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18F Design

The Design team at 18F provides design services in our projects and to the organization, including:

  • Research. We test assumptions by gathering feedback from real users, stakeholders, subject-matter experts, etc.
  • Content strategy. We help people clarify their tone and voice, and explore the breadth and depth of their content.
  • Information architecture. We help people state their intent and disclose information in an intuitive way.
  • Interaction design. We work with people to wireframe and prototype simple, beautiful, usable interactions.
  • Product design. We help people communicate clearly through visualizations and illustrations.
  • Service design. We work with partners to map their customers' experiences and business processes in order to design interactions across systems and over time.

Documentation

Suggested reading

Communication

Find us on Slack:

Joining the Design Team

Welcome to the 18F Design team — we’re happy you’re here! We’ve compiled a set of helpful tips to get you started. We’ll update this guide as we receive feedback, so don’t be shy to share your thoughts.

First week

You might not have much assigned work during your first two weeks here. That’s okay and expected. If you’ve gotten all the government onboarding items done and a project still hasn’t landed, the design team has a list of internal projects that aren’t funded but that will help us all work better together. Talk to your supervisor to get more information about these internal projects and how you can get involved.

Who we are

The Design team at 18F includes content, user experience, front-end, product, and service designers. We are researchers, editors, prototypers, illustrators, and wordsmiths. We come from a variety of backgrounds, including government, non-profits, consultancies, corporations, and academia.

Structure

As per the , external,TTS-only, org chart, 18F Design is itself composed of product design, content strategy, service design, and user experience teams. Members of the Design team are active participants in the content and research guilds.

Before starting at 18F, you will have been assigned a supervisor. Supervisors meet with you regularly and carry out most managerial responsibilities for their disciplines. They lead staffing, hiring, training, and project troubleshooting for their discipline. More detail on , external,TTS-only, Design team roles and responsibilities is provided internally.

Members of the Design team are also assigned to critique groups. These groups meet regularly (barring more urgent project activities) to discuss work in progress and help the Design team maintain its storytelling and presentation skills. Critique groups also have leaders, and their groupings change periodically. These rotations are announced ahead of time. If you're interested in taking a turn as a critique lead, you can raise your hand as a candidate at that time.

What we do

The Design team at 18F provides design services in our projects and to the organization, including:

  • Research. We test assumptions by gathering feedback from real users, stakeholders, subject-matter experts, etc.
  • Content strategy. We help people clarify their tone and voice, and explore the breadth and depth of their content.
  • Information architecture. We help people state their intent and disclose information in an intuitive way.
  • Interaction design. We work with people to wireframe and prototype simple, beautiful, usable interactions.
  • Product design. We help people communicate clearly through visualizations and illustrations.
  • Service design. We work with partners to map their customers' experiences and business processes in order to design interactions across systems and over time.

How we work

Rituals

Most of the design team works on a mix of partner-agency projects and internal initiatives. As you’d guess, everyone’s weeks look a little different. That said, there are recurring weekly meetings and commitments we all have on our calendars.

  • Wednesdays: Every other week for 30-45 minutes at 2pm ET (11am PT) design team huddle. The whole team meets to discuss project status, policy updates, and general design-specific news. Our huddles typically follow the same format: We start with an intro question for everyone to answer, welcome new teammates, and get chapter and organizational updates. The rest of the huddle features a presentation or conversation about a topic of current interest to the team. Past topics have included: project share-outs, an overview of the Paperwork Reduction Act, and discussion around common challenges.
  • Once a week/Every two weeks: Meet with your discipline team.
  • Once a week/Every two weeks: Meet with your supervisor. You’ll have a short check-in with your supervisor at a time that’s convenient for both of you. The purpose of this meeting is both administrative and personal. It’s how the team leadership keeps on top of project timelines and activities to coordinate resourcing. It’s also a time to talk through any project concerns, figure out how to wrangle the federal bureaucracy, and talk about how to make 18F work better for you.
  • Once a week/Every two weeks: Meet with your critique group. Crit groups discuss creative questions and share work. We re-form the groups periodically so we have opportunities to learn from the whole group.

Tools

Here are some common tools we use, how we use them, and how you can get access to them. If you can’t find the information you need in the chart below, get in touch with your supervisor; they’ll be able to point you in the right direction.

And one more thing: before you start using any new tool that asks for access to files/browser data, see the Software page and assure the tool is approved.

Website Prototyping

Unless otherwise specified, see Software to get a license for any of these.

Project management

Every project and team has a different mix of project management tools based on what works for them. Many internal projects will use Trello because it's fast to set up. Get more information on the How to use Trello page.

Research

Workshops / virtual workspaces

Word processing

Assets

We default to free and open-source assets, unless there is a very good reason to do otherwise. (You would need to document the reason and get approval). Fortunately, there are many great resources for us to choose from.

  • 18F-themed templates: Access document and slide templates through , external,18F's Visual Identity Guide. Unless your project has its own branded communication materials, like login.gov or cloud.gov, use these styles and templates for communicating about all of your work at 18F. It's often beneficial for partners when we present deliverables with our brand styling, which shows the outside expertise they brought in. It also helps 18F present itself with a unified voice, tone, and look.
  • Frameworks: the , external,U.S. Web Design System is a visual style guide and set of components for U.S. federal government websites. It includes guidance for fonts, colors, and UI components. Come chat in , external,TTS-only, #dev-frontend if you are choosing a framework for something.
  • Icons:
    • 18F uses a customized , external,icon set.
    • The product design team has guidance on , external,icon resources.
    • If you want to start using non-free ones, you’ll need to jump through some hoops — even if the icon only costs $1.99. You’ll need to get official emailed permission from the product owner, then check , external,TTS-only, #teamops for further instructions.
  • Images: Most images published by government agencies are in the public domain and thus free to use.
  • Typography: Partner agencies often have their own style guidance that we follow in our work with them. 18F-branded materials should follow typography guidance in the , external,18F Visual Identity Guide. For needs outside these scenarios, typefaces from the , external,U.S. Web Design System are a safe starting choice. Come chat in , external,TTS-only, #product-design if you are choosing fonts for something.

Designing in the open

We do most of our design work in the open, which means trying to make as much documentation and decision-making as possible accessible to the public. Designing in the open means that expectations from private sector about confidentiality, disclosure, and intellectual property don’t hold true here.

Here are some of our rules of thumb:

1. Share your work early and often

Sharing your in-progress work with team members and stakeholders is one of the most powerful techniques we have — it’s central to building trust with stakeholders. At 18F, we like to team up and work a problem through multiple angles to get to the best solution swiftly.

Since GitHub is a tool we’ve chosen for facilitating public dialogue, consider also making your work available to the public (if appropriate for the project) by posting work-in-progress there. Before creating a public GitHub repo or otherwise sharing project-specific information, check with your project lead; they’ll let you know what information can be shared publicly.

2. Be mindful of Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

PII is any piece of data, singly or in combination, that can identify unique individuals, such as full name, email address, or even phone number. While working in the open, be mindful of discussing agency partners, collecting any PII, or accidentally disclosing PII to the entire internet. Different agencies and organizations may have different levels of sensitivity and exposure concerns about types of personal information (identifying or not) you collect and how you use it. Check with your project lead before sharing information to avoid missteps and delays; what has been approved by the GSA may not already have been approved by partners. Be mindful as you post meeting notes or sidebar conversations in Slack channels, and be aware of the potential level of visibility this information will have once you post it in Slack.

Bottom line: If you have questions about sharing information, ask.

3. Not everything has to happen in public

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) guarantees that, as federal employees, all of our communication via government email, Slack, and chat can be made available to the public at some point in the future. You should assume that, at some point in the future, anyone might be reading what you wrote in any of these channels. Meanwhile, in the context of day-to-day work, different tools offer different levels of access. Here’s a quick reference to who can see what, when:

  • Only viewable by members: Slack DMs, Slack private groups, Email
  • TTS only: open Slack channels
  • TTS plus invited guests: Slack channels labelled XXX-otheragencyhere or XXX-partners
  • GSA only: Google Drive- you can share files outside GSA, but exercise caution!
  • Across the government: mailing lists
  • The entire Internet: Slack channels labelled -public, Invision and Mural (if linked via GitHub), and GitHub (with the exception of private repos)
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