Utah’s Web Portal Just Got a Whole Lot More Personal
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With visitors to government websites treating the trips more like ‘surgical strikes,’ the Beehive State designed one aimed at improving engagement through micro-experiences.
When Utah.gov’s digital team began monitoring user behavior in August, they noticed each site visit was treated like a “surgical, strategic strike” for desired information.
The redesigned Utah.gov, which launched Thursday morning, caters to that mentality by geolocating visitors, supplying them with recommended, geotagged search terms and fitting hundreds of browser and operating system combinations.
Targeted micro-experiences for citizens and businesses serve as the bedrock aimed at improving community participation in government in the few, brief moments users are on the new site.
“This team didn’t guess its way into this,” said Utah Interactive spokesman Chris Neff. “It was data-, research- and analytics-driven.”
Three out of four Utah residents used Utah.gov in the past year, according to a survey performed in December by the University of Utah Center for Public Policy & Administration. The same number of those surveyed said they expected the site to provide additional and improved services and information in the future.
The high awareness, use and growth potential indicated by the results reinforced the designers’ belief that previous site innovations shouldn’t be thrown out but made more engaging.
“We wanted to showcase powerful services users might not be aware of,” said Michael Rice, Utah Interactive’s director of operations. “Micro-experiences tailored toward topics and community groups—this is the heart of what digital services can do for citizens.”
Using a visitor’s location, the site naturally provides them with information on their elected representatives and nearby job listings, schools, parks and services. Services range from registering a person to vote to renewing a business license.
One of the micro-experiences is an “Open Government” linking to up-to-date expense, payroll and employee compensation data at the transaction level from Utah’s 164 cities, 29 counties and 140 school districts including charters—part of an unparalleled legislative mandate seven years ago.
While the hundreds of millions of records can’t yet be displayed graphically on the site, the raw data can be downloaded as a .csv file.
Older transparency tools like the “Taxpayer Receipt,” showing users exactly where their sales taxes were spent, were maintained.
Citizens can more easily report potholes and track bills, and the “Digital Innovation” micro-experience showcases new services and apps pertaining to economic development and technology innovations across Utah.
Designers focused on a mobile version of the new site first and then scaled up to accommodate any screen dimensions. Even details as small as the background matching up with a suggested search term add to the user experience.
“Our focuses this year were making sure the site worked well on mobile and considering where users are as they’re browsing,” Rice said.
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