Rhode Island Digital Service Standard

“To the people of Rhode Island: If it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work.” – RI.gov

Introduction

The following Rhode Island Digital Service Standard (‘the Standard’) was created to assist us provide convenient, intuitive, and straightforward government digital services through an energizing and engaging digital ecosystem for all Rhode Islanders: RI.gov.

We have developed the following framework to be equal parts welcoming and practical for developer and citizen alike.

Using the Standard will:

Help you design, build, and lead improved digital services
Help citizens navigate Rhode Island’s digital neighborhood in search of solutions
Help our state transition into a digital future

The State of Rhode Island is dedicated to better serving and engaging its residents, businesses, and visitors. As such, we will require all new or redesigned Rhode Island digital government information and services to follow the Standard. Doing so will allow us to test methodologies, gather citizen feedback, and improve upon Rhode Island’s digital ecosystem as our journey moves forward.

‘Citizen-Centered Design’ is the process of improving the usability, accessibility, and accountability of a government’s digital service for the benefit of enhancing a citizen’s interaction with the service.

What is ‘Digital’?

For many, the term ‘digital’ is unclear. Sometimes vague and sometimes overly-specific, the term means many things to many people. Regarding government, most definitions include the ongoing digitization and transformation of the public sector and related administrative services.

Here in Rhode Island, ‘digital’ means ‘the process of making government more welcoming, accessible, and safe by shifting services from analog to digital delivery systems.’

Digital transformation encompasses a wider range of work than solely improving information technology (IT) systems and processes. In the broadest sense possible, it means putting people first in an increasingly connected world. Growing our capacity to use new mindsets, skillsets, technologies, and data will benefit people, government, and our economy.

Digital means putting citizens first. Digital means systemic change. Digital means a brighter future for all Rhode Islanders.

Why a Digital Service Standard for Rhode Island?

We want all Rhode Islanders to thrive in the digital world.

To achieve our goal, we are focusing on Rhode Islanders’ specific needs though accepting citizen-centric design and development processes within our state government’s digital transformation. Doing so will help us develop websites for people accessing personalized services, engaging online, and developing trust in our open, transparent, and inclusive government.

We also want our government to quickly adapt to the rapidly-changing times.

To achieve our goal, we will use citizen feedback and Agile development to reduce risk, save money, and solve the right problems. Making the effort to understand citizens and investigate underlying issues before building a solution will focus our efforts on designing a digital service to meet our government’s policy goals as well as Rhode Islanders’ needs moving forward.

Common Myths

Myth: What citizens need is already known.

Citizens and website design teams experience digital services differently. Our new Digital Standard replaces assumptions with observation and evidence.

Myth: Citizen-centered design is too expensive.

Designing or re-designing services for citizens does not have to be expensive. Citizen interviews, usability testing, prototyping, and other design activities can happen for little-to-no cost. Often, all one needs is a piece of paper, a pencil, and some creativity.

Myth: Service design is not worth the effort.

Taking the time to understand citizens’ needs adds significant value to the project. Feedback will validate or correct assumptions, helping inform programmatic decision-making and avoid expensive fixes.

Framework for Rhode Island’s Digital Service Transformation

We can group all aspects of Rhode Island’s Digital Service transformation and improvement within three families of initiatives: Designing, Building, and Leading.

The initiatives of Rhode Island’s Digital Service transformation include: Citizen-Centered Design, Recognizable Design, Accessible Design, Privacy and Security Concerns, Omni-channel Service Delivery; Mobile-First Development, Open-Source Preference, Agile Development, Iterative Testing, Performance Accountability, Technology Concerns; Planning for Success, Teambuilding, Community Outreach, and *Partnerships. *

The initiatives within each family incorporate the following strategies:

Welcome All Rhode Islanders

Empowerment, Inclusivity, Accessibility

Simplify Government

Design, Consistency, Development

Listen & Respond

Research, Testing, Accountability

Reach Citizens

Engagement, Marketing, Delivery

Protect Rhode Islanders’ Trust

Confidentiality, Privacy, Security

Capacity-Building

Goals, Teambuilding, Partnerships

Develop the Digital Neighborhood

Mobile-First, Agile, Open-Source

Release Stages

We will transform government services using an agile four-stage design process:

Discovery

Start mapping the broader service landscape, researching your users’ real needs and problems, and understanding the policy intent and your constraints.

Alpha

Test your hypotheses by prototyping in code to explore different ways you might meet your users’ needs. Explore multiple ideas. Research users to learn which approach works best and iterate your solution with your discoveries.

Beta

Define a minimum viable product from the successful prototype in Alpha. Build prototype as an accessible and secure service. Allow the public to trial the Beta alongside the existing service. Use feedback to improve the service.

Live

Put the team and processes in place to continue operating and improving the service, phasing out the old services, and consolidating existing non-digital channels.

DESIGNING: Digital Service for Rhode Island

“The word digital is misleading. It makes one think of technology, when we should be thinking of people.” – Paul Boag; Author

Creating a more useful and usable digital government service starts with understanding and designing for the needs of all Rhode Islanders.

Designing digital government services proficiently will benefit all Rhode Islanders through:

Increased accessibility
Easier to use and understand services
An improved understanding of government services
Evolving services responsive to citizen needs
Security and confidentiality of private data

Designing digital government services proficiently will benefit our agency or department through:

Wider uptake of lower-cost digital channels
More effective service delivery
Easier content management and maintenance
Increasing program efficiency and cost effectiveness
Improved uptake, satisfaction, and reputation of our fine-tuned services
Advanced managing of reputational or service delivery risk
The alignment of service projects to clear, actionable goals

Designing digital government services proficiently will benefit Rhode Island’s government through:

Increased government efficiency and reduced service duplication
Improved public confidence in and uptake of digital government services
Minimized legal and reputational risk
Improved public confidence and government trust

CITIZEN-CENTERED DESIGN

“Our time with users, and what we learn from them, forms the foundation on which we build our products, services, and experiences.” — Emily Tavoulareas, Mary Ann Brody; USDS

Using a government service should not be stressful, confusing, or intimidating. We should design services simple and intuitive enough for unaided citizens to complete the required tasks as quickly and easily as possible on the first try. The digital world must connect to the real world, so we must design all aspects of a digital service to meet real citizen needs.

Citizen-centered design starts with identifying citizen needs, so we will begin our projects by defining whom will use the digital service and discovering the needs of these people. Whether our website users are members of the public or government employees, we must include real people in the design process from the beginning. The needs of people, not the constraints of siloed government structures, should inform technical and design decisions.

Remember, we are not designing for a screen. We are designing for people, and their needs. Do research, analyze data, talk to citizens, and do not make assumptions. Have empathy for citizens, and remember what a user asks for is not always what the user needs. Moving forward, we must continually research our citizens, be clear about the goals of each digital project, and understand how our research affects the plan for success.

Why Citizen-Centered Design Matters

The poor usability and functionality of the Defense Personal Property System (DPS) hindered personal shipments of more than 1.3 million servicemembers and 700,000 civilians. After the Defense Digital Service 2007 remediation, DPS users reported significantly reduced latency rates and allowing for the most concurrent users DPS has ever supported. Most importantly, successful shipment requests and scheduling increased from 16% to more than 99%. – USDS

Starting design with researching the needs of citizens uncovers broad and nuanced insights, allowing us to build a useful service, avoid future mistakes, and start the process of iterative testing and improvement.

Additionally, Rhode Islanders find it difficult to complete the task the first time, they may contact our organization to get help or avoid using our service altogether. Also, ensuring all digital and non-digital services are intuitive and use plain language will help Rhode Islanders understand which services are relevant to their lives.

Key Questions to Answer

Who are our primary users?
Who are our primary internal stakeholders?
What citizen needs will our service address?
Why does the citizen want or need our service?
Which people will have the most difficulty with the service?
What are the internal stakeholders’ pain points with the service?
Which research methods did we use?
What were the key findings?
How were the findings documented?
Where can future team members access the documentation?
How is citizen feedback used to improve the service?
How are we documenting ongoing improvement?
What primary tasks is the user trying to accomplish?
If a citizen needs help while using the service, how do they go about getting it?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Demonstrate how our new service minimizes effort for citizens.
Describe how our service would meet citizen’s needs.
Structure services around Rhode Islanders’ interests or preferences and not by government departments or initiatives.
Plan options to streamline or automate our service, if beneficial for the citizen.
Research and understand our citizens’ demographics, abilities and disabilities, motivations, attitudes, literacy and digital capability, and cultural considerations.
Research and understand the abilities and disabilities, motivations, attitudes, literacy and digital capability, and cultural considerations of internal stakeholders all the way up to the Governor.
Describe our processes for identifying and prioritizing insights from user research.
Analyze user research and use it to improve our service.
Pinpoint current channels best supportive of our citizens’ needs, and describe the incorporation of new channels in the future.
Analyze other service providers (government or private sector) to identify opportunities to streamline how real people accomplish real life tasks.
Evolve the service in response to citizen behaviors.
Define how our service fits into the broader landscape of related services.

Low-Level Task Framework

Create “user stories”, a prioritized list of tasks the citizen is trying to accomplish, for typical and atypical personas.
Develop user goals written in the following format: As a [user type], I want [goal] so that [reason].
Group citizen personas based on habits, personality, attitudes, abilities, and motives.
Group citizen profiles based on demographics such as gender, age, location, income, and family size.
Early in the project, spend time with current and prospective citizens of the service.
Use a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods to determine and document citizen’s goals, needs, behaviors, and preferences.
Share citizen research with our team and agency leadership.
Invest in collecting and applying behavioral insights to develop, test, and refine digital services offered by Rhode Island.
Compile a list of “Useful Apps and Tools” and include third-party applications and websites.
Explore citizen benefits of using existing payment application technology providers to complete government transactions.
Review existing web content.
Reorganize key services using simple, yet descriptive, names encompassing the audience’s needs (e.g., housing, food, children, etc.).
For cross-agency services, work together to identify the most important information and ensure we present the data in a user-centric way.
Improve and simplify online bill payment options for residents and businesses.
Give citizens clear process information, and where they are in it.
Provide citizens with a way to exit the service and return later to complete the process.
Use easy to understand language familiar to the citizen.
Assemble a task force of agency staff to conduct plain language workshops for their colleagues.
Design the service to rely more on FAQs, tutorials, and educational graphics than personal contact to answer citizens questions regarding service usability.
Automate responses whenever possible.

INTUITIVE DESIGN

“The true ideal is not just simplicity, but when a [government’s digital] service transcends and doesn’t require work on my part—when I may even forget it exists.” – David Eaves; Tech President

Making something look simple is easy. Making something simple to use is much harder, especially when the underlying systems are complex. But that is what we will be doing, as every digital encounter should move the citizen closer towards success.

We will use the same language and design patterns to help people identify our services across the government. Yet, we cannot start discussing visual design without first understanding content and what it is we are trying to say. Likewise, visual design impeding important content is an obstruction of information. Design should be invisible, upholding noticeable and consumable content.

Why Intuitive Design Matters

People aren’t here to enjoy themselves; they’re here to find information. – User quote; GOVT.NZ

Government digital services should be recognizable and reliable across all agencies, channels, and platforms. Clear standards for digital design elements, technical options, as well as data sharing and collection will help agencies create and implement consistent and familiar services for Rhode Islanders. Using the same language and design patterns as the rest of RI.gov will allow us to save time and focus on showcasing the unique aspects of our services.

Key Questions to Answer

Where are citizen pain points in the current way people accomplish the task?
How do citizens interact with our service online and off-line?
How does the service’s design visually relate to other government services?
How does our service utilize the statewide branding and style guidelines?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Identify pain points in the current way citizens interact with our service.
Develop metrics to measure how well the service is meeting citizen needs along each step of the service.
Refer to statewide branding and style guidelines for visual design guidance.
Demonstrate that the service is responsive, with the same content and functionality on all devices, and works on mobile devices.

Low-Level Task Framework

Establish a statewide photo-sharing resource to incorporate imagery into digital services.
Create a simple and flexible design style guide and templated designs for related digital services.
Add new content to RI.gov, rather than create any new websites or mobile applications.
Use RI.gov/keyword subdomains for websites and marketing, rather than register any new public-facing domain names (e.g., RI.gov/digitalservice instead of ridigitalservice.com).
Migrate high-demand, priority web content to RI.gov.
Use RI.gov as the front door for all transactional applications on other platforms.
Demonstrate how the service has used the RI.gov design standards.
Apply RI.gov content standards to maintain the tone and voice of government content.
Ensure core content on RI.gov is easy to find, understand, and use.
Register the domain name through domain.registration@RI.gov, if needed.
Decommission redundant properties or outdated channels.
Replace text with audio, video, or graphics to describe services whenever possible.
Develop and expand iconography and usage guidelines.
Use a simple and flexible design style guide and templated designs for related digital services.

ACCESSIBLE DESIGN

“Accessibility means that people can do what they need to do in a similar amount of time and effort as someone that does not have a disability. It means that people are empowered, can be independent, and will not be frustrated by something that is poorly designed or implemented.” – Alistair Duggin; UK.GOV

In short, accessible design is good design. All residents deserve dignified access to government services, whatever their abilities or language preferences. But we must not assume everybody will be able to use our services. To be accessible, we will design and test our digital services with the widest possible range of people, including people with disabilities, individuals using diverse devices and technologies, and those without internet access. Everything we build should be as inclusive, legible, and readable as possible.

Why Accessible Design Matters

13.4% of all Rhode Islanders live with a disability, including 11.7% of persons ages 21 to 64, 21.5% of persons ages 65 to 74, and 45.2% of persons ages 75+. – Cornell University’s Yang Tan Institute on Employment and Disability

The people who need our services the most are often the people who find them the hardest to use. Let us create easy to use interfaces, offer services in multiple languages, and design to meet or exceed accessibility standards so all can partake in Rhode Island’s digital government services.

Key Questions to Answer

What are the needs of Rhode Islanders living with disabilities?
Is the digital asset compatible with assistive technology?
Is our language as plain and universal as possible?
In what languages is our service offered?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Ensure all people can use the service by following accessibility best practices.
Write content to meet broad and specific citizen needs.
Offer assets, including extensions and customizations, meeting the accessibility standards outlined in Section 508 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.
Ensure inclusiveness regarding official languages, disability, technological or access constraints.
Continually identify, consider, and mitigate personal, cultural, situational, and environmental limitations affecting a citizen’s ability to access our service.
Support people unable to use, or struggling with, the service due to lack of digital access or low digital literacy.
Make it easy for people with disabilities to reach out to the appropriate team to address any problems.
Use plain, concise, and consistent language.
Plan for any digital or non-digital assistance needed to support citizens (e.g., web chat, telephone assistance, service intermediaries, face-to-face, etc.).
Use standard, embeddable language and visual components from the state toolkit and style guide, when possible.
Test prototypes with citizens from different backgrounds, languages, abilities and disabilities.
Ensure our team has the skills necessary to understand and create accessible services.
Contribute to the development of best practices and publish approaches the state has used to implement the RI Accessibility Policy.
Maintain a holistic understanding of the design and creation process, so any written piece of information can work in the context of the whole.

Low-Level Task Framework

Create and disseminate state language and visual design toolkit and style guides.
Ensure that all text is machine-readable and machine-translatable, including documents in PDF format.
Whenever possible, use HTML or Markdown text instead of PDFs or Word documents.
Review reading level of service-oriented prose, including content in languages other than English.
Include results of accessibility reviews in analytics reports.
Human translate the most heavily trafficked web pages into the languages most commonly used by the populations we serve.
Enable machine translation tools, even if they are less than 100% accurate, on existing websites before new sites go live.
Use human translation to pre-write emergency messaging in the languages most commonly used by the population our agency serves.
In an emergency, immediately deploy automated machine translation tools, then update with more accurate human translation as necessary.
Design translation solutions to be flexible and responsive to evolving needs and technologies.
Simplify the navigation between languages on Rhode Island websites.
Regularly review and use best-in-class translation tools.
Create a pool of citizens which agencies may contact to test and improve accessibility standards.
Train content creators in accessibility guidelines, best practices, and tools for accessibility review.
Follow all applicable laws and rules, including:

PRIVACY & SECURITY

“We shouldn’t ask our customers to make a tradeoff between privacy and security. We need to offer them the best of both. Ultimately, protecting someone else’s data protects all of us.” – Tim Cook; Apple Inc.

Citizens expect to interact safely with government and, in turn, expect the government will protect any shared personal information. We should build privacy and security, both fundamental requirements, into services throughout all stages of the digital lifecycle. Rhode Island’s digital services must protect sensitive information and keep systems secure.

At the start of designing a new service or feature, the team will evaluate what user data and information the digital service will be providing or storing before addressing the security level, legal responsibilities, privacy issues, and risks associated with the service.

The lead will engage the appropriate privacy, security, compliance, and legal officer(s) to discuss the type of information collected, how to secure data, how long to keep records, and parameters surrounding the usage and sharing of personal identifiers. The sustained engagement of a privacy specialist helps ensure personal data is properly managed.

Additionally, a key process to building a secure service is comprehensively testing and certifying the components in each layer of the technology stack for security vulnerabilities, and then to re-use these same pre-certified components for multiple services. Consider the citizen, evaluate security risk as well as privacy obligations, and apply necessary treatments.

Why Privacy & Security Matters

18F and USDS developers work on an ongoing basis to adhere to emerging standards in privacy-protecting authentication on login.gov. USDS estimates that the Federal Government has the potential to save hundreds of millions of dollars by consolidating consumer identity under login.gov, while improving access and usability for all Americans. – USDS

People hold an expectation of privacy while online, and hold similar expectations for government websites. Breaking privacy expectations not only breaks a public trust in digital services, in general, but also in the Government of the State of Rhode Island. In short, unless we guarantee the confidentiality and safe accessibility of personal information on government websites, Rhode Islanders will not use your service.

Key Questions to Answer

Does the service collect personal information from the citizen?
How is the citizen notified of the collection of personal information?
Does the service collect more information than necessary?
Are our guarantees of privacy and security citizen-friendly?
Could we utilize collected data in ways an average citizen would not expect?
How does a citizen access, correct, delete, or remove personal information?
Will we share any personal information stored in the system with other agencies, services, people, or partners?
How and how often is the service tested for security vulnerabilities?
How can someone from the public report a security issue?
What data, either individually or in aggregate, does the public have a right to access or have published?
How does our privacy and security measures comply with laws, regulations, and law enforcement?
What security measures does law enforcement need?
What are the citizen impacts of a potential partial or full breach of data?
What are the state impacts of a potential partial or full breach of data?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Ensure our service’s security and privacy measures are robust.
Consider whether the citizen should be able to access, delete, or remove their information from the service.
Design and enforce standards for the protection of sensitive and personal data in accordance with relevant laws, rules, and regulations.
Plan and test procedures for reporting and quickly responding to privacy breaches.
Be aware of what data our citizens want and respond accordingly.
Preserve the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of our service according to our citizens’ needs.
Allow residents to access as much information and as many services as possible while allowing them to remain anonymous.
Have knowledge of what information is available through our service, and how to access or change the records.
Involve privacy, security, compliance, and legal advisers, as needed.
Adapt services to follow market trends, incorporate best citizen privacy practices, and provide immunity from attack.
Maintain an inventory of the information and data the service might involve and relevant security classifications.
Perform proportionate risk analysis and act as necessary based on our analysis.
Consider and prepare for all law enforcement needs such as searchability, audit trail, documentation of probable cause, etc.

Low-Level Task Framework

Review the applicability of the Privacy Act of 1974 to our service, and the steps we have taken to ensure we have embedded legal requirements within our service.
Contact the appropriate privacy or legal officer of the department or agency to determine whether we should conduct a System of Records Notice (SORN), Privacy Impact Assessment, or other review.
Determine, in consultation with a records officer, what data our service should collect; why the service collects, uses, and shares data; as well as how and how long the service stores and secures data.
Determine, in consultation with a privacy specialist, whether and how to notify citizens regarding the collection and usage of personal information, whether our service needs a privacy policy and where it should appear, as well as how to notify citizens in the event of a security breach.
“Pre-certify” the hosting infrastructure used for the project.
Use deployment scripts to ensure configuration of production environment remains consistent and controllable.
Monitor the data dictionaries and descriptions relevant to our work to ensure usability.
Only ask residents for information required to move an application or process forward; do not ask for unnecessary information.
Communicate guarantees of privacy and security in citizen-friendly and accessible manner.
Determine total possible liability and discuss assessment with agency leadership (find total cost-per-breach-per-user; multiply by number of users).
Follow all applicable laws and rules, including:
- Rhode Island Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act;
- Archives and Recordkeeping Act;
- Personal Health Information Protection Act;
- Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

OMNI-CHANNEL SERVICE TRANSITION

“Tradition is a very powerful force.” – John Kotter, Author

A channel is the method of physical or digital interaction between a person and an organization. People access channels based on their comfort levels, access to technology, schedule, and personal preference. Either by choice or not, people are often bound by what they can afford. Some people rely only on brick and mortar, in-person, mobile-only, or over-the-phone offerings. As such, our digital strategy needs to consider the population new or adverse to digital channels, and serve everyone the same information across all channels as in-person and phone-centric services transition to digital delivery.

Overall, we endeavor to design each project for citizens to seamlessly and naturally adopt the newly-designed service. Yet, we must remember late-adopters and non-adopters will always exist (by choice or otherwise), and thus must accommodate to serve all citizens equally.

Why Omni-Channel Service Transition Matters

The United Kingdom’s Digital Efficiency Report suggests that transactions online can already be 20 times cheaper than by phone, 30 times cheaper than postal, and as much as 50 times cheaper than face-to-face. By going digital by default, the UK government could save between £1.7 and £1.8 billion each year. – GOV.UK

Understanding context and planning service delivery around restrictive, needs-focused parameters is a critical part of our digital strategy. As an organization, we need to ensure people have a consistent experience regardless of the channel chosen to interact with us as we transition to a more accessible digital service delivery. Conflicting information between offline and online channels will create confusion and erode trust. Alternately, a carefully planned, designed, and executed multi-channel consistency will enforce confidence via a reliable online experience, and will encourage future uptake in newly developed digital services.

Key Questions to Answer

What are the different ways (both online and offline) people currently accomplish tasks designed within the digital service?
Where does this specific project fit into the larger way people currently obtain the offered service?
Do any legal or regulatory requirements prevent your agency from offering the service purely online?
What are the design and logistical needs for the transition?
Where do transactions overlap or repeat between different channels?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Ensure alternate methods are available to those who prefer to access services through person-to-person interaction instead of through digital channels.
Remember all citizens hold different levels of understanding and acceptance of the digital services created for their use.
Keep omnichannel service needs in mind during the design process.
Understand the different points at which people will interact with our service both online and in person.

Low-Level Task Framework

Plan for a transition without service gaps for any population.
Integrate digital parts of our service with the offline touch points people use to interact with the service.
Accommodate for face-to-face or analog transactions required by law.
Plan for the analog practicalities of complying with the law (e.g. scanners, queuing lanes in offices, desk coverage, etc.).
Grow stakeholder buy-in for service transition.
Detail the channels required to support all users.
Test how a citizen would change between channels without repetition.
Plan how to retire redundant services and channels.

BUILDING: Digital Service for Rhode Island

[]{#_Hlk516238929 .anchor}“It’s far, far cheaper and more efficient for government to provide services digitally than over the phone, so if digital services are successful we end up saving money for the government and for taxpayers. It’s common sense.” – Mike Bracken, UK.GOV

Creating a more useful and usable digital government service requires us and our team to match the latest industry standards of digital service delivery.

Building digital government services proficiently will benefit all Rhode Islanders through:

A better online experience
More timely, authoritative information
Increased knowledge about services
Continually optimized services to meet needs
Improved public collaboration

[]{#_Hlk516238939 .anchor}Building digital government services proficiently will benefit our agency or department through:

Realized savings and efficiencies
Optimization for value-added work activities
Increased flexibility to evolve services
Improved performance accountability
Reduced levels of risk
Strengthened relationships with the public
Collaborative efforts and partnerships

[]{#_Hlk516238944 .anchor}Building digital government services proficiently will benefit Rhode Island’s government through:

Expanded return on investment
Broader context for future investment decision-making
Greater government transparency
Improved public trust in government
Grown system-wide digital capabilities
Increased service integration

MOBILE-FIRST DEVELOPMENT

“Mobile is not the future, it is the now. Meet your customers in the environment of their choice, not where it is convenient for you.” – Cyndie Shaffstall; Spider Trainers

Residents increasingly use mobile devices as their primary tool to access key services. Many, if not most, Rhode Islanders have strong relationships with social media networks, search engines, and other third-party sites and applications.

To reach the greatest number of residents and prepare for an increasingly digital future, Rhode Island’s government services will recognize what works well for Rhode Islanders, take advantage of the tools residents already use, and prioritize mobile online services and SMS communications.

A mobile-first strategy starts with designing for mobile devices before tablets and desktops and focuses design on critical content before moving to non-critical content.

Why Mobile-First Development Matters

On average, people check their phones more than 150 times a day, and more searches occur on mobile phones than computers. But if a potential customer is on a phone, and a site isn’t easy to use, they’re five times more likely to leave. – Google.com

The process of designing for mobile devices, also known as ‘progressive advancement’, naturally creates a hierarchical scale for content with a prioritization for essential content. After careful consideration, we can add visual elements to support and enhance content to larger screens, but starting small helps prioritization.

To empower the mobile-first approach, we can use responsive design to automatically adjust content based on browser width. Combining mobile-first with responsive design will give us the benefit of designing for the constraints of a smaller screen before progressively enhancing for larger screens.

Key Questions to Answer

Which citizen communities rely on mobile-forward solutions?
How will mobile-first design improve my service?
What are the downside of mobile-first development?
Does my team have the skills to develop mobile-first?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Optimize new digital tools for mobile devices.
Implement and enforce a mobile-first strategy.
Include standards for making services accessible on mobile devices within our strategy.

Low-Level Task Framework

Develop technical standards for Rhode Island’s technology workforce to follow when building digital tools.
Develop a cross-agency working group for mobile application, design, and research to share best practices and updates on ongoing projects.
Describe the features of various social media platforms and their most effective use.
Describe how your service utilized various social media platforms.
Review and improve on existing social media standards.
Reevaluate and reduce requirements for printing applications and other forms.
Increase capacity to accept digital submissions.
Identify opportunities to replace signature requirements with electronic signatures.
Inventory current non-digital licensing, permitting, applications, and enrollment forms.

OPEN-SOURCE PREFERENCE

“Thou shalt open-source your technologies.” – [Copyleft GPL Quote]

We will share code and designs, ideas and intentions, successes and failures whenever we can with colleagues, Rhode Islanders, and the world. When we place more eyes on a service, we can spot more mistakes, create better solutions, and improve the service overall. If we have found a sustainable solution, we will make it reusable and shareable instead of reinventing the wheel every time. To do so, we will use platforms others can, and have, built upon; provide resources (like APIs) for use; and link to the work of others’ successes.

Reuse supports agility, flexibility, efficiency, and security. Using open-source technologies also contributes to the broader service delivery system. It helps by enabling other agencies, and the private and community sectors, to deliver public value by building on or extending our work.

Why Open-Source Preference Matters

According to a 2015 survey of open-source users, vendors, and business professionals across industry with a large concentration of IT and Consulting respondents, use of open source increased or remained the same in the past year: 64% of companies participate in open source projects (up from 50% in 2014) and 88% were expected to increase contributions to open source projects over the following three years. – North Bridge, Black Duck

Using open standards and common government platforms means we can save time and money through reuse, easily move between different technologies, quickly change our service when necessary, and build trust with our citizens by showcasing a transparent service. Working in the open builds public trust, encourages ongoing peer review and collaboration, identifies issues or incorrect assumptions early, as well as taps into the expertise, skills, and experience of the broader community.

Internally, we should not burden teams with recreating basic components and patterns for every new needed product. Utilizing best practices, code, and designs will enable teams to focus on the unique aspects of their own product, ensuring the public receives the best possible service. Likewise, opening our source code allows other services to reuse our creation, build upon our success, and reduce costs in government.

We can improve government together by collaborating, building open services, and publishing. By doing so, we simplify the public’s access to government services and information; allow the public to contribute; and enable reuse by entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and the public.

Having others evaluate our tools and systems helps us to mitigate associated risks or constraints, avoid harmful contracts, and build a sustainable and manageable digital system. Also, open-source work naturally incentivizes teams to produce high-quality, high-integrity outcomes on an ongoing basis.

Key Questions to Answer

How are we collecting citizen feedback for bugs and issues?
What open-source license is most appropriate for this project?
Have we briefed leadership on developing in the open?
Do API specifications exist and, if so, are they publicly accessible?
What components have we released as open-source?
What datasets are available to the public?
How will we deal with pull requests from citizens or any community to develop around our project?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Create a culture of open-source design and development.
Share our work, decision making, evidence and insights and invited others to provide constructive criticism.
Consider keeping data, information, and transactional schemas as simple and modular as possible.
Exclude any secret information, like passwords, from public repositories.
Understand the potential benefits or caveats to the reuse of commonly-accepted methods, tools, platforms, or components or processes.
Promote your project as being open to pull requests from interested members of the public.
Consider open-sourcing our work.
Open and share our evidence base, decision-making, knowledge, research, software, and code.
Consider where and when it is not appropriate to openly release the data, information, transactions, and rules we have created during our service delivery.
Open data, transactions, and rules underpinning our services as Application Programming Interfaces (API’s).
Reuse our own and others’ APIs.
Evaluate and procure the tools and systems needed to build, host, operate, and measure the service.
Use open-source standards, best practices, and common government platforms to ensure interoperability and prevent dependency on a single vendor.
Guarantee the sharing of Intellectual Property (IP) artifacts, including documents, insights, graphs or visualizations, and code in all contracts.
Use open standards, open-source, and public cloud offerings that have a strong developer community support.

Low-Level Task Framework

Establish “Code Coverage” contributions thresholds to ensure your codebase has automated reliability and functional testing built-in from the start.
Automatically generate documentation with internal and external developers’ detailed comments required of any code contribution.
Utilize the default statewide open-source licensing policy.
Offer citizens a mechanism to report bugs and issues, and be responsive to these reports.
Follow style and branding guidelines, including the use of open fonts.
Designate which data from the service is explicitly within the public domain.
Discuss the globally waiving of rights via an international public domain dedication such as the “Creative Commons Zero” waiver.
Catalog data in the agency’s enterprise data inventory and add any public datasets to the agency’s public data listing.
Maintain the rights to all data developed by third parties in a manner that is releasable and reusable at no cost to the public.
Maintain contractual rights to all custom software developed by third parties in a manner that is publishable and reusable at no cost.
Explain why our team has not released the codebase under an open-source license, if applicable.
Publish source code of projects or components online, when appropriate.
Share our development process and progress publicly, when appropriate.
Follow all applicable laws and rules, including:
- Rhode Island’s Open Data Directive
- Web publishing standards - RI.gov
- News standards - Rhode Island Newsroom
- Open data standards - Data catalogue

AGILE DEVELOPMENT

“Fail fast, iterate, explore. This isn’t construction or rocket science.” – 37signals

The best way to build good digital services is to use an incremental, fast-paced style of software development called Agile to start small and iterate dynamically after the Discovery Stage. Release minimum viable products (MVPs) early, test with actual users, and move from Alpha Stage to Beta Stage to Live Stage while adding features, deleting what does not work, and refining based on gathered citizen feedback and data. If a prototype is not working, do not be afraid to scrap it and start again.

Why Agile Development Matters

By using agile development processes to speed up the development and minimize risk, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the United States Digital Service worked together to completely redesign the frontend, deliver a scalable, modernized backend, and move the application to the cloud in nine months—half the time of the original estimate. – USDS

The digital environment is rapidly and continually changing, marked with shifting opportunity and threat landscapes, and subject to increasing expectations. Using Agile methods will help us build services meeting the needs of our users, are convenient for people to use, easily changeable, improvable, less costly, and more accountable.

Using Agile development allows us to reduce the risk of failure, get working websites and services into citizens’ hands as early as possible, and give our design and development teams opportunities to adjust in real-time. Iteration reduces risk, makes big failures unlikely, and turns small failures into lessons. Agile development can also allow us to test and deploy our service while producing and adding new features.

Key Questions to Answer

How long did it take to ship the MVP?
If the MVP has not shipped yet, when will it?
How long does it take for a production deployment?
How many days or weeks are in each iteration/sprint?
Which version control system is being used?
How are bugs tracked and tickets issued?
What tool do we use to track bugs?
How is the feature backlog managed?
What tool do we use to manage backlog?
How often do we review and reprioritize the feature and bug backlog?
Do citizens have input on roadmap priorities?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Provide the capacity, resources, and technical flexibility to build a frequently improvable and iterative service.
Ensure adequate operational support, ongoing budget, and procurement arrangements to enable Agile development.
Show how the technology we are using is sustainable and how risks to its sustainability are being minimized.
Provide examples of the team’s ability to deploy software frequently with minimal disruption to citizens.
Describe how long we expect our service to be in each stage of development and why.
Develop our process for deploying software.
Use proven deployment processes, such as Blue / Green Deployment, allowing for frequent releases that do not interrupt citizens’ usage of the service.

Low-Level Task Framework

Develop examples of user stories moving quickly from citizen research to deployment.
Ship a functioning MVP that solves a core citizen need as soon as possible, no longer than three months from the project’s start.
Use a “beta” or “test” development period, if needed.
Run usability tests frequently to check how well the service works and to identify necessary improvements.
Ensure the individuals building the service communicate closely using techniques such as launch meetings, war rooms, daily standups, and team chat tools.
Utilize small and focused delivery teams.
Limit organizational layers separating sprint teams from the business owners.
Release features and improvements multiple times each month.
Utilize prioritized “feature backlog” and “bug backlog” lists.
Use a source code version control system such as Git or Fossil.
Give the entire project team, including stakeholders, access to the issue tracker and version control system.
Use code reviews to ensure quality.

ITERATIVE TESTING

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” – Thomas Edison

Iterative design is a recurring process of testing, examining, and then refining a service or process based on our analysis to improve the functionality and quality of the studied design. Human-centered research and evaluation, as well as the involvement of Rhode Islanders in the building process, are powerful design methods to iterate for creating services to satisfy both citizens and front-line service providers. We must make sure our service can perform the tasks Rhode Islanders need, even under high levels of traffic. If our service cannot handle all levels of traffic, it may slow down or completely stop working, creating a negative citizen experience.

Why Iterative Testing Matters

…We had 94 possible testers through what would soon become our standard process for recruiting and segmenting. We determined the service met expectations by engaging with people over email, home delivery, and a web form. The system worked, but we knew we had to get people together in a room to start delivering on the promise of community engagement… – CUTGroup Chicago

We will not know how good our product is until we test it in simulations of both normal and unusual conditions (for example, when visitors or attackers inundate our website). Testing the end-to-end service allows us to find problems, check usability for a variety of citizens, build a working product for our citizens. Also, testing with the public and managers accountable for content will build buy-in and uptake to the digital service and its ongoing resourcing.

Key Questions to Answer

How often are we testing with real people?
Were any gaps uncovered while addressing citizen needs at each stage of usability testing?
Is the service more difficult to use for certain user personas or demographic groups?
What metrics will best indicate how well the service is working for Rhode Islanders?
What test tools do we use?
Are we testing on all browsers and platforms?
What methodology should we use?
What partners can help us achieve our testing goals?
How do we collect citizen feedback during development?
Does our testing hold statistical significance for our uses?
Are we using test-driven development (TDD)?
How do we iterate our testing?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Test the end-to-end service in an environment identical to the live version, using dummy accounts and a representative sample of Rhode Islanders.
Test on all common browsers and devices, including accessibility devices.
Test the service with a wide range of citizens throughout the design, prototyping, and delivery stages to ensure people’s needs are being met.
Test key service language with residents to ensure clarity and understandability.
Use and share data collected from citizen research, usability testing, and service analytics.
Cultivate a culture embracing, and even celebrating, iteration and “fails”.

Low-Level Task Framework

Create a space to test digital and non-digital services safely and transparently.
Create a service design group to share best practices and “fails” in research and service delivery as well as to workshop design challenges and solutions.
Support additional capacity and invest in tools helping government staff monitor and respond to Rhode Islanders’ feedback.
Test the digital service from beginning to end with the manager or department lead responsible for the content and service.
Set up infrastructure to test two or more versions of a new service or webpage before utilizing the best version, a practice known as A/B Testing.
Field test prototypes of solutions with enough real people to provide real data.
Collaborate with community-based organizations and elected officials to develop and test key services with residents.
Set up “pop-up hubs” in libraries, public housing, and other community-based organizations to test and refine proposed services with residents.
Encourage Rhode Islanders to submit feedback about all digital services.
Update testers when we make significant changes based on their input.
Review and respond to Rhode Islanders’ inquiries on digital channels in a timely fashion.
Record and share learned lessons from the team’s “fails”.

PERFORMANCE ACCOUNTABILITY

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” – Sherlock Holmes

In most cases, we can learn from real world behavior by looking at how Rhode Islanders utilize existing services. To let data drive design decision-making, we need to understand the different ways Rhode Islanders will interact with our digital services and, likewise, the service’s impact on people’s interaction with government. At every stage of a project, we will measure how well our service is working for our citizens, including system performance and real-time user interaction. Measuring performance will provide insights about how to improve and evolve the service to meet changing citizen needs.

Why Performance Accountability Matters

The U.S. Digital Analytics Program (DAP) officially launched on 2012 with a release of its first version of the government-wide web analytics code. Within three years, 45 agencies had implemented the common code across more than 4,000 public-facing websites, counting 1.5 billion pageviews each month. – 18F

Collecting performance data and setting performance indicators allows us to continuously improve our service by evaluating strengths and weaknesses while making data-driven decisions.

Collecting, analyzing, and publishing metrics will also assist us compare data across multiple government services and be open, transparent, and accountable to the public regarding our service’s performance.

Rhode Islanders will be more willing to share personal information with a government prioritizing accountability and transparency. Lastly, publicly demonstrating how, and to whom, our service adds value helps justify the investment in developing and operating the service.

Key Questions to Answer

What are the key metrics for the service?
How have these metrics performed over the life of the service?
Which system monitoring tools (RUM or otherwise) are in place?
What is the targeted average response time for our service?
What percent of requests take more than 1 second, 2 seconds, 4 seconds, and 8 seconds?
What is the average response time and percentile breakdown (percent of requests taking more than 1s, 2s, 4s, and 8s) for the top 10 transactions?
What is the volume of each of our service’s top 10 transactions?
What is the percentage of transactions started vs. completed?
What is our service’s monthly uptime target?
What is our service’s monthly uptime percentage, including scheduled maintenance or excluding scheduled maintenance?
How does our team receive automated alerts when incidents occur?
How does our team respond to incidents?
What is our post-mortem RCA process?
Which tools are in place to measure citizen behavior?
Which A/B testing tools or technologies are we using?
How do we measure customer satisfaction?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Create technical, data, and design standards for services.
Baseline, measure, continually monitor, and publicly report how our service contributes to an overarching outcome or purpose.
Use citizen research and prototype testing to identify the value of our service to our users.
Map the experience of a citizen trying to access information we provide or use a service we oversee.
Consider what, if any, metrics are available to measure against current means of delivering the service.
Understand the potential effects of our service on other government services, including where we source the data and the limitations thereof.
Use goals and planned milestones to communicate status updates and an estimated timeline with Rhode Islanders.
Identify influences external to our service that may impact its measures of success.
Adhere to statewide technical, data, design, and social media standards, and check back frequently to ensure compliance with updated guidelines.
Meet Open Data reporting requirements.
Build in and keep on easy-to-understand analytics.

Low-Level Task Framework

Watch collected metrics to identify and prioritize bug fixes and improvements.
Use tools for analysis to collect performance data.
Use data to analyze the success of the service, and translate analysis into features and tasks for the next phase of development.
Create and maintain a feedback mechanism for people to directly report issues.
Identify performance indicators for the service, establish benchmarks for each metric, and plan to enable improvements.
Monitor system-level resource utilization in real time.
Monitor system performance in real-time (e.g., response time, latency, throughput, and error rates).
Ensure monitoring can measure median, 95th percentile, and 98th percentile performance.
Create automated alerts based on this monitoring.
Track concurrent citizens in real-time, and monitor user behaviors in the aggregate to determine how well the service meets the needs of Rhode Islanders.
Publish metrics internally.
Digitally publish metrics and testing results externally.
Use an experimentation tool supportive of multivariate testing in production.

TECHNOLOGY

“Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turn into an innovation.” – Dean Kamen, Inventor

Our technology need to encourage development teams to work efficiently and enable services to scale easily and cost-effectively. Our choices for hosting infrastructure, databases, software frameworks, programming languages, and the rest of the technology stack should seek to avoid vendor lock-in and match the choices of successful modern consumer and enterprise software companies.

To do so, digital services teams should consider using open-source, cloud-based, and commodity solutions across the technology stack. We cripple our digital services when we use data centers marketed as “cloud hosting,” yet require the local management and maintenance of hardware. Instead, we will deploy our services on flexible infrastructure, enabling us to provision resources in real-time to meet spikes in web traffic and demand.

Why Technology Matters

The previous U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Global Online Enrollment System (GOES) web application was antiquated, limiting, and provided a poor user experience for the 6 million people it was serving. This new application was CBP’s first system to move to the cloud, and has resulted in lower costs while increasing scalability and reliability. In the month after its release, over 50 changes were made to enhance the system without any downtime to the service. – USDS

Our stack is the base of our system. Choose wisely.

Using non-flexible infrastructure is an outdated practice and wastes time, weakens our disaster recovery plans, and results in significantly higher costs.

While manual tests and quality assurance are still necessary, automated tests provide consistent and reliable protection, and make it possible for developers to confidently release frequent updates to the service.

Key Questions to Answer

What is our development stack and why did we choose it?
Which databases are we using and why did we choose them?
How long does it take for a new team member to start developing?
Where is our service hosted?
If there is an API, what capabilities does it provide?
Who uses the API?
What transaction components should we construct as API calls as part of a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)?
Can we use API framework generation tools such as OpenAPI, RAML, or Swagger?
What are the security and networking considerations for internal service API’s?
What hardware or content delivery system does our service use to run?
What is the demand or usage pattern for our service?
What happens to our service when it experiences a surge in traffic or load?
How much capacity is available in our hosting environment?
How long does it take us to provision a new resource, like an application server?
How have we designed our service to scale based on demand?
How are we paying for our hosting infrastructure (e.g., by the minute, hourly, daily, monthly, fixed)?
Is our service hosted in multiple regions, availability zones, or data centers?
In the event of a catastrophic disaster to a datacenter, how long will it take to have the service operational?
Will data migration be necessary, and if so, how will we complete it?
What would be the impact of a prolonged downtime window?
What data redundancy do we have built into the system, and what would be the impact of a catastrophic data loss?
If we use Cloud Service Provider (CSP)-specific technology, how easy is it to move to a comparable offering with our technology and different CSP technology?
How often do we need to contact a person from our hosting provider to get resources or to fix an issue?
What percentage of the codebase will we cover by automated tests?
How long does it take to build, test, and deploy a typical bug fix?
How long does it take to build, test, and deploy a new feature into production?
How frequently are builds created?
Which deployment automation or continuous integration tools do we use?
What is the estimated maximum number of concurrent citizens who will want to use the system?
How many simultaneous users could the system handle, according to the most recent capacity test?
How does the service perform when we exceed the expected target usage volume? Does it degrade gracefully or catastrophically?
What is our scaling strategy when demand increases suddenly?
How are we using Docker and Kubernetes/container strategies?
Can we fragment the system into functions such as Amazon Web Services, “Lambda” functions, or Microsoft Azure’s “Functions-as-a-Service”?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Quickly add or remove team members to meet the need of the moment.
Deploy software on a variety of commodity hardware types, whenever possible.
Consider open-source software solutions cloud-independent at every layer of the stack.
Build “cloud first”.
Build fast and cheap using public cloud and open-source.
Follow best data migration practices.

Low-Level Task Framework

Choose software frameworks commonly used by private-sector companies creating similar services.
Design transactions and transaction components as modular, separate API calls in a “Service-Oriented Architecture” style.
Use an API generation tool such as OpenAPI or Swagger to design, document, and construct your API proto-code.
Create clear, understandable instructions for projects setting up a local development environment.
Create an API for third parties and internal citizens to interact with the service directly, when appropriate.
Provide datasets to the public, in their entirety, through bulk downloads and APIs (application programming interfaces).
Provision resources on demand, through an API, and in multiple regions based on real-time citizen demand.
Only pay for resources we use.
Evaluate data complexity, establish standards, define current and future roles, perform quality data assessments, gather migration requirements, and identify the proper migration tool before testing your data migration, applying risk and change management, and performing the migration.
Serve static assets through a content delivery network.
Host our application on commodity hardware.
Create automated tests that verify all user-facing functionality.
Create unit and integration tests to verify modules and components.
Automatically run tests as part of the build process.
Perform deployments automatically with deployment scripts, continuous delivery services, or similar techniques.
Conduct load and performance tests at regular intervals, including before public launch.
Consider usage of a Kubernetes cluster orchestration system.
Utilize budget calculators to determine costs per performance ratios.

LEADING: Digital Service for Rhode Island

“The reality is that the only way change comes is when you lead by example.” – Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe

[]{#_Hlk516239041 .anchor}Building a more useful and usable digital government service requires us and our teams to lead the design and building process with purpose, administrative prowess, and with community engagement.

Leading digital government services proficiently will benefit all Rhode Islanders through:

Multiplied network effect of positive externalities
Higher quality of service received
Improved government transparency
Flourished service familiarity

Leading digital government services proficiently will benefit our agency or department through:

Greater service uptake
More effective use of resources
Better team and individual outcomes
Higher accountability
Healthier workplace culture
Higher productivity
Improved talent attraction and retention

Leading digital government services proficiently will benefit Rhode Island’s government through:

Strengthened communication
Grown culture of accountability
Increased inter- and intra-government collaboration
Higher capacity for leadership potential
More systematic development processes

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

Government must provide value to Rhode Islanders and the broader community while clearly focusing on ways to achieve well defined and measurable outcomes. If we build for the sake of building, without clearly understanding the purpose at each stage of a project, we can miss our intended impact. Instead, we will develop actionable goals, benchmarks, and plans to inform and focus each stage of our thinking and planning.

Additionally, while we endeavor to craft digital services intuitive and efficient enough to naturally encourage citizen adoption, late-adopters and non-adopters will always exist (by choice or otherwise). To continue serving all equally, our service goals must adopt a reality defined by ‘continual improvement’ in addition to specific task and benchmark-oriented ‘destinations’.

Regarding back-up plans, Rhode Islanders may expect digital services online and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Plan for the event of a digital service going temporarily offline. Also plan for service operation during an emergency or national disaster scenario.

Why Planning for Success Matters

Change happens all the time at GDS, with everything from priorities and resources, to the things people want and need. [Planning] works to minimise the impact of changes as much as possible. We let people know about the impact of any changes as early as we can, and if any decisions need to be made. – GOV.UK

Planning is a crucial part of the feedback loop. While we cannot predict everything, it is important to optimize the team’s reaction time to project complications. Planning will help the team decide where and when to iterate, pivot, or shut down individual parts of a project or program. Leaders must not view iterations, pivots, or shut-downs as failures of the original design or team, but as intelligent cost-avoidance for the future.

Clear and actionable goals will help measure the value of our effort, gauge the progress of our work, and demonstrate ongoing value. Alternately, our team may lose trust in the project’s direction and may not deliver ongoing value if our projects and products lack clear planning. Planning will protect the entire transformation process and iterations; guard against the under-utilization or under-prioritization of various aspects of the design, build, and leading processes; and ensure we receive a full return on investment. Lastly, back-up plans are essential to getting our service back online after a service failure, and are useful to understand the effect of an outage on Rhode Islanders.

Key Questions to Answer

What is the project’s scope?
Is the scope of the project’s scope too narrow or too broad considering outside context?
What about the status quo makes the project difficult?
What are the key deliverables?
How are we planning for organizational and cultural change?
Do we have the internal resources to handle or facilitate organizational or cultural change?
Are our goals actionable?
Do the project’s goals align with agency’s strategic plan and the governor’s strategic priorities?
How can we leverage outside plans or priorities to give the project extra momentum or importance?
If the project falls outside of the agency’s strategic plan or the governor’s strategic priorities, how will you make your case for starting or continuing the project?
What are the project’s milestones?
How frequent are the milestones?
Who holds ownership of performance?
Who will be accountable for the production and approval of content?
What would make you decide to spin down the service?
Is the project a stepping stone to another project?
What does a holistic service look like?
How are we using the state archives?
Which data will we need to migrate, and how will we migrate the data?
How would the project interface with other internal and external projects?
How do we plan for a potential partial or full breach of data?
What legislation or regulations enable or support, restrict or counter the project?
How can supporting or opposing legislation or regulations change to improve project outcomes?
How do we prevent the short-changing of any one part of design, build, or leadership activities?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Plan to shut down or pivot relevant services when benchmarked goals are not met, and how our team will monitor for the trigger.
Describe how we will use an evidence-based and peer-reviewed approach throughout the project’s lifetime.
Work with state legal resources to identify legislation and regulations which may impact the service’s design, creation, or implementation.
Define success and the service’s relevant outcome or purpose.
Plan to complete and iterate all aspects of the design, build, and lead processes.
Plan to ensure project visibility and grow buy-in with agency and government leadership all the way up to the Governor.
Plan to manage the organizational and cultural change surrounding your project.

Low-Level Task Framework

Use mapped “user journeys” to establish clear milestones for Rhode Island’s transaction and process.
Be thoughtful about time spent on research.
Research existing tools helpful in accomplishing our goal before developing a new service or application.
Budget and resource for the measurement of ongoing value.
Design and adequately resource our project to ensure our team can continually improve the service to meet people's needs.
Ensure time is available for staff to complete both day-to-day activities and new redesign-focused activities.
Budget for ongoing training and educational experiences for team and individual growth.
Create a plan for data storage and recovery in case of data loss.
Document and update a record detailing how our team built the service.
Prioritize the development of digital services based on a ranked list of which government services Rhode Islanders use and care about the most.
Map out your process to communicate and create buy-in with necessary internal stakeholders, both hold-outs and adopters.
Plan to communicate the project’s progress and celebrate wins, externally and internally.
Research laws and regulations which may have an impact upon the designing or building of the service.
Plan how and when to retire redundant services and scale up useful services.

TEAMBUILDING

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

To bring together the policy, design, and delivery skills needed to represent and engage with Rhode Islanders’ varied perspectives, we must invest in demographically and experientially diverse, multidisciplinary teams that can design, build, and operate the digital government service. The team may include talent with experience creating modern digital services, but the makeup and experience requirements of the team will vary depending on the project scope.

Team culture curation is important as a catalyst for innovation and success. We will build adaptive, service-oriented, positive, and collaborative team cultures to successfully lead and implement modern methods such as Agile, co-design, and service design. Additionally, we must empower government staff with the necessary tools, resources, training, coverage, time, and authority to continually improve the team’s skills; build the capacity of government staff to deliver best-in-class services; as well as design and implement excellent, innovative services for Rhode Islanders.

A suitably-skilled and senior service owner with decision-making responsibility will hold the authority to assign tasks and work elements; make business, product, and technical decisions; and be accountable for the success or failure of the overall service. This product owner is ultimately responsible for how well the service meets needs of its citizens. The product owner is responsible for ensuring the building of features and managing backlogs.

The design team should also be working alongside people representing agencies’ business, legal, and policy perspectives. Additionally, each team should be wary of knowledge or expertise gaps in their team and work to fill the gaps with external engagement or advisors. No single team can represent all areas of diversity, but active team self-awareness and mitigation can help ensure diversity of perspectives are well represented.

In cases where we use third parties to help build a service, a well-defined contract can facilitate good development practices. When our team needs outside assistance, we should work with contracting officers to understand how to evaluate third-party technical competency in both building and delivering effective digital services.

Why Teambuilding Matters

I was inspired by the passionate, skilled cohort I saw working on projects with huge potential for impact. In my experience, interacting with government services often leaves people feeling frustrated and disempowered. I wanted to design services that effectively meet the needs of their users, while helping to build a design culture in government. – Erica Deahl; 18F

We need good people to build good services.

Likewise, having a great team is the first step to building great services, improving the system, and making quicker decisions. Once team members are in place, foster an ongoing positive culture within the design and delivery team to benefit the project, community, and services we develop.

Key Questions to Answer

What are the performance metrics defined in the contract (e.g., response time, system uptime, pace of development, time to address priority issues)?
Who is the product owner?
What organizational changes will we make to ensure the product owner has authority over and support for the project?
What does it take for the product owner to add or remove a feature from the service?
What features do leadership, stakeholders, or citizen groups consider non-negotiable?
What do we do if we find a non-negotiable feature to be ill-conceived, inefficient, unnecessary?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Build team principles and ethos, including a strong commitment to citizens.
Describe our team culture and how our team works together to design, deliver, and support the service.
Strengthen decision making and approval processes.
Evaluate the team’s approach to support processes like pairing and peer review.
Understand how citizens, stakeholders, cultural advisors, and business or policy experts engage and collaborate with the team.
Identify and resolve gaps in team capability or capacity.
Improve processes the internal team uses to transfer knowledge and skills from any external team members.
Explore how the team members access and contribute to knowledge transfer and skills development across the public sector.
Support the team’s working practices (such as stand-ups, demos, sprint planning sessions, and retrospectives) and demonstrated ability to adapt.
Guide how the team applies modern methods such as Agile, co-design, and service design.

Low-Level Task Framework

Ensure every digital service has one service owner with bottom-line and cross-agency responsibility to support testing, service and technology evolution, and digital information about that service.
Ensure department or agency partnership with appropriate privacy, civil liberties, and/or legal advisor.
Emphasize customer service and create rewards for excellent customer service within state government.
Follow the State of Rhode Island Website Governance and Management Policy.
Budget for research, discovery, and prototyping activities.
Structure contracts to request frequent deliverables, not multi-month or year milestones.
Structure contracts to hold vendors accountable to deliverables.
Give government delivery team contracts enough flexibility to adjust feature prioritization and delivery schedule as the project evolves.
Require within contracts the evaluation of open-source solutions when making technology choices.
Retain contractual control of software and data generated by third parties, as well as the reuse and release of products to the public as appropriate and in accordance with the law.
Ensure contracts allow the use of tools, services, and hosting from vendors with a variety of pricing models, including fixed fees and variable models like “pay-for-what-we-use” services.
Ensure contracts specify a warranty period where the vendor must address any defects at no additional cost to the State.
Ensure contracts include a transition of services period and transition-out plan replete with non-proprietary data export.
Identify a product owner.
Ensure the product owner is either trained or has access to enough training to complete the job.
Confirm the product owner can utilize product management methodologies to assess alternatives and weigh tradeoffs.
Instill the product owner with the authority to assign tasks and make decisions about features and technical implementation details.
Be clear with all stakeholders regarding the product owner’s authority to assign tasks and make decisions about features and technical implementation details.
Ensure the product owner has a work plan which includes budget estimates and identifies funding sources.
Ensure the product owner holds a strong relationship with the contracting officer.
Ensure the team holds experience building popular, high-traffic digital services.
Ensure the team holds experience designing mobile and web applications.
Ensure the team holds experience using automated testing frameworks.
Ensure the team holds experience with modern development and operations (DevOps) techniques like continuous integration and continuous deployment.
Provide our team with access to all the skills and perspectives needed to deliver a service.
Provide our team with access to a product manager and delivery manager with decision-making authority.
Provide our team with access to service design, citizen research, and user experience skills.
Provide our team with access to content designers and developers.
Provide our team with access to creative technical architecture and development expertise.
Provide our team with access to expertise in analytics, security, and accessibility.
Provide our team with access to knowledge about relevant cultural, language, gender, or other considerations for the service.
Ensure the team holds experience securing digital services.
Budget for ongoing training and educational experiences for team and individual growth.
Utilize a contracting officer when using a third party for development work.
Enlist a budget officer as either a partner or internal team member.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

“Civic technologists should be in communion with the people they seek to serve.” – Dan O’Neil; CUTGroup, Chicago

Rhode Islanders spend valuable time finding and accessing government services. We should reach out and invite residents to use digital services, tailor information to specific needs, and get feedback on services.

Successful services combine digital offerings with access points within neighborhoods and communities across the state. Integrated services will empower Rhode Islanders with access to information and strengthen online and in-person bonds between a diverse array of residents.

Why Community Outreach Matters

The Canadian Federal Government heavily invests in sponsored social media across many of its departments, reaching audiences at scale and with pinpoint accuracy. A spokesperson described the move as connecting ‘with Canadians on platforms with which they are increasingly familiar.’ And it’s also saving the taxpayer money—in fact, overall federal advertising spending is down 39% in one year from 2017. – Hootsuite

Beyond immediate benefits tied to testing outreach, actively encouraging people to use our digital service allows us to save money by reducing the number of people using non-digital channels through helping Rhode Islanders develop digital skills. Outreach allows state developers focus on value-added activities by giving assisted digital support to those who cannot use digital services on their own. Also, meeting Rhode Islanders in their own community helps proliferate citizen-centered design, improve buy-in to programmatic goals, and increase citizen uptake of the service.

Key Questions to Answer

How can we reach out to citizen and practice communities?
Which citizen and practice communities interact with our service?
What are the strengths of our service?
What story does our service tell?
How can we tell our service’s story?
Where is the most need for our service?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Enlist influencers in the community as champions of Rhode Island digital services.
Use social media to show or explain government services.
Engage each Rhode Islander with a question or information about government services.
Simplify the process for residents to discover and register for public Rhode Island-sponsored events.
Prototype tools enabling residents to view and manage their complete relationship with Rhode Island in one place, like a single sign-on portal: login.RI.gov
Create a digital toolkit for community-based organizations.
Provide digital training to service providers and representatives from community-based organizations.
Train all agencies to use a single platform to distribute information about key services.

Low-Level Task Framework

Create and utilize a web-based data platform showing the state of Rhode Island broadband connectivity, initiatives to improve connectivity, and the projected impact of projects.
Use available technology and platforms to distribute community-specific information, connect Rhode Islanders to each other, and refer residents to resources in their neighborhood.
Join and contribute useful information on platforms where residents connect with each other regarding digital governmental services.
Leverage partnerships with libraries and other community hubs that provide digital access.
Use anonymous and aggregated search data consistent with applicable laws and policies to understand Rhode Islanders’ inquiries and interests.
Respond to search data conclusions by disseminating additional and appropriate resources.
Establish a single citizen ID system for all government services, giving users the option to enter key information only once.
Enable Rhode Islanders to receive timely updates and information tailored to their preferences.
Tailor images and text for social media channels, invest in targeted posts highlighting government services, and cross-promote services offered by other agencies.
Consider allowing Rhode Islanders to vote on a public roadmap.
Maintain a list of all digital properties and conduct an annual audit of social media, web content, and mobile applications.
Allow residents to opt-in to appropriate and practical pre-populated forms with basic information.
Utilize insights gained from citizen research to support people with low digital access or digital literacy.

PARTNERSHIPS

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else." – Booker T. Washington, Inventor

Rhode Island’s government does not have to do it all on its own. Community, education, and technology partners are ready to help develop and implement effective digital services. Together, we are building a people-centered approach to the design and delivery of government services, programs, and policy.

Why Partnerships Matter

“Strip away policy details and the user needs over here end up looking very similar to the user needs over there, I’m not suggesting that there will be a single one-size-fits-all solution to each of [government’s] problems. What I am saying is that the more our teams share what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, the easier it will be for each team to meet their users’ needs.” – Mike Bracken; GOV.UK

Joining forces with public-minded partners will make service delivery more effective for Rhode Islanders and more efficient for government. Building partnerships will grow our brand visibility, help ensure our community of practice remains on the same page, and identify outside interference quickly.

Key Questions to Answer

What Rhode Island organizations, schools, or industry partners strengthen Rhode Island’s digital community?
What national organizations and community of practices utilize and evangelize citizen-centric design?
How can we benefit from a potential partnership?

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Utilize the Rhode Island Digital Service to help find a great partner(s).
Establish and publish data collection and distribution standards consistent with local laws.
Consider opportunities to ask Rhode Island’s design and technology community to help us solve a problem, build a better tool, or improve an existing digital service.
Develop both informal and formal mechanisms to partner with the civic technology community.

Low-Level Task Framework

Partner with private search and directory sites to optimize search results for content.
Collect, format, and share data, as well as data we collect from external sources, consistent with law and policy, so partners can use and help improve the gathered data.
Explore procurement methods for acquiring digital services, particularly new ways to engage smaller and M/WBE vendors.
Establish a method to allow agencies to acquire design services from a pool of vendors in service, digital, and communication design.

Appendix

Additional Resources

United Kingdom’s Government Design Principles & Service Toolkit

United States’ Digital Services Playbook & Web Design System

Australia’s Digital Service Standard

New Zealand’s Government Web Toolkit & Digital Service Design Standard

Victoria, Australia’s Digital Standards

British Columbia, Canada’s Service Design Playbook

Ontario, Canada’s Service Design Playbook & Digital Service Standard

New York City, USA’s Digital Playbook

Boston, USA’s Smart City Playbook

Georgia, USA’s Digital Standards and Guidelines

San Francisco, USA’s Digital Services Strategy

CUTGroup Chicago, USA’s Playbook

Contributing to the Standard

We are serious about improving the Standard, so please share your thoughts and ideas!

You can do so by:

Forking our GitHub repository.
Emailing us at digital.standard@RI.gov

For the best feedback, please:

Send plain text on formats like text files, Word documents, and Google docs.
Do not send HTML, PDF, printed paper, or handwritten notes.
Use Markdown for code suggestions.
Note to what section(s) the suggestions apply.
Include the original text for reference with our proposed changes.
Use ‘Track Changes’ or ‘Suggest Mode’ if sending Word or Google documents.
Share the reason behind the suggestion, and the benefit it will bring.
Pull the related request after sending feedback.

Author’s Note

Maxwell Gigle

The Rhode Island Digital Service Standard was developed in the summer of 2018 by Maxwell Gigle, Julie Joo, Robert Martin, and Brian McGuirk of the Rhode Island Digital Service.

The Standard draws examples and inspiration from best practices and case studies exemplified within the work of the United Kingdom’s Government Digital Service; the United States’ Digital Service and 18F; New Zealand’s Government Digital Services; Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency; Estonia’s e-governance; Ontario, Canada’s Digital Government; Victoria, Australia’s Digital Government Services; Georgia, USA’s Digital Services; CUTGroup, Chicago; and others.

The Rhode Island Digital Service Standard is meant to evolve as we learn and grow. Your feedback and lessons learned will inform future iterations. Go, explore, and improve!

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Rhode Island Digital Service Standard

Introduction

What is ‘Digital’?

Why a Digital Service Standard for Rhode Island?

Common Myths

Further Reading

Framework for Rhode Island’s Digital Service Transformation

Release Stages

DESIGNING: Digital Service for Rhode Island

CITIZEN-CENTERED DESIGN

Why Citizen-Centered Design Matters

Key Questions to Answer

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Low-Level Task Framework

Further Reading

INTUITIVE DESIGN

Why Intuitive Design Matters

Key Questions to Answer

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Low-Level Task Framework

Further Reading

ACCESSIBLE DESIGN

Why Accessible Design Matters

Key Questions to Answer

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Low-Level Task Framework

Further Reading

PRIVACY & SECURITY

Why Privacy & Security Matters

Key Questions to Answer

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Low-Level Task Framework

Further Reading

OMNI-CHANNEL SERVICE TRANSITION

Why Omni-Channel Service Transition Matters

Key Questions to Answer

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Low-Level Task Framework

Further Reading

BUILDING: Digital Service for Rhode Island

MOBILE-FIRST DEVELOPMENT

Why Mobile-First Development Matters

Key Questions to Answer

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Low-Level Task Framework

Further Reading

OPEN-SOURCE PREFERENCE

Why Open-Source Preference Matters

Key Questions to Answer

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Low-Level Task Framework

Further Reading

AGILE DEVELOPMENT

Why Agile Development Matters

Key Questions to Answer

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Low-Level Task Framework

Further Reading

ITERATIVE TESTING

Why Iterative Testing Matters

Key Questions to Answer

How to Create Solutions

High-Level Task Framework

Low-Level Task Framework

Further Reading

PERFORMANCE ACCOUNTABILITY