GSA.gov pivots site design for mobile users
Connecting state and local government leaders
The General Services Administration refreshed its website to accommodate the increasing number of mobile visitors.
The General Services Administration recently updated its website with an enhanced design and usability improvements to better serve the growing number of government employees who access the site with their mobile devices.
According to Sarah Bryant, director of Enterprise Web Management for the GSA Office of Communications and Marketing, 13 percent of traffic to the GSA website in 2015 came from tablets and smartphones, not including visits to the previous mobile site, m.gsa.gov.
And though the GSA released a per diem mobile application in 2011, Bryant said the per diem page and related information, such as federal travel regulations, meals and incidental expenses and mileage rates -- along with forms search and payroll -- draw in substantial site traffic make up the most frequently visited pages on the site.
Bryant ranked the top most-visited GSA website pages by both mobile and desktop users as follows:
- Per diem rates
- Per diem lookup
- Meals and incidental expenses breakdown
- Personally owned vehicle reimbursement rates
- Payroll calendar
- Forms
- City pairs program
- Federal travel regulation
Additional aggregation pages that rack up traffic include GSA’s technology, real estate and acquisition pages.
To make this information more accessible to government employees, the refreshed GSA.gov site draws from the U.S. Web Design Standards created by the U.S. Digital Service and 18F this year. The new site uses 508-compliant typography, color schemes and codes for certain interface elements, according to the GSA blog.
Specifically, the majority of pages on the new site feature a responsive design for automatic scaling and mobile compatibility, a new color palette, an upgraded design and layout for top-level pages, and simple top-menu navigation intended to provide better visibility for popular tasks.
GSA.gov also highlights the most requested GSA services and information for convenience and has included user engagement platforms like upcoming events, news and customer support.
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