Page 13 - GCN, April/May 2018

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT
security of data. And it requires an IT infrastructure that can support high-speed, high-volume access.
Furthermore, according to government speakers at a recent Citizen Engagement Summit, providing the best possible citizen experience requires buy-in from employees across the agency.
Making sites mobile-friendly
One of the biggest challenges in the federal government has been making digital information mobile-friendly. The Connected Government Act of 2017 requires all federal agencies to ensure “to the greatest extent possible” that their websites can be easily viewed on mobile devices. The law came on the heels of a report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation that found that 92 percent of the most popular federal websites failed to perform well in at least one of these areas: security, speed, mobile-friendliness or accessibility.
And although research shows that more than 40 percent of people access websites via mobile devices, ITIF’s report states that only 61 percent of federal sites are mobile-friendly.
“We have to get more mobile-friendly, and we have to get more data-friendly,” said Jacob Parcell, director of mobile programs at the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Service. “Nobody wants to try to look at a PDF on their mobile phone.”
Some state and local agencies are redoubling their efforts
to engage with the public via mobile devices. In a 2016 survey by Living Cities and Governing magazine, 97 percent of the municipalities that responded said they use social media for civic engagement, and 74 percent use mobile apps. Respondents represented 61 municipalities, including 43 of the 100 largest municipalities.
More sophisticated users
As digital information becomes ubiquitous, viewers’ expectations become more sophisticated. According to a recent survey by Salesforce, 75 percent of consumers expect a consistent experience no matter how they engage with digital information.
For some agencies, that might be a daunting challenge. But the ones that have already made the investment now boast an IT framework for citizen engagement that is easier to maintain and garners more positive feedback from users.
That has been the case at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has modernized its infrastructure and received praise for its citizen-facing tools, such as Vets.gov, said Aaron Wieczorek, a digital services expert on the U.S. Digital Service’s VA team. With upgrades to the basic infrastructure, VA can easily expand on its citizen engagement successes.
“It’s about showing people that a more modern platform built with modern tools is more easily maintainable,” he said. It is also typically more cost-effective.
Ultimately, a modern infrastructure frees agency employees to focus on creating new capabilities for users instead of spending their time managing data centers.
How people access federal websites
The federal government has more than
4,500 websites
with 3B visits to those sites over 90 days ending on April 10, 2018. Here is how people accessed the sites:
53% 42% 6%
desktop phone tablet
The most common web browsers used included:
46% 29%
Chrome Safari
12% 5%
Explorer Firefox
People used these operating systems:
43%
Windows
20%
Android
27%
iOS
8%
Macintosh
1%
Chrome OS
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Source: analytics.usa.gov