Vermont CIO Denise Reilly-Hughes said that at the state’s Agency of Digital Services, user-centered design is at the core of conversations she has with departments as they develop projects for use both internally and externally.
It’s become a central part of her approach to leading state IT, and one that she brought with her when she first came to state service.
“I realized that technology is by far the area that drives me the most,” Reilly-Hughes told Government Technology in July, “but not technology in and of itself — it’s how it improves the lives of others.”
And while CIOs often talk about user-centered design as it relates to citizen services and how residents interact with the state — major projects like single sign-on portals, for example — Reilly-Hughes said it also applies to Vermont’s hybrid workforce. If state employees can work remotely and achieve work-life balance, their needs are being put at the center of policymaking.
As Colorado’s Deputy Executive Director Julia Richman put it, “make government easy” is a big part of every digital government strategy.
“For generations, government has been very paternalistic,” Richman said. “‘Here’s the problem that you have and here’s how I’m going to solve it,’ rather than saying, ‘What is the problem you have and how might I solve it?'"
