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Last fall we announced the release of beta.USA.gov and beta.USAGov en Español to the public. After six months, we’re excited to share that those beta sites are now the new USA.gov and USAGov en Español. But we’re not finished. As we hear from users and collaborate with federal agencies, we’ll continue to develop better ways of providing a more seamless government experience for the people we serve. Here are some of the things we’ll be working on in the future:

USAGov is committed to providing an excellent omnichannel customer experience (CX) for users. One way we do this is by using the content on our websites to power the USAGov Contact Center’s knowledge base. This allows our contact center agents and website visitors to read and rely on the same information to find answers to questions about government benefits and services. 

Once USAGov launched beta.USA.gov and beta.USA.gov en Español, the outreach team had to market the new websites to the public. After years of connecting people to government information through social media, email marketing, featured content, and events, we used that expertise to get more eyes and action on the beta sites and encourage users to share their feedback. 

In October, we released beta.USA.gov and beta.USA.gov en Español to the public. These websites are where we are building the next version of USA.gov. We want the future federal front door to be more human-centered, actionable, interactive, and accessible. But how do we know if the choices we have made are accomplishing these goals? 

USA.gov and USAGov en Español have always taken a human-centered approach to making it easier to find and understand government information and services. As part of the larger effort to reimagine the USAGov websites, our content team developed new data-driven processes and best practices that reshape how we present content for beta.USA.gov and beta.USA.gov en Español. 

The USAGov team strives to ensure all our websites are accessible to as many people as possible. This includes those who need the use of specialized assistive technologies when browsing the internet. As a result, in building beta.USA.gov we deliberately validated that it met Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 compliance requirements. 

As we’ve been building our beta.USA.gov and beta.USA.gov en Español sites, our usability (UX) team has been developing new ways to make improvements through usability testing, information architecture, and design elements. Here are five changes we’ve made that are helping us better understand user needs and pain points:

Introducing the Building Beta Series

The USAGov program has been developing a new iteration of our bilingual sites, USA.gov and USAGov en Español. In the process of building beta.USA.gov and beta.USA.gov en Español, we’ve been rethinking our work style and priorities. Follow the “Building Beta” series to learn how we’re reimagining the way we approach product management, usability, accessibility, content creation, analytics, and outreach. And see our previous post highlighting the ways our beta sites are different from their predecessors.