Meeting Federal Web Requirements and Best Practices

What You'll Learn

• A quick overview of federal web requirements, including:
  • E-Government Act of 2002
  • OMB Policies for Federal Public Websites
  • Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
  • Section 508 (Accessibility)
  • Digital Rights and Copyright
  • Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)
  • Priorities and Schedules for Posting Content Privacy Requirements
  • Web Records
  • Recent policies on social media and use of third-party websites
• A quick overview of best practices, including:
  • Focusing on tasks rather than information
  • Avoiding duplicate content within and across agencies
  • Providing dates and ensuring content is current
  • Using plain language
  • Using common content, terminology, and placement
  • Following usability best practices
  • Using standard metadata
  • Developing a web metrics strategy
  • How to get found on search engines (search engine optimization)
• Strategies for developing your own website policies, guidance, and training to ensure compliance with federal requirements and best practices.

About the Presenters

Sheila Campbell is Director of the Center for Customer Service Excellence in the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies at the U.S. General Services Administration. She’s accountable for several government-wide initiatives and programs that help agencies provide better customer service to citizens:

• DigitalGov University, which trains thousands of government workers in all aspects of managing government web and new media efforts
• HowTo.gov, a toolkit of government web requirements and best practices, and
• the Web Content Managers Forum, a network of more than 2,200 federal, state, and local web professionals who collaborate on solutions for improving government websites. 

A key part of her job is to co-chair the Federal Web Managers Council, composed of agency Web and New Media Directors, which works to strengthen web governance, develop national web strategies, and coordinate online content across agencies.   

Sheila has also served as a content manager for USA.gov and was previously Deputy Chief of Staff at the Peace Corps. She’s an alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley.

Nicole Burton is the User Experience Evangelist in the Center for Excellence in Digital Government at GSA. As the program manager of First Fridays Product Testing, she teaches usability testing to GSA staff and government web managers. In addition, she promotes usability best practices for government websites and web applications; and teaches courses for DigitalGov University.

Before joining GSA, Nicole worked as a usability analyst at the Financial Management Service of the Department of Treasury, and at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She's a Certified Usability Analyst (Human Factors International) with a BA in English from the University of the District of Columbia, and a member of the Usability Professionals Association. Nicole's also a published playwright and memoirist, which she believes enhances her human factors practice.