Focus Area 1: Human-Centered Design
When designing technology solutions to improve service delivery, the primary consideration is the people who will use these services. The State considers Californians’ entire experience to understand their needs, pain points, and preferences when they request or access State services. This approach ensures that the solutions we create are not only technologically advanced but are also intuitive, user-friendly, empathetic, and genuinely responsive to the needs of Californians. Departments should Establish standards and best practices in design thinking, user research, iterative development, and data-driven decision making to ensure government services are designed with and not for Californians.
The State utilizes data and evidence, including direct resident feedback, that meets the needs of Californians. This means understanding the diverse contexts in which Californians live and designing services that are accessible and useful to them. The strategy aims to identify ways to simplify services across the state, reducing the time and paperwork required for residents to use them. Departments should gather and incorporate user feedback including surveys, page feedback, and web analytics.
The approach also emphasizes the importance of equity and accessibility throughout product or system life cycles. This means that the digital services design considers the diverse needs, abilities, and circumstances of all Californians, ensuring that these services are inclusive and accessible to all.
Lastly, the State encourages a mindset of continuous improvement and actively seeks feedback from Californians and other State partners. This feedback is valuable for refining and improving the design and delivery of services, ensuring that they continue to meet the needs and expectations of Californians. By focusing on Californians through human-centered design, the State of California is committed to delivering digital services that are truly for and by the people.
Digital Strategy Objectives
Each objective includes outcomes and expectations of CDT and state entities.
Improve digital access to residential government services.
- Outcome: Reduce the number of touchpoints for State information and services.
- CDT expectations: Increase compliance with the State’s domain name policy and adoption of the CAWeb platform.
- State entities expectations:
- Review current domain names to eliminate misleading, out-of-date, and non-functional web domain names.
- Consider using the CAWeb platform and building from pre-existing websites before building a new one.
- Timeframe: Middle of 2024
Modernize the State’s web and mobile presence.
- Outcome: Improve the baseline usability of State websites.
- CDT expectations: Expand the availability of components, tools, and support guides.
- State entities expectations: Participate in a policy review of current UX standards and implement new policy and guidance towards mobile implementations of new digital services.
- Timeframe: Late 2024
Scale design thinking throughout State digital services.
- Outcome: Expand the capability and adoption of the CA Design System.
- CDT expectations: Expand the availability of components, tools, and support guides for the CA Design System.
- State entities expectations: Consider the CA Design System first when designing new or updating current web services.
- Timeframe: End of 2024
