Design State: A weblog about government web design

A clean, simple home page design like Ohio.gov is an exception, rather than a rule among State government websites.

One of my favorite government sites is the main page for the State of Ohio. Each time I visit the page, I’m struck by how clean and well organized the content is, and how the minimal use of graphic elements serves to add just the right amount of texture to the content’s presentation. Most importantly, however, the site is designed with the Ohio resident in mind. There isn’t a list of useless facts, or a mission statement, or some banal welcome text from the governor; instead, if you’re worried about the incoming winter and interested in HEAP it is front and center. If you want to know what the latest lottery numbers are, update your vehicle’s registration, or contact your elected officials you’re only one click away.

Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, this economy of design doesn’t extend itself to the rest of the State’s websites. This is not unexpected because most State agencies are responsible for their own content and website. Since the State government is such a large operation and funding varies from agency to agency, the means and manpower to keep a site updated are sometimes not there. That doesn’t mean that a consistent design standard across all Ohio.gov sites is a bad idea, just that it will take some concerted effort.

In contrast, Indiana’s website isn’t as easy to navigate as Ohio’s (both of them are better than Illinois, however) but the design is quite consistent throughout. Indiana’s CIO, Gerry Weaver, has managed to save the state $14 million per year in operating costs according to a nice write-up in Government Technology. There’s not a lot of talk about whether or not the web site standardization was one of the pieces in this savings (I sent an email to Mr. Weaver, but haven’t heard back); but I know that using a standard template for our sites saves my group a lot of time in design and implementation, and that savings is passed on to all of the agencies and departments we work for. We create a few graphics, change the colors in the CSS, and don’t really have to worry about much else. Needless to say, I think the State of Ohio could really benefit from design consistency throughout Agency websites; and getting someone like Gerry Weaver behind the project seems like a good first step.