US Federal Agencies Get New Web Designing Guidelines
A set of templates has been provided by the General Service An administration that establishes certain rules that have to be followed by each
federal agency when designing a website.
The U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) maturity model update -
made under the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA), an
update to the first web design standard of technology transformation services-
serves the purpose of ‘continuous improvement.’ It means the websites are to be
designed with the ability to be improved as per the requirement and is
engaging, as well as, mobile-friendly for the better experience of the users.
The product lead of the US web design system emphasized while
talking to the reporters, he said that these guidelines must be followed like
the rules of baseball. Dan William also said that the websites must not be an exact copy of each other, but the design should be according to the provided
specified guidelines.
These updates had
been a great success as the director of Technology transformation services;
Anil Cheriyan mentioned that in the past four years, above 40 agencies have
utilized GSA’s web design system.
One of the agencies that used the web design system was the department of homeland security. They designed a website for ‘emergency
preparedness’ called Ready.gov. It is a mobile-friendly friend that aids people
in disastrous situations. Another agency
that has used these guidelines is the department of health and human services to
build a website for disease control and prevent bullying named stopbullying.gov.
All the government agency must comply with the guidelines
provided in the legislation, but the innovation portfolio Jacob parcel said
that there are no specific deadlines for the compliance and the main purpose of
this update is to ensure that sites maintain ‘Continuous improvement.’
However, they do have the tools that can track some aspects
mentioned in the legislation. GSA has tools that can check the mobile-friendliness and security of the websites.
The requirements mentioned in the legislation that must be
followed by every agency are accessibility, searchability, security,
consistency, authority, user-centered, customization and mobile-friendliness.
This a proud moment for GSA as the sites has received 14
billion sessions and above 38 million page views last year. Ammie Farraj, implementation of the lead of GSA on this occasion of success said that the government agency now
should also meet the expectation bar set by the private sector for a better
experience of the users.
