The US Government Has A New Team To Make Sure Its Websites Don’t Suck

The US Government Has A New Team To Make Sure Its Websites Don’t Suck

Hey, remember that time the US government launched a website and it was a disaster and it didn’t work? I’m not just taking about HealthCare.gov, there are actually a whole host of horrible government websites out there. Now a new department will be making sure the US government’s websites don’t give people nightmares anymore.

Although it has been talked about for months, the new US Digital Service (which you can call the USDS) is launching today, headed by Mikey Dickerson, the former Google engineer widely credited with fixing HealthCare.gov. According to an announcement back in May, the USDS will include about 25 people consisting of the “country’s brightest digital talent” who will be in charge of “remaking the digital experiences that citizens and businesses have with their Government.”

The government already has its own in-house web development team named 18F, but it looks like the USDS will be involved more on a strategic level, fixing intrinsic problems long before a site launches. For a preview at what they will do, you can check out the USDS “playbook” which includes, in their words, “successful best practices from the private sector and government that, if followed together, will help government build effective digital services.” In short, making the government’s websites just a little more like the normal sites you use every day.

We’ve called before for a Washington Post]

Picture: Lisa S./Shutterstock


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.