18F Blog

We are launching a new series called Ask 18F – an advice column that answers questions sent in by federal employees. Our technical experts hope to dispel myths and ease fears about building or buying technology in government. We aim to give you suggested resources, questions to ask your team and lastly, a good starting off point to tackle the problem you wish to solve.

The Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN) is one of the longest-standing champions for great content and user experience in government. A small team from 18F worked closely with DigitalGov and PLAIN to redesign plainlanguage.gov, making it more modern and usable.

Today, we’re happy to announce the first open position on the new hiring page for the Technology Transformation Services (TTS). JoinTTS will be the new home for all TTS job postings, including open 18F jobs.

Building products for the public requires a lot of listening and finding the right balance of value, cost, and user needs to build the best product. With that approach, we find most of the time that building a highly-optimized mobile-friendly website almost always trumps building native mobile apps.

As a consultant who does user research, I’ve found that the way consultants present “findings and recommendations” to clients isn’t always effective: findings immediately followed by recommendations, all at once in a single presentation. A better approach in sharing user research findings with a partner is “findings, consensus, and recommendations.”