18F/18f.gsa.gov

---
title: "How design consistency helps users navigate federal websites"
date: 2016-03-25
authors:
- melody
- carolyn
tags:
- federal front door
- user research
- user-centered design
- web design system
- best practices
excerpt: "We launched the Draft U.S. Web Design Standards last September, and over the next month, we plan to explore various topics related to design standards. In this post, we detail how our user research informed the decision decisions we made."
description: "We launched the Draft U.S. Web Design Standards last September, and over the next month, we plan to explore various topics related to design standards. In this post, we detail how our user research informed the decision decisions we made."
image: /assets/blog/web-design-standards/home.png
---

We [launched the Draft U.S. Web Design Standards last
September](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/09/28/web-design-standards/), and over
the next month, we plan to explore various topics related to design
standards. In this post, we detail how our user research informed the
design decisions we made.

While conducting research for the [Federal Front Door
study](https://labs.usa.gov/), we learned people rely heavily on search
engines for the information they seek. When we asked interviewees how
they found out about a particular service, many of them said simply that
they had “Googled it.”

This strategy works well when the search engine pulls up official
sources but can backfire when third-party sites or scammers appear near
the top of search results.

[We also
learned](https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/03/09/trust-as-a-two-way-street/)
that people employ a variety of strategies before deciding to trust a
government service.

Many people mentioned that they look for one or more of the following to
evaluate the trustworthiness of a digital service:

-   https
-   .gov domains
-   Official government logos
-   Trust-building language such as “This is an official government website”

Other people need more than just the .gov to trust a site. A woman in
Kansas City told us she relies on several different clues to assess a
government site’s trustworthiness. She told us that she looks at the
logos a site uses to determine its validity, and she also looks for an
affiliation to departments or agencies she’s aware of. Finally, she
said, she bases her trust on whether a site “looks legit.”

Having consistency across typography, color, images, icons, forms,
buttons, layouts, and data on government websites can help users realize
they’re on a government website. Consistency helps people become
familiar with our services — and patterns help users navigate digital
services on the web.

For this reason, the [Draft Standards](https://playbook.cio.gov/designstandards/) has become part of the Federal
Front Door’s areas of focus — the Draft Standards provide a starting
point for building this consistent experience across government, and as
a result, for building trust in online government services.

Moving forward, our team will be investigating more ways that government
sites can identify themselves in ways that third-parties can’t
replicate. What have you implemented in your own sites to meet this
need?