wider issues
• Service design– Cross-channel design– Channel shifting
• Applying design to policymaking• UX designers and e-democracy
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Thank you!
Elizabeth Buie
Luminanze [email protected]
@ebuie
Order book from Amazon at http://is.gd/uxgov