1. Ideas for USA.gov Marti Hearst USA.gov & Web Best Practices Team Meeting July 29, 2009

2. Why am I talking about this? 1.These are my teaching/research areas. 2.Success for USAsearch.gov critically depends on the content of USA.gov.

3. Three Main Topics  What is/are the goals of USA.gov?  Content at USA.gov.  Faceted metadata for USA.gov

4. What is/are USA.gov’s goals?  “Government Made Easy”? Implies services, activity, findability “How do I” functionality  Curation? Best of the government web Easily navigable  Comprehensive Information? All government libraries All cities’ web sites  A Centralized Digital Library? All government news feeds All government reports My focus here

5. Content is Key  If there is no good page for a query, then Search fails.  Currently, how searchusa helps fill in the gaps: Spotlights FAQs  Should USA.gov fill in those gaps?

6. Fill in the gap: 1040

7. Fill in the gap: 1099

8. How to fill in content gaps  Make the answers for the FAQs available as html pages on USA.gov

10. How to fill in content gaps  Make the answers for the FAQs available as html pages on USA.gov  Perhaps write explanatory content pages for common query types. Example: 1099 query on major search engines brings up nice explanation from wiseGeek

12. How to fill in content gaps  Make the answers for the FAQs available as html pages on USA.gov  Perhaps write explanatory content pages for common query types. Maybe USA.gov pages should be more like FAQ answer pages, more like Wikipedia pages Wikipedia: an authorative page, written in a narrative style, on a topic, with related links.

13. How to fill in content gaps  Make the answers for the FAQs available as html pages on USA.gov  Perhaps write explanatory content pages for common query types.  Perhaps have a community help fill in the gaps Example: business.gov has an active community. Helps with locality-based questions Uses everyday language; aids query matching Many people like the human touch

17. Three Main Topics  What is/are the goals of USA.gov?  Content at USA.gov.  Faceted metadata for USA.gov: Can improve navigation, search, and an advanced “how do I” support system.

18. Faceted Categories vs. Hierarchies Stickers vs. Folders vs

19. Example: Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Scam If you have folders, have to place the item into multiple folders: Health Elderly Drugs Fraud Safety

20. At USA.gov  Unlike many hierarchical directories, USA.gov does a good job of placing items into multiple folders.  However, this is likely to lead to: Inconsistency Disorganized lists of items

21. Example: Food Safety  Currently on USA.gov, how do you navigate to www.foodsafety.gov ? Family, Home, Community > Family Issues > Alphabetical list of ~80 links Health and Nutrition > Food, Nutrition, & Fitness > Alphabetical list of ~30 links Public Safety & Law > Personal & Public Safety > Consumer Protection > Consumer Protection A-Z > … food safety, but not the target site.

22. Example: Teen info  Has subcategories: Driving Education Environmental Consciousness Health and Safety Internet and Mobile Jobs and Volunteering Money Travel and Recreation  These are needed for most other kinds of people too …  … so make these standard categories  and show the teen category whenever you are at one of these other topic types.

23. Alternative: assign stickers to the item: Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Scam Assign categories to the item, rather than put the item into categories Health Safety Elderly Drugs Scams Physicians

24. Faceted Navigation: Bringing it Together  User can start with any category, and see the results grouped by the other categories.  Example: Start with Health  See results grouped by subcategories of Health, such as Drugs, Nutrition Alternatively, user can group results by other categories:  Click on Financial, see Insurance, Payments, etc  Click on Teens, see results relevant to teens

25. Examples of Faceted Layouts

28. Another Advantage: Create Question/Answer Types  “How do I get a driver’s license in Indiana?”  Convert it to these facets: Vehicle > Operation + Official Document > License + State > Indiana  Can be useful for call centers too  Can also show facets not present in the question; user can select these to refine: Age > Teen Rural

29. Summary: Three Main Topics  What is/are the goals of USA.gov? If curation and navigability, see the ideas below!  Ideas for content at USA.gov Put Answers into web pages Write wikipedia-style content pages to fill gaps Use search’s query/web log analysis to identify gaps Maybe consider community conversation?  Faceted metadata for USA.gov: Can improve navigation, search, and an advanced “how do I” support system. Should be done instead of a hierarchical directory.

30. Thank you!