Aggregating 27 blogs, over 100 Twitter accounts, and more than 120 online videos, the state of Utah–in cahoots with NIC, Inc. and others–renovated every element on their website and, moments ago, launched a new Utah.gov.
Here’s the old layout:
The old Utah.gov
During the course of my interview with Utah chief technology officer Dave Fletcher last winter, he mentioned the state’s e-government initiatives began with a 1993 vision, a 1995 online groundbreaking, and included a 2002 policy to enable employees to blog. Last fall, the state launched a 24×7 chat feature; and not long after, the Governor closed state offices on Friday due to web redundancy.
Suffice to say, Utah and its portalized front page is at the forefront of the digital revolution among the 50 states. The new layout blows the other states out of the water.
From the press release on the new site, Utah CIO Steve Fletcher:
“The new Utah.gov incorporates cutting edge technologies to enhance the user experience and the usability of the site. This site is ground-breaking in the effort to help citizens find information regardless of the level of government.”
Have a look:
The new Utah.gov - click to zoom
From Dave’s blog earlier today on the new layout:
In 2007, we worked hard to create a similar kind of experience. At the end of the year, we had set the goal to achieve over a million unique visitors in a given month in 2008. It happened quickly, and in fact we averaged over a million uniques that year. Our purpose of course is to create a government which is more efficient, as well as responsive to its users. We hope that the new portal will have the same kind of reaction.
With a search database of 4.6 million records, one of the neat aspects is the focus on social networking tools and data visualization maps:
Mobile and social connections on Utah.gov
Data maps on Utah.gov
Guess what I’ll be scrutinizing over the coming days–and seeing what other states can do to match?
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Comments:
Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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Hey there Ari,
Thanks for pimping our states new website. It does look pretty dang cool.
It will be interesting to see what other states do to match or out-do!
Doc
Saw it earlier. F8ucking brilliant, though getting strange vibes of a Mac o/s interface …
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Ari
What a great write up about one of the nicest looking Websites on the net – government or otherwise. I was completely blown away when I first saw it on David Fletcher’s blog this morning.
Not sure if those creating State Websites realize it, but this “front door” definitely projects a lasting image and impression on those visiting the site. Not knowing much about Utah, I came away with thoughts of “what a beautiful State” due to the photos and the overall site design. Then I thought “how technologically advanced and up to date they are in Utah.”
Course the civil engineer in me particularly liked the traffic signal.
(I won’t even tell you the URL for my State’s Website.)
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The great state of Michigan needs to step up!
We have the great Michigan’s Official Travel and Tourism Site
at http://www.michigan.org/
May need some Tweaking!
You all come and see us!
Have you written anything from your findings of the other states? I think its always good when a state is that open minded to be ahead of the curve.