Generation 2015: Utah.gov Adds More Context

Just about a month ago, we published a new version of the Utah.gov portal.

The new site was part of an ongoing process to add more context, to become more responsive and to continue to improve service to the Utah public. We hope that works.  It integrates more social media and context rich information than ever before, providing a variety of micro-experiences as the user scrolls down the page. The site builds on previous development while significantly adding to the overall user experience. Search is still prominent, but the scroll puts much more information in front of the user.

The design is very much a mobile-first design focused initially on making it work for tablet and smartphone users which are a fast growing segment of those who access the site looking for government services and information. In the past 30 days, we have had almost 900 different mobile device types access the portal which presents a challenge to ensure the quality of the user experience.

Our user base has evolved significantly over the past year. With the improved economy (Utah's unemployment rate is down to about 3.4%), a lot fewer users are coming to the domain to look for jobs or unemployment benefits. Those users have dropped off by over 50%. We continue to monitor analytics to ensure that we are delivering the content that users are looking for.

Last week, we turned our attention the the Utah Digital Government Summit and had a great event. We hope that by bringing everyone together for a day, that we can maintain the momentum that we have in delivering government services digitally. Thanks to everyone who participated and to eRepublic for coordinating the event!

The CPPA also released their new study on the effectiveness of digital government in Utah and its acceptance by the public. Check out the link in this tweet:

http://t.co/rv1RhQzX2G: Connecting Residents with Government http://t.co/uwvRTXMpA4 pic.twitter.com/mDTdt4l4PH

— dfletcher (@dfletcher) May 14, 2015

What's next? For today, it's more work on big data, open data, accessibility, advanced analytics, etc. I'll say more about all that later.