Summary
Russ, a manager at 18F, details how the Presidential Innovation Fellows program inspired the creation of 18F inside the General Services Administration to improve government technology and services through agile, user-centered, and open source approaches. He explains 18F's commitment to being federal employees working collaboratively with government agencies, emphasizing distributed and inclusive hiring across the country. Russ highlights how 18F developed a partnership playbook to manage demand and set clear expectations about their service model. Julia Elman contributed a project evaluation guide that helped align design needs with agency goals. Russ underscores the critical role of content designers in the team, noting their earned respect in government projects and their impact on plain language and accessibility. He recounts the creation and success of the US Web Design Standards, promoting adaptable, accessible, and consistent UI components to reduce cognitive load across thousands of government websites. Russ shares the example of the Federal Interagency Fourth Grade Park Pass, where Emily Barnes ensured content was written at an accessible fourth-grade reading level, helping more than 500,000 kids gain free national park access and illustrating the power of content coequal with design. He concludes with lessons learned about setting limits, creating shared language, establishing reusable patterns, and equalizing team roles as essential to removing paralysis and improving government digital experiences.
Key Insights
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18F was formed by Presidential Innovation Fellows to embed agile, user-centered design within government as federal employees rather than contractors.
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Distributing hiring nationwide allows 18F to find top tech talent regardless of location, enabling remote work with occasional travel.
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A partnership playbook clarifies 18F’s scope, avoiding mismatched expectations and ensuring agencies understand how projects are run.
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Content design is a vital and previously underrated discipline within government digital teams, proven critical for accessibility and plain language.
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Julia Elman’s project evaluation guide helps identify when design work is necessary and aligns team understanding early in projects.
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The US Web Design Standards promote adaptability over uniformity, prioritizing accessibility (508 and ADA compliance) while allowing agency personality.
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Government websites face challenges from inconsistent design practices across thousands of agency sites, creating a confusing user experience.
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Emily Barnes led content efforts on the Federal Interagency Fourth Grade Park Pass, ensuring all materials were at a fourth-grade reading level for inclusivity.
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More than 500,000 fourth grade park passes were downloaded quickly, showing success in targeted, accessible government outreach.
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Removing project paralysis relies on setting limits, shared design language, reusable patterns, and valuing all team roles equally.
Notable Quotes
"We’re not contractors. We all work in our government. We work with our government."
"If you are the best front end designer in the country, and you live in West River Idaho, and have internet, we should be talking."
"We created a partnership playbook so agencies know what to expect when they come to us."
"Our work is open source and public. As taxpayers, we believe you get it."
"You aren’t your user, but we are users of this system and have to make sure it works well for us to work well for others."
"20% of our design team are content designers, and that’s been an absolute game changer."
"We found that having method cards actually made people more comfortable and knowledgeable about design methods."
"There are thousands of government websites with infinitely many button styles — it adds cognitive load when moving between them."
"Our US Web Design Standards focus on easy to use, adaptable, accessible components - consistency over uniformity."
"Removing paralysis requires setting limits, shared language, reusable patterns, and equalizing all roles on the team."
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