Thank you, Virginia.gov, for a Better User Experience
State government websites have the enormous challenge of presenting a unified presence on the web, attempting to keep up with changing citizen expectations on constantly tightening technology budgets while also allowing hundreds of organizations and individuals to update information in a timely manner.
Most state government websites do not appear to view user interface as a top need. For example, once I drill down 2-3 levels on CA.gov (California), I'm in a whole new land — an entirely new look and feel and navigation system with no trail or guideposts to help me get back to a list of state sites.
This is a common problem because individual state government sites are run by different people with different buckets of money, and different priorities.
This was why I was pleased to see Virginia, my state, provide a simple and effective solution: a persistent Virginia.gov top navigation bar that runs across the many sites within the state network.
First, the thin charcoal grey bar provides a non-obtrusive, cohesive, branding mechanism to visually tie all of the sites together.
Second, a common set of navigation links mean that I can easily navigate between all of the state-run sites. This is a life-saver if I'm not sure where I'm going.
Kudos to Virginia for providing a more pleasing user experience for its citizens, despite budget constraints.
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