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The role: technical content strategist
The role: technical content strategist
Digital.gov helps government technologists deliver better digital services by connecting them with the knowledge they need to build great websites. The vision is to create a world where the U.S. government leads in creating world-class digital experiences for the public.
The challenge: an old, proprietary platform and a site organization that didn't make sense. 3 microsites were also being absorbed into the Digital.gov brand. This meant I needed to assess the quality content, and ensure that the other microsites fit seamlessly into the architecture. It was going to be expensive to migrate everything, so we only wanted to migrate quality content. But, how do you determine quality?
The challenge: an old, proprietary platform and a site organization that didn't make sense. 3 microsites were also being absorbed into the Digital.gov brand. This meant I needed to assess the quality content, and ensure that the other microsites fit seamlessly into the architecture. It was going to be expensive to migrate everything, so we only wanted to migrate quality content. But, how do you determine quality?
Overhaul the Information Architecture (IA)
Overhaul the Information Architecture (IA)
There were 2,000+ resources on Digital.gov and over 700 metatags.
I applied UX research, card sorting, and information organization to add a "browse" experience to the site, streamlined metatags to 50, and defined content types. This resulted in greater user retention and increased visibility of our highest quality resources.
Strengthen the brand and voice
Strengthen the brand and voice
I migrated the beloved and highly depended upon site Accessibility for Teams into the Digital.gov library. This meant keeping the content that people used, refitting that content into the Digital.gov brand, and seamlessly reassuring users that they had arrived in the right place through lightweight referrals.
Migrate the Content Management System (CMS)
Migrate the Content Management System (CMS)
The content lived on a proprietary Hugo-based CMS for years, and the site suffered from years tech and content debt. I planned a migration alongside an audit, where we only brought the "good stuff" into templates designed to provide consistency for content editors and the end users and addressed the potential SEO hit from archiving 1,000+ pages of content with a strategic solution.
The impact: improved discoverability and a more intuitive user flow. The site is now limber and able to absorb more microbrands into its content library.
The impact: improved discoverability and a more intuitive user flow. The site is now limber and able to absorb more microbrands into its content library.
Before
Before
There were 1,000+ resources on Digital.gov, but the only way to find them: search for what you already knew was there or scan a very, very long list. Most of the high quality content wasn't being used, and there was no intuitive place for other federal microsites to live.
After
After
Evidence of browsing to new content via the global navigation
Increase from 10% to 40% of the top subjects that federal workers need to meet requirements
Decrease in the use of old content
Popular resources are still getting traffic on par with previous data (maintaining that SEO performance)
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