Creating an improved user experience for Minnesotans.
6/2/2016 10:13:15 AM
During the last year, the MNIT Web Development team has been working in partnership with state agencies to update state websites. This partnership set forth with a focus to create an improved user experience while delivering informative content that is accessible to all Minnesotans.
The MNIT Web Development team created an infrastructure with templates to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 requirements as recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C),an international community developing open standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web. In an effort to continuously improve the accessibility of state websites, the Web Development team continuously works in partnership with state accessibility coordinators and key test groups comprised of disabled members of the community to ensure that Minnesota’s digital government is accessible to all.
As a result of this state-wide collaborative effort, all state agency websites start out with a solid, responsive design — making website layout, navigation, and content responsive to any device (phones, tablets, desktops, and other devices of various sizes). A few of the more recently upgraded sites, particularly Enterprise Learning and Development (ELD) and License Minnesota, have had significant overhauls in their user-experience by including dynamic website content such as news items, blogs, and other dynamic content.
State agencies can realize substantial time and money savings through the development and infrastructure efforts that have already been made. This allows agencies to on-board new agencies to the platform much more quickly, starting out with a fully-responsive layout, flexible and targeted content types and templates, and an infrastructure that allows for fast improvements, fixes, and enhancements. Agencies can now focus on creating informative content that Minnesotans need, and worry less about the technological questions of how to go about delivering it. Nearly 70 state websites have moved to the new platform, with a handful going live in the next few weeks. Examples include:
Digital Government
