_posts/2015-07-17-the-new-10.md
---
title: "Show me the money: 18F works with Treasury on #TheNew10"
date: 2015-07-17
layout: post
authors:
- kara
tags:
- agency work
- user-centered design
- treasury
- new ten
excerpt: "Shortly after joining 18F Consulting, the opportunity to work on a
Department of the Treasury project came my way. I didn’t stop smiling
for what seemed like an hour (or three) after I found out the scope:
Treasury was putting a woman on the $10 bill!"
description: "Shortly after joining 18F Consulting, the opportunity to work on a
Department of the Treasury project came my way. I didn’t stop smiling
for what seemed like an hour (or three) after I found out the scope:
Treasury was putting a woman on the $10 bill!"
image: /assets/blog/the-new-10/the-new-10.jpg
---
Shortly after joining 18F Consulting, the opportunity to work on a
Department of the Treasury project came my way. I didn’t stop smiling
for what seemed like an hour (or three) after I found out the scope:
Treasury was putting a woman on the $10 bill! Through a quick series of
emails and phone calls, the Treasury team briefed us on the project
logistics, including that it would feature a woman, have enhanced
security, and contain a tactile feature.
We agreed to partner on their digital strategy around the redesign of
the $10 bill, consulting on content and visual design for the website
and helping shape the social media rollout. We went about creating our
statement of work (SOW) and completed the Interagency Agreement (IAA),
which gives us permission to work with another agency, since 18F
operates under a cost-recoverable model.
Then the fun really began.
We set up a number of creative reviews with 18F Consulting and
Treasury’s design team. My colleague Jesse Taggert and I partnered
closely with Clare Kim, Jonathan Webb, and the team at Treasury. We
began by grounding ourselves in the project history to gain perspective,
then asked who would be visiting the site and their objectives in order
to gain empathy for the site’s customers. After all, we approach our
digital work from human centered design perspective, a creative approach
to problem solving that starts with the people you're designing for and
ends with new solutions that are tailor made to suit their needs.
Our goal was to ensure [#TheNew10
website](https://thenew10.treasury.gov/) made it easy to understand the
news quickly, get folks to the information they wanted, and had a clear
call to action for people to share their thoughts on “the new 10.” Since
Treasury wanted to encourage the public to weigh in on who should appear
on the $10 bill, and what democracy means to them (the theme of the new
bill and next set of bills), we also provided advice on methods and
approaches to maximize the general public’s interaction with the
campaign. Other topics covered during our creative reviews included
information architecture, search engine optimization, visual design,
interaction design, and how to process feedback from the public and
stakeholders.
We roped in Elaine Kamlley from our outreach team to help do an outside
evaluation of a few launch day scenarios for the group and help them
anticipate possible reactions in social media.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Secy Lew will choose a woman who was a champion for democracy in the U.S. on the redesigned $10 note. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheNew10?src=hash">#TheNew10</a> <a href="http://t.co/NtwytsvHxC">http://t.co/NtwytsvHxC</a></p>— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) <a href="https://twitter.com/USTreasury/status/611352350113071106">June 18, 2015</a></blockquote>
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The hardest part of the engagement? Keeping the secret from my friends
and family! The second I got clearance from Clare that Treasury had
announced the news, I tweeted:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Right on the money: <a href="https://twitter.com/USTreasury">@USTreasury</a> putting a woman on our currency! <a href="https://t.co/ZCCri7o4NY">https://t.co/ZCCri7o4NY</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheNew10?src=hash">#TheNew10</a> <a href="http://t.co/7ZIXNtW08N">pic.twitter.com/7ZIXNtW08N</a></p>— Kara DeFrias (@CaliforniaKara) <a href="https://twitter.com/CaliforniaKara/status/611360477889871872">June 18, 2015</a></blockquote>
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What an honor to play a small part in this historic U.S. Treasury
initiative. If your agency would also be interested in working together
on your digital strategy, send our consulting team an email at
[inquiries18F@gsa.gov](mailto:inquiries18F@gsa.gov).