Ep. 67 Improving Citizen Experience on Federal Websites

When you look at the Executive Orders that have been issued you can see many references to user experience. The initial order, #14058, included thirty-six customer experience improvements across seventeen different federal agencies. This was followed up in March of 2023 with further fact sheets that detail improving the typical citizen experience with federal websites.

It is one thing to issue an Executive Order and quite another to implement it in the complicated world of federal technology.

We interviewed Frank Antezana, the CEO of a company called iTechAG. They have a good history of assisting federal agencies overcome some of the major challenges in improving the website experience that citizens have.

One may think that the experience is limited to the speed of the website or the look of the site. Although this may be part of the package, the real meat-and-potatoes of improving the citizen experience has more to do with accessing data quickly, reducing the administrative burden of these programs, and making sure the information provided is accurate.

In the 1970s, some federal websites were giving lip service to this idea, it was called Human Centric Design. During Covid, we had increased citizens accessing data and services from the federal government. Frequently, they had to get information from more than one place. If a farmer is applying for a loan, they may have to connect to the Department of Agriculture as well as the IRS.

Frank Antezana explains that reducing the administrative burden can be an overly complex project. Considerations must be given to navigation and having a thorough understanding of enterprise architecture.

Listen to the podcast to hear how iTechAG is setting up a lab to look at new tools and methods to help improve the citizen experience.

 

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