Design
Design on GovFresh.
Thoughts
Proudly Serving now available in print and digital formats
Public service with and for the people.
By Luke Fretwell
Every government needs a web bot policy
Build your bot policy now and work with your digital team or vendor to implement it.
By Luke Fretwell
Bot gov
Optimizing digital government for AI and other machines.
By Luke Fretwell
Government websites are dead. Long live government websites.
AI will expedite government services moving from aesthetic design to machine-readable data.
By Luke Fretwell
Code is digital experience (and law)
Great source code meets machine-readable web industry standards and best practices and – perhaps most important to some – adheres to the code of law.
By Luke Fretwell
The government URL
Anatomy of a proper government website address.
By Luke Fretwell
Analyzing U.S. federal and state government website metadata
How government-managed domains conform to basic metadata practices.
By Luke Fretwell
Metadata, Open Graph and government websites
Complete metadata can have a significant impact on how citizens experience government digital services.
By Luke Fretwell
Citizen DX: Government customer experience starts with data
Properly managing and delivering citizen data should be the U.S. government's first CX priority.
By Luke Fretwell
Podcast
California Alpha (Part 2)
Going Alpha.
#14
Government PDFs
The controversial file format beloved by government.
#12
California Alpha (Part 1)
Setting an Alpha foundation with Angie Quirarte.
#11
Civic hacking with Carlos Moreno
A citizen journalist and civic technologist shares his experiences and lessons learned civic hacking.
#10
How government can design a human-centered social safety net
The Government We Need talks with Amanda Renteria about getting public benefits to people in the digital age.
#7
How we can code a better government
The Government We Need talks with Code for America founder Jen Pahlka about how technology can be a force for civic change.
#3
Demos
ca.gov
State of California UX Design and Web Development Manager Artem Khomishen gives a demo of ca.gov.
Watch
Papers
California Alpha
How a short-term, experimental project scaled digital service innovation and impact across the State of California.
Briefs
New web accessibility law
A brief-ish explainer of the new web accessibility law for state and local governments.
Direct message
Rebecca Woodbury
Local gov content strategist
Research
OpenACR
GovFresh research notes on OpenACR Editor.
Declaration for the Future of the Internet
GovFresh research notes on the Declaration for the Future of the Internet.
U.S. Web Design System
GovFresh research notes on the U.S. Web Design System.
Plain Language
GovFresh research notes on plain language.
21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act
GovFresh research notes on the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act.
Signal
Time for government to stop using Medium
A publishing platform that says it's an environment open to everyone doesn't provide equal access to all.
February 17, 2022
A meta tag on USAJOBS posts could substantially increase the visibility of federal government job opportunities
One simple piece of code to the U.S. government's employment website could go a long way in increasing social media reach.
July 1, 2022
Welcome to GovFresh Signal
Subscribe to the official GovFresh newsletter.
December 7, 2022
Retrospecting 2022
Building community, civic hacking with my son, pedigree and public interest technology.
December 15, 2022
White House wants your input on open source software security
A 'civic opportunity to help shape the government’s thinking about open-source software security.'
August 18, 2023
Signal (2024.08.02)
What's on our radar.
August 2, 2024
U.S. government launches website standards initiative
Will help “deliver consistent, digital-first experiences for the public."
September 27, 2024
Signal 2025.03.14
What's on our radar.
March 14, 2025
World CityCamp Day 2025
A global movement of community-focused events that foster civic collaboration and innovation
July 21, 2025
Books
Proudly Serving
Public service with and for the people
By Community contributed
Good Services
How to Design Services that Work
By Lou Downe
Docs-as-Ecosystem
The Community Approach to Engineering Documentation
By Alejandra Quetzalli
A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide
A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide
By Cyd Harrell
Labs
USA.GovFresh
Re-imagining USA.gov.
ScanGov
Government digital experience monitor
GovPress
A WordPress theme for government.