The Homepage Facelift
Office of Personnel Management: Open Opportunities
What is Open Opportunities
Open Opportunities is a sister site of USAJOBS.gov aimed specifically at existing federal employees. Feds are able to network with communities and specific-interest groups outside of their agencies and develop new skills through learning assignments with other agencies while keeping their current job.
My Role & Responsibilities
- User Interface Design
- User Testing
Software & Tools
- Sketch
- Invision
How the feature came to us
A funny thing I learned about the government while working alongside OPM is that we provide government agencies with government-specific tools to use, but they’re not required to use them. You can post your federal job on USAJOBS.gov (and most do) or you can use Monster or Indeed.
So it’s not like .gov sites have a hold on the market. If the sites aren’t user friendly and easy to use, agencies absolutely will go somewhere else.
The homepage for Open Opportunities hadn’t been updated since the late naughts, and looked dated in 2021. It looked…government-y, which didn’t bode well for what the inside looked like when you created an account.
And, honestly, it just wasn’t a high priority for a long time, even though the site didn’t look like any of the screenshots posted and we knew through Google Analytics no one was scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page.
The research
My primary research here wasn’t with users, it was with the Engagement team who went to Federal agencies and marketed the product. What were things that they wanted customers to know at first glance? What would really help sell it?
Besides things like updated information, at the end of the day it’s boring and wordy. So things like colors and photos were our goal.
The new UI
The new designs were well received by the team as bright and engaging. I included shorter phrases and a lot of whitespace to make elements really stand out. Where the previous website was mostly blues, I pulled from the full range of colors that the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) offers to add interest.
We also highlighted things not previously on the website, like being able to create an opportunity and internship and highlighting events.
You can check out the live website on openopps.usajobs.gov
Accessibility & 508
Being the creators of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), .gov websites are legally required to be 508 compliant. If it does not pass 508 it does not get released. I do my own checking but our Agile team included a QA Tester who also ensured 508 compliance. USWDS is 508 compliant by default.