index.md (5203B)
1 ---
2 title: Digital.gov
3 date: 2020-05-01
4 description: "Showcase: \"Guidance on building better digital services in government.\""
5 siteURL: https://digital.gov/
6 siteSource: https://github.com/gsa/digitalgov.gov
7 ---
8
9 For over a decade, Digital.gov has provided guidance, training, and community support to the people who are responsible for delivering digital services in the U.S. government. Essentially, it is a place where people can find examples of problems being solved in government, and get links to the tools and resources they need.
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11 Through collaboration in our communities of practice, Digital.gov is a window into the people who work in technology in government and the challenges they face making digital services stronger and more effective. [Read more about our site »](https://digital.gov/2019/12/19/a-new-digitalgov/)
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13 Digital.gov is built using the [U.S. Web Design System](https://designsystem.digital.gov/) (USWDS) and have followed the [design principles](https://designsystem.digital.gov/maturity-model/) in building out our new site:
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15 - **Start with real user needs** — We used human-centered design methods to inform our product decisions (like qualitative user research), and gathered feedback from real users. We also continually test our assumptions with small experiments.
16 - **Earn trust** —We recognize that trust has to be earned every time. We are including all [required links and content](https://digital.gov/resources/required-web-content-and-links/) on our site, clearly identifying as a government site, building with modern best practices, and using https.
17 - **Embrace accessibility** — [Accessibility](https://digital.gov/resources/intro-accessibility/) affects everybody, and we built it into every decision. We’re continually working to conform to Section 508 requirements, use user experience best practices, and support a wide range of devices.
18 - **Promote continuity** — We started from shared solutions like USWDS and [Federalist](https://federalist.18f.gov/). We designed our site to clearly identify as a government site by including USWDS’s .gov banner, common colors and patterns, and built with modern best practices.
19 - **Listen** — We actively collect user feedback and web metrics. We use the [Digital Analytics Program](https://digital.gov/services/dap/) (DAP) and analyze the data to discover actionable insights. We make small, incremental changes to continuously improve our website by listening to readers and learning from what we hear.
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21 _More on the [USWDS maturity model »](https://designsystem.digital.gov/maturity-model/)_
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23 ## Open Tools
24
25 We didn’t start from scratch. We built and designed the Digital.gov using many of the open-source tools and services that we develop for government here in the [Technology Transformation Services](https://www.gsa.gov/tts/) (TTS).
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27 Using services that make it possible to design, build, and iterate quickly are essential to modern web design and development, which is why [Federalist](https://federalist.18f.gov/) and the [U.S. Web Design System](https://designsystem.digital.gov/) are such a great combination.
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29 **Why Hugo?** Well, with around `~3,000` files _(and growing)_ and `~9,000` built pages, we needed a site generator that could handle that volume with lightning fast speed.
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31 Hugo was the clear option. The [Federalist](https://federalist.18f.gov/) team quickly added it to their available site generators, and we were off.
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33 At the moment, it takes around `32 seconds` to build close to `~10,000` pages!
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35 Take a look:
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37 ```bash
38
39 | EN
40 -------------------+-------
41 Pages | 7973
42 Paginator pages | 600
43 Non-page files | 108
44 Static files | 851
45 Processed images | 0
46 Aliases | 1381
47 Sitemaps | 1
48 Cleaned | 0
49
50 Built in 32.427 seconds
51
52 ```
53
54 In addition to Hugo, we are proudly using a number of other tools and services, all built by government are free to use:
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56 - [Federalist](https://federalist.18f.gov/)
57 - [Search.gov](https://www.search.gov/) — A free, hosted search platform for federal websites.
58 - [Cloud.gov](https://www.cloud.gov/) — helps teams build, run, and authorize cloud-ready or legacy government systems quickly and cheaply.
59 - [Federal CrowdSource Mobile Testing Program](https://digital.gov/services/mobile-application-testing-program/) — Free mobile compatibility testing by feds, for feds.
60 - [Digital Analytics Program](https://digital.gov/services/dap/) (DAP) — A free analytics tool for measuring digital services in the federal government
61 - [Section508.gov](https://www.section508.gov/) and [PlainLanguage.gov](https://www.plainlanguage.gov/) resources
62 - [API.data.gov](https://api.data.gov/) — a free API management service for federal agencies
63 - [U.S. Digital Registry](https://digital.gov/services/u-s-digital-registry/) — A resource for confirming the official status of government social media accounts, mobile apps, and mobile websites.
64
65
66 **Questions or feedback?** [Submit an issue](https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/issues) or send us an email to [digitalgov@gsa.gov](mailto:digitalgov@gsa.gov) :heart: