National Conference will be held in San Antonio, Texas on September 20-23, 2016. This is the proposal to speak at the conference.

1. National Association of Government Web Professionals
2016 National Conference, San Antonio, Texas
E. Rey Garcia, MPA Candidate
Public Administration Professional
4/1/2016
Conference Speaker–Presenter Proposal

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Contents
Introduction 4
Abstract 5
Background 6
Bio 6
Academic/Professional Experience 6
Credible Information 6
Literature Review 7
Overview 7
Purpose 7
e-Government 7
e-Government Strategies 8
Information Communications Technology (ICT) 8
Terms for Types of Content 9
Methodology 10
Tools 10
Project Management 10
User Research 11
Usability Evaluation 13
Information Architecture 15
User Interface Design 15
Interaction Design 16
Visual Design 16
Content Strategy 17
Concluding Remarks 19
References 20

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Using e-Government & Information Communications Technology (ICT) to
Deliver a Credible User Experience
by E. Rey Garcia, MPA Candidate
Friday, April 1, 2016
Introduction
The National Association of Government Web Professionals (NAGW) is a professional association
composed of government web professionals: programmers, designers, developers, managers, PIOs,
CIOs and government technology experts from all levels of government. The purpose of the
national conference is to allow networking and professional development, focusing on trends and
core topics that promote citizen engagement by building responsive mobile systems, delivering
credible user experiences, while using social media to deliver to the community by following open
data and e-government strategies to ensure the security of the evolving modern cloud-based
technologies, allowing for open source alternatives. This year, NAGW’s annual conference is being
held in the City of San Antonio, Texas on September 20 – 23, 2016. Speakers-Presenters are being
sought by the board members to educate and deliver credible, empirical information to audiences
from both private and public sectors via four-hour pre-conference sessions or the seventy-five
minute regular conference sessions.

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Abstract
To effectively deliver and communicate a speaker presentation on the overall User Experience
using UX best practices and e-Government Strategies and Information Communications
Technology (ICT) to deliver public information, while taking into account an understanding of the
users, their needs, values and limitations and:
• To apply UX best practices to promote and improve the quality of the user’s interaction
with the perception of the organization, its product and any related services.
• To take into account the business goals and objectives of the organization and the managing
group.

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Background
Bio
As a former active member of NAGW from 2010 through 2013, I represented the City of Weslaco,
Texas, as the Director of Information Technology & Social Media. I attended the following national
conferences, Saint Louis, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Louisville, where I judged government
agencies on their website’s design, content and delivery of information for the prestigious Pinnacle
Awards.
Academic/Professional Experience
My academic and multi-sector professional experiences have prepared me to deliver credible and
empirical public information that is useful to the attendees of the 2016 national conference. First, I
hold a Bachelor of Arts in Government/Political Science from the University of Houston (UH), and
am currently a candidate for a Master of Public Administration from the University of Texas Rio
Grande Valley (UTRGV). Second, I have nearly 30 years of multi-industry experience working with
local government, financial and student loan institutions, oil and gas companies, Information
Technology, and customer service.
Credible Information
Finally and most importantly, I recognize the importance delivering valuable information that is
useful, usable, desirable, findable, and readily accessible, while promoting community engagement.
While working in both sectors, I have gained knowledge and build a network of professional
relationships, ranging from leaders of the community, to elected officials, while fostering a behavior
that is both honorable and ethical, treating our public with respect and holding ourselves
accountable, creating an atmosphere of trust and productivity… at work… and throughout our
community.

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Literature Review
Overview
Defining a User Experience is based on UX best practices as characterized by Utities.gov. These are
guidelines that serve as models for both public and private sectors. The UX best practices serve as a
leading resource, providing tools to effectively design a process that places the user at the center of
the design. UX disciplines and the methodology are used to deliver digital content that is more
usable and useful, while providing a more desirable user experience.
User experience (UX) refers to the quality of the user’s interaction with and perceptions of a
system. User experience design requires a deep understanding of users.
Purpose
The purpose of the speaker presentation is to address diverse audiences at the national conference
and to educate them on the delivery of empirical, credible public information based on e-
Government Strategies and Information Communications Technology (ICT) to effectively
deliver useful, usable, desirable, findable, accessible and credible information.
I. e-Government: According to the Whitehouse.gov, e-Government develops and provides
direction in the use of Internet-based technologies to make it easier for citizens and
businesses to interact with the Federal Government, save taxpayer dollars, and streamline
citizen participation. (Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/e-gov/)

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II. e-Government Strategies – These strategies help save time and money, while providing the
tools (mobile, social media, publishing, etc.) to engage citizens, enhance transparency and to
promote economic development. By adopting cloud-computing, governments develop a
trustworthy-approach with the community.
a. Save time and money – Automated, self-service mobile, web-based and
smart-device tools, save money and manpower.
b. Engage residents – Keeping the employees engaged with the community,
through social media, mobile technologies, and delivering instantaneous readable
information to the community.
c. Moving to the Cloud – Using cloud-computing to share and deliver public
information with remote employees and the general public. (Source:
http://www.egovstrategies.com/)
III. Information Communications Technology (ICT): The use of ICTs, stimulates
sustainable growth, improves service delivery, and promotes good governance and social
accountability. (Source: http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/ict) ICT refers to all the
technology used to handle telecommunications, broadcast media, intelligent building
management systems, audiovisual processing and transmission systems, and network-based
control and monitoring functions.
(Source: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/24152/information-and-communications-
technology-ict)

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Terms for Types of Content:
a) Useful: Your content should be original and fulfill a need
b) Usable: Site must be easy to use
c) Desirable: Image, identity, brand, and other design elements are used to evoke emotion
and appreciation
d) Findable: Content needs to be navigable and locatable onsite and offsite
e) Accessible: Content needs to be accessible to people with disabilities
f) Credible: Users must trust and believe what you tell them
(Source: http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/user-experience.html)

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Methodology
Using the tools provided by Usability.gov, will assist government agencies with effective project
planning. These tools guide the agency with planning, research, evaluation, and with interface,
interaction, and visual design, and delivery of content strategy. Following the processes outlined by
these tools, will allow agencies to develop a more credible system that delivers an overall user
experience that earns trust from the community and follows ethical principles, while using e-
Government Strategies and ICT methods.
Tools
I. Project Management, focuses on planning, organizing, and resource development. This
includes identifying and managing the lifecycle to be used, applying it to the user-centered
design process, formulating the project team, and efficiently guiding the team through all
phases until project completion.
i. Develop a Project Plan: A project plan takes into account the approach the team will
take and helps the team and stakeholders document decisions made regarding the
objective, scope, schedule, resources, and deliverables.
ii. Project Team Roles and Responsibilities: Creating an interdisciplinary team with
the right mix of skills is vital to the smooth and successful execution of any project.
iii. Kick-Off Meeting: Use your kick-off meeting to discuss the business case related to
the site, the vision and mission based on user and organizational goals, and the vision
for the site moving forward.

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iv. Website Requirements: Website requirements are a list of necessary functions,
capabilities, or characteristics related to your website and the plans for creating it.
There are several types of requirements that may be defined during the process that
come together to focus and prioritize the project plan.
II. User Research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through
observation techniques, analysis, and feedback methodologies.
i. Reporting Usability Test Results: When reporting results from a usability test, you
should focus primarily on your findings and recommendations that are differentiated
by levels of severity. Include the pertinent information from the test plan and present
just enough detail so that the method is identifiable.
ii. Running a Usability Test: Once you have planned your test and recruited your test
participants, it’s time to get ready to conduct your test. To do so, you’ll want to
iii. Recruiting Usability Test Participants: It is vital to recruit participants who are
similar to your site users for your usability testing. Depending on the site or product,
you may have multiple potential users groups. Try to include representatives of all
these groups or optimally, perform testing with each group separately if you r
iv. Planning a Usability Test: One of the first steps in each round of usability testing is
to develop a plan for the test.
v. Usability Testing: Usability testing refers to evaluating a product or service by testing
it with representative users.
vi. First Click Testing: First Click Testing examines what a test participant would click
on first on the interface in order to complete their intended task. It can be performed
on a functioning website, a prototype or a wireframe.

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vii. System Usability Scale (SUS): The System Usability Scale (SUS) provides a “quick
and dirty”, reliable tool for measuring the usability. It consists of a 10 item
questionnaire with five response options for respondents; from strongly agree to
strongly disagree. Originally created by John Brooke in 1986, it allows you to eva
viii. Contextual Interview: During these interviews, researchers watch and listen as users
work in the user’s own environment, as opposed to being in a lab. Contextual
interviews tend to be more natural and sometimes more realistic as a result.
ix. Focus Groups: A focus group is a moderated discussion that typically involves 5 to 10
participants. Through a focus group, you can learn about users’ attitudes, beliefs,
desires, and reactions to concepts.
x. Individual Interviews: In individual interviews, an interviewer talks with one user for
30 minutes to an hour. Individual interviews allow you to probe their attitudes, beliefs,
desires, and experiences to get a deeper understanding of the users who come to your
site.
xi. Personas: The purpose of personas is to create reliable and realistic representations of
your key audience segments for reference.
xii. Online Surveys: An online survey is a structured questionnaire that your target
audience completes over the internet generally through a filling out a form. Online
surveys can vary in length and format.
xiii. Scenarios: Scenarios describe the stories and context behind why a specific user or
user group comes to your site. They note the goals and questions to be achieved and
sometimes define the possibilities of how the user(s) can achieve them on the site.
xiv. Task Analysis: Task analysis is the process of learning about ordinary users by
observing them in action to understand in detail how they perform their tasks and

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achieve their intended goals. Tasks analysis helps identify the tasks that your website
and applications must support and can also help you re-define your site’s navigation or
search by determining the appropriate content scope.
III. Usability Evaluation focuses on how well users can learn and use a product to achieve their
goals. It also refers to how satisfied users are with that process.
i. Reporting Usability Test Results: When reporting results from a usability test, you
should focus primarily on your findings and recommendations that are differentiated
by levels of severity. Include the pertinent information from the test plan and present
just enough detail so that the method is identifiable.
ii. Running a Usability Test: Once you have planned your test and recruited your test
participants, it’s time to get ready to conduct your test. To do so, you’ll want to
iii. Recruiting Usability Test Participants: It is vital to recruit participants who are
similar to your site users for your usability testing. Depending on the site or product,
you may have multiple potential users groups. Try to include representatives of all
these groups or optimally, perform testing with each group separately if you r
iv. Planning a Usability Test: One of the first steps in each round of usability testing is
to develop a plan for the test.
v. Usability Testing: Usability testing refers to evaluating a product or service by testing
it with representative users.
vi. First Click Testing: First Click Testing examines what a test participant would click
on first on the interface in order to complete their intended task. It can be performed
on a functioning website, a prototype or a wireframe.
vii. System Usability Scale (SUS): The System Usability Scale (SUS) provides a “quick
and dirty”, reliable tool for measuring the usability. It consists of a 10 item

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questionnaire with five response options for respondents; from strongly agree to
strongly disagree.
viii. Eye Tracking: Eye tracking involves measuring either where the eye is focused or the
motion of the eye as an individual views a web page. Purpose of Eye tracking When
your site visitors are connected to eye tracking software, you will be able to tell:
ix. Contextual Interview: During these interviews, researchers watch and listen as users
work in the user’s own environment, as opposed to being in a lab. Contextual
interviews tend to be more natural and sometimes more realistic as a result.
x. Focus Groups: A focus group is a moderated discussion that typically involves 5 to 10
participants. Through a focus group, you can learn about users’ attitudes, beliefs,
desires, and reactions to concepts.
xi. Remote Testing: Remote usability testing allows you to conduct user research with
participants in their natural environment by employing screen-sharing software or
online remote usability vendor services. In general, tests should be about 15–30
minutes long made up of about 3-5 tasks.
xii. Mobile Device Testing: Testing mobile devices such as phones, tablets, and eReaders
requires special equipment and methodology. Since traditional desktop screen-capture
software cannot adequately capture touch interactions, usability practitioners have been
using strategically placed cameras to record usability test i
xiii. Scenarios: Scenarios describe the stories and context behind why a specific user or
user group comes to your site. They note the goals and questions to be achieved and
sometimes define the possibilities of how the user(s) can achieve them on the site.

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IV. Information Architecture (IA) focuses on how information is organized, structured, and
presented to user.
i. Organization Schemes: Organization schemes have to do with how you are going to
categorize your content and the various ways you'll create relationships between each
piece. Most content can be categorized in multiple ways.
ii. Organization Structures: An organizational structure is how you define the
relationships between pieces of content. Successful structures allow users to predict
where they will find information on the site.
iii. Content Inventory: A content inventory is a list of all the content on your site. Your
inventory will typically include text, images, documents, and applications. To gain
insight from your inventory, you will need to assess each piece of content.
iv. Wireframing: A wireframe is a two-dimensional illustration of a page’s interface that
specifically focuses on space allocation and prioritization of content, functionalities
available, and intended behaviors. For these reasons, wireframes typically do not
include any styling, color, or graphics.
V. User Interface Design focuses on anticipating what users might need to do and ensuring that
the interface has elements that are easy to access, understand, and use to facilitate those
actions.
i. Organization Schemes: Organization schemes have to do with how you are going to
categorize your content and the various ways you'll create relationships between each
piece. Most content can be categorized in multiple ways.
ii. Organization Structures: An organizational structure is how you define the
relationships between pieces of content. Successful structures allow users to predict
where they will find information on the site.

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iii. User Interface Elements: When designing your interface, try to be consistent and
predictable in your choice of interface elements.
iv. Wireframing: A wireframe is a two-dimensional illustration of a page’s interface that
specifically focuses on space allocation and prioritization of content, functionalities
available, and intended behaviors. For these reasons, wireframes typically do not
include any styling, color, or graphics.
VI. Interaction Design (IxD) focuses on creating engaging interactive systems with well thought
out behaviors.
i. Use Cases: A use case is a written description of how users will perform tasks on your
website. It outlines, from a user’s point of view, a system’s behavior as it responds to a
request.
ii. Card Sorting: Card sorting is a method used to help design or evaluate the
information architecture of a site.
iii. Prototyping: A prototype is a draft version of a product that allows you to explore
your ideas and show the intention behind a feature or the overall design concept to
users before investing time and money into development.
VII. Visual Design focuses on ensuring an aesthetically pleasing interface that is in line with brand
goals.
i. Color Basics: A color wheel is an illustrative model of color hues around a circle. It
shows the relationships between the primary, secondary, and intermediate/ tertiary
colors and helps demonstrate color temperature. Digital teams communicate exact
colors through the use of hex codes.

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ii. Parallel Design: With the parallel design technique, several people create an initial
design from the same set of requirements. Each designer works independently and,
when finished, shares his or her concepts with the group.
VIII. Content Strategy focuses on writing and curating useful content by planning the creation,
delivery and governance behind it.
i. Card Sorting: Card sorting is a method used to help design or evaluate the
information architecture of a site.
ii. Writing for the Web: When writing for the web, using plain language allows users to
find what they need, understand what they have found, and then use it to meet their
needs. It should also be actionable, findable, and shareable.
iii. Develop a Project Plan: A project plan takes into account the approach the team will
take and helps the team and stakeholders document decisions made regarding the
objective, scope, schedule, resources, and deliverables.
iv. Project Team Roles and Responsibilities: Creating an interdisciplinary team with
the right mix of skills is vital to the smooth and successful execution of any project.
v. Organization Schemes: Organization schemes have to do with how you are going to
categorize your content and the various ways you'll create relationships between each
piece. Most content can be categorized in multiple ways.
vi. Organization Structures: An organizational structure is how you define the
relationships between pieces of content. Successful structures allow users to predict
where they will find information on the site.
vii. Task Analysis: Task analysis is the process of learning about ordinary users by
observing them in action to understand in detail how they perform their tasks and

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achieve their intended goals. Tasks analysis helps identify the tasks that your website
and applications must support and can also help you refine o
viii. Content Inventory: A content inventory is a list of all the content on your site. Your
inventory will typically include text, images, documents, and applications. To gain
insight from your inventory, you will need to assess each piece of content

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Concluding Remarks
Based on the UX best practices, government agencies who adopt these tools will effectively and
reliably deliver useful, usable, findable, accessible, and credible information to the community. First,
by using e-Government Strategies and Information Communications Technology (ICT) method,
agencies are able to deliver and communicate instantaneous, readable, and current public
information. Second, by recognizing the users, their needs, values and limitations, leaders and
elected officials develop trust and credibility from the community. Third, by adopting an Open
Government doctrine, citizens recognize their rights to access the documents and proceedings of
the government, allowing for effective public oversight. A government that is transparent and
recognizes the importance of the user experience, places emphasis on ethical behaviors and values
the principles of the community.

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References
EGov Strategies LLC. (n.d.). Retrieved April 01, 2016, from http://www.egovstrategies.com/.
Information & Communication Technologies Home. (n.d.). Retrieved April 01, 2016, from
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/ict.
User Experience Basics. (n.d.). Retrieved April 01, 2016, from http://www.usability.gov/what-and-
why/user-experience.html.
UX Best Practices. (n.d.). Retrieved April 01, 2016, from http://www.slideshare.net/theresaneil/ux-
best-practices.
What is Information and Communications Technology (ICT)? - Definition from Techopedia. (n.d.).
Retrieved April 01, 2016, from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/24152/information-and-
communications-technology-ict.