In a recent workshop, InnovateUS collaborated with U.S. Digital Response to bring UX design and research experts who have led projects in the government and private sector. These experts - Cindy Phan, Keith Wilson, Lisa Carter, Erick Pfleiderer, Paul Gehrig, and Mallory Chacon - spoke to how government teams can strengthen their user experience (UX) practices and think about building out a UX team. The panel shared real-world examples, practical strategies, and actionable frameworks, discussing how to hire effectively, develop UX skills, and build sustainable capacity within government agencies.
The session began by asking attendees a seemingly simple question: What is UX?
"UX is very simply, really the experience that I have with a product, or a website, or a feature," Chacon, Research Lead and Staff Researcher at SiriusXM, said. “[Good UX] helps me accomplish my goal without me realizing the gears that are working in the background."
But UX extends far beyond digital interfaces.
"It's not just digital things that you encounter, not just a website or an app. It's all those experiences … that you're going through your day-to-day life,” Gehrig said.
Why Government Needs UX
The panel then discussed why UX matters in government, and what differentiates good design from bad. Government UX design is unique in that projects need to focus on both citizen-facing and internal processes. This means designers must consider multiple user groups simultaneously, often with competing needs and constraints.
Having worked in government for a decade, Phan noted she still hears in the public sector that UX is an afterthought. The workshop aimed to dispel this misconception by highlighting UX's value for government organizations:
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UX provides deep insight into the pain points and opportunities for growth
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UX allows for stronger community relationships, as it brings individuals into a common space and lets everyone collaborate
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UX allows for better decision-making, as it can inform which solutions can have an impact in the short term versus the long term
Real-World Government UX Success Stories
The panelists shared compelling examples of UX in action across different government contexts.
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Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Website Redesign: Pfleiderer led the redesign of the FCC website, facing the challenge of serving users of varying experiences, including internal users who've used the site multiple times per day, external customers, and people who might be visiting the site to report a problem for the first time ever. The solution involved extensive stakeholder interviews, usability testing, and activities such as card sorting and tree testing.
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Major City’s Procurement Process Simplification: Gehrig worked on a U.S. Digital Response (USDR) project with a major city’s Office of Economic Development, initially tasked with visualizing their procurement process. But research revealed a deeper issue: the working norms in the organization. To fix the problem, the team helped build a simple Google Doc that helped different members of the team collaborate on different parts of the process that seemed to overlap.
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Rapid Response: Wildfire Information Architecture: Carter's work with Pasadena during the LA wildfires demonstrates UX's responsive potential. The key to the project’s success was understanding user needs, which meant reorganizing existing information and resources already out there into one simple website. To learn more about this work, you can read this case study.
Hiring and Retaining UX Talent in Government
Wilson and Phan led a deep dive into the hiring process for UX professionals in government. They explained how agencies can identify roles, set priorities, and recruit effectively, despite budget and staffing challenges. They recommended starting small and growing gradually as internal capacity and leadership buy-in strengthen. The panelists offered several key strategies for retaining talent, including centering the user at the center of your decisions and design, and creating a supportive environment for your team.
Making the Case for UX Investment
When stakeholders say they do not have time or resources for UX, the panelists recommend several persuasion strategies.
Carter explained that user research can be a strong deciding factor for those on the fence.
“Bringing that raw user research to the table and showing them,” she said. “It could be a highlight reel of clips of people suffering to get in through your login page, it could be quotes... That's been what I've found the most useful, just in terms of building shared stakeholder empathy."
Pfleiderer emphasized it’s also important to show stakeholders the cost of bad UX.
"You can't afford not to [invest in good UX design],” he said. "In the short term, it might cost time and money, but in the long term, it kind of pays for itself.
He also explained the ripple effects of bad user experiences.
"When people have problems, they are going to look for other ways to solve those problems. And a lot of times, that's going to cost you, whether it's actual dollars and cents money, or cost you in reputation management," Pfleiderer said.
Where to Start
The workshop concluded with a Q&A, where the panelists shared immediate, actionable steps anyone can take to start incorporating UX thinking:
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Ask the right questions: Making sure that you're solving for the major user pain point in the right way
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Practice on yourself first: Try "dogfooding your own product" (using your own services) as if you were a regular user. If you put yourself in the user's shoes, can you accomplish the task at hand?
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Talk to your users: Engage with your users and try to understand the experiences they’re having. This includes individuals with various accessibility needs
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Leverage existing information: Look at what kind of research is already out there, both internally and externally, and use that to guide your design choices
For government organizations ready to embrace user-centered design, the message is clear: start where you are, use what you have, and remember that every improvement can meaningfully impact the lives of the people you serve.
The question is not whether government can afford to invest in UX—it's whether it can afford not to.
“Really putting these UX professionals, or embedding these UX professionals into your industry and into your practice, allows you to make sure that you are maintaining alignment with the people who are ultimately going to use your service or your product,” Chacon said.
Watch the full workshop here.
Resources and Support for Your Agency
Phan and Wilson also collaborated with the panelists to develop in-depth guides on Implementing UX Practices and Hiring for UX Roles. You can request a copy of these guides here.
If you would like to have a conversation about how to build your government's UX capacity, how to hire UX talent, or ways that USDR can help you deliver on a UX project through their reach out to U.S. Digital Response here.
