Posted by:
Susan Parker, Director, Mass.Gov, Information Technology Division
Massachusetts government has been on the web since 1995. By 2000, our presence had grown to hundreds of stand-alone websites and online applications. A key finding of the eGov Task Force in 2001 was that people were confused by the myriad state agency websites and their different designs and URLs. They wanted a single place they could go to on the web where they could find everything from Massachusetts state government.
In addition, agencies had no common web publishing platform and varying budgets and staffing to support their sites. Larger agencies delegated the job to technologists. Smaller agencies (if they even had a web presence) assigned the job to administrative staff and others lacking technical expertise. As a consequence, websites were too often poorly designed and maintained, or relied on expensive coders and designers. Content was often outdated, difficult to find or use and inaccessible to the disabled. The initial solution was a top-level portal that would link off to existing websites until they could be converted to the Mass.Gov platform. However, we soon learned that with hundreds of state agencies, and a small staff (smaller than some larger agencies’ web teams), converting one agency at a time to Mass.Gov's templates wasn't feasible or sustainable, and also would not really address the challenge of making government more accessible.
What we have done
Our solution to this problem was to build upon the top-level portal by consolidating over 100 websites into a handful of topic-based "sub-portals." These sub-portals use the same controlled page layout and user-centered information architecture throughout.A case in point is Health & Human Services. Prior to consolidation, there were 17 separate websites with stovepiped content and varying design quality. As someone from Health & Human Services remarked, "it was like arts and crafts time."They had 17 content management systems and 24 staff members. Today, there is one Health & Human Services site at http://mass.gov/eohhs. Its content is organized by constituency and topic - not by agency - and related content from multiple agencies is integrated. Content provided by agency subject matter experts is managed by a central team of seven.When the consolidations are completed, we will have reduced the number of standalone Executive Department websites by 87%. Through avoided and reduced costs, in 2008 we projected a five year net benefit of $18m.
The secret of our success
Our progress in consolidation would not have been possible without the top-down support of the administration. But even that is not enough: we had to have a quality offering.
Our on-going activities include:
- Providing a single, distributed content publishing toolset that does not require coding expertise to use;
- Establishing and nurturing strong governance and user communities;
- Providing training and mentoring for content analysis and information architecture activities
- Using visual design and navigation based on professional, third-party usability findings;
- Building compliance with Enterprise standards, best practices, and universal access into the content publishing process; and
- Continuously making enhancements to improve the user experience and promote civic engagement and public safety, including development of social media toolkits
Although agencies under the Governor ("Executive Department agencies") have been tasked with consolidation, a prime indicator of our success is that other agencies - including the Attorney General's Office and the Treasurer's Office have sought us out to "portalize".
This is a very brief overview. We hope you will let us know if you'd like to hear more details!
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