Implementing Best Practices – Agency Examples

Looking for a quick way to adopt the best practices on HowTo.gov? Don’t re-invent the wheel—see what other agencies have done.

Provide Dates and Ensure Content is Current

• USDA includes a "last modified" data stamp on every page.
• The Medline Plus Website provides a "last updated" stamp on every page.

Organize Content Based on Audience Needs

• NASA
• Department of Education
• Department of Agriculture
• Smithsonian Institution
• Department of Veterans Affairs

Write and Organize Homepages from the Viewpoint of the Public

• U.S. Postal Service
• MedlinePlus: U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health

Avoid Publishing Information for Employees

• NASA has a separate section on their homepage for their employees.

Use Basic Common Content, Terminology, and Placement

• Contact information
  • The Social Security Administration provides a "Contact Us" page with ways to call, e-mail, write, or contact the agency in person.
  • The National Institutes of Health provides various ways to contact the agency and links to other frequent questions.
  • HUD lists ways to contact the agency based on the question you need answered.
  • The Environmental Protection Agency provides a "Contact Us" page with ways to call, e-mail, or write to the agency and includes information on its regional offices.
• Organizational information (“About Us” page)
  • The Risk Management Agency of USDA.
• Site Map or Subject Index
  • National Archives and Records Administration
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Frequently Asked Questions
  • USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service's "Ask Karen" Virtual Representative
  • EPA's "Frequent Questions"
• Online Services
  • U.S. Postal Service
  • U.S. Mint's Online Catalog
• Forms and Publications
  • Internal Revenue Service "Forms and Publications"
  • Federal Citizen Information Center
• Jobs
  • Central Intelligency Agency's Career's Page
  • Department of State Careers Page
• Information about Regulations
  • Environmental Protection Agency's Air Regulations page
  • USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service
• Information about Grants and Contracts
  • Department of Labor
  • National Institutes of Health, Office of Extramural Research Grants Home Page
• Site Policies and Notices
  • Department of Veterans Affairs

Measuring Customer Satisfaction

• Department of Education's customer survey

Provide Common Access for a Broad Range of Visitors

Write in Plain Language

• Plainlanguage.gov – One-stop resource to improve communications from the federal government to the public. It includes writing examples, training courses, and tips on how to encourage plain language within your agency.
• National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health provides clear navigation labels for use by the general public.
• CDC provides tips about how to quit smoking that are short, easy-to-understand, quick to scan.
• National Institutes of Health offers a website appropriate for both the general public as well as for medical professionals. The information being presented is technical, but the navigation and descriptive information are appropriate for the general public.

Provide Access to Documents in Appropriate File Formats

• Your web policy or guidance documents should include information on appropriate file formats, including information to help content providers decide which format is appropriate. The Indian Health Service of HHS offers policy standards and guidelines.
• The Indian Health Service offers links to plug-ins or applications needed to read content in PDF, MSWord, or other alternate formats.
• The Office of Personnel Management Standard Forms webpage has information about the type of file as well as the size of the file.

Provide Appropriate Access to Data

• Bureau of Labor Statistics website offers visitors many choices for viewing and downloading data, including the ability to download flat files.
• National Center for Education Statistics provides survey data in both SAS and non-proprietary flat file formats.
• Census Bureau offers various tools that can be be used to view census data. Includes free download software for working with data in certain formats.
• EPA offers the Envirofacts Data Warehouse where users can access and directly query EPA data sets.

Use Consistent Navigation

• Templates are an effective way to make sure that navigation is consistent. For example, the HUD website uses a standard template. This template puts the same navigation at the top of every page, and the same navigation on the left side of every major page.
• Another way to help make navigation consistent is to separate it from the content and generate it separately from individual files or a database. This is the approach taken on the Department of Education Website. The content of the page is generated separately and then the web server applies the navigation.

Use Standard Metadata

• Department of Education uses standard metadata elements that include a subject and audience. Because the metadata is used to generate pages on certain topics, it is necessary to use a standardized vocabulary. The vocabulary was developed through extensive discussions with Departmental staff. To help content providers assign the terms correctly, there is a searchable online reference listing of all of the terms with definitions and links to related terms.

Inform Audiences of Website Changes

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office -- As part of its new "beta" site, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office alerted visitors before the new website was launched, telling them what they could expect with the new website.
• Congressman Mike Honda involved his constituents in the redesign of his website, asking for their input on design, functionality, and content before the final version is chosen.

Ensure Continuity of Operations During Emergencies

• HUD's web policies describe, in detail, the process for posting to the website during emergencies. It is especially important to develop these kinds of procedures when the responsibility for the website is spread across several different parts of the organization; otherwise, everyone may assume that someone else will be responsible for the site in an emergency.

Avoid Duplication

• Regulations.gov coordinates existing or comparable information across agencies.
• HHS created a "widget" for smoking information that other agencies and organizations can post on their websites, which pulls information directly from the HHS website. In this way, agencies don't need to duplicate the information on their website.

Collaborate in Developing Cross–Agency Portals

• USA.gov's list of cross–agency portals is a good place to see if a portal on a particular topic or audience already exists.
• Benefits.gov is an example of a federal cross agency portal.
• Science.gov brings together content and data from across the government.

Link to Appropriate Cross-Agency Portals

• The National Institues of Health page Finding a Clinical Trial links to the portal ClinicalTrials.gov.
• The State Department Business Center page offers links to federal portals on topics such as exports, regulations, federal rulemaking, and obtaining a visa.

Link to the Homepage

• Department of Defense has a prominent link to its homepage from all pages.