Blog

Accessibility without fear and beyond compliance

February 07, 2020

Accessibility isn't just about checking a box. It's about an equitable, inclusive future for all.

Read more → of Accessibility without fear and beyond compliance

Why design skills are a power-up for researchers

January 23, 2020

Figuring out your research questions, finding participants, and doing the research are only part of the challenge. Perhaps the most significant work comes when you need to tell the story of your research.

Read more → of Why design skills are a power-up for researchers

Dependency audits on JavaScript projects

December 17, 2019

To help improve the security of our projects, we integrated a way to audit our application dependencies into our agile development process.

Read more → of Dependency audits on JavaScript projects

Anthropology techniques in human-centered design: The deep hang

November 22, 2019

Anthropologist Clifford Geertz has a great story about a wink. If you’re in a crowded room and you happen to see someone twitch their eye, what do you think: That they just shared an intimate joke with someone? That they have a nervous tic? That an eyelash is stuck in...

Read more → of Anthropology techniques in human-centered design: The deep hang

The case for listening to enterprise users

November 12, 2019

For companies that rely on consumer sales, there’s a clear business case for creating intuitive, pleasurable user experiences. But what about situations where the consumer or end user is not the customer? Where the organization is the customer, there may seem to be less incentive to design around the needs...

Read more → of The case for listening to enterprise users

Ad Hoc awarded contract to support VA healthcare modernization

November 05, 2019

Ad Hoc, as part of a team led by prime contractor Liberty IT Solutions, LLC (Liberty), has been awarded a contract to support a critical Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare modernization project.

Read more → of Ad Hoc awarded contract to support VA healthcare modernization

Navigating government barriers to human-centered design

October 22, 2019

Human-centered design practitioners in government face an entirely different world of constraints and incentives than their industry peers. For human-centered design folks entering government work, these constraints can feel like a barrier to designing better services.

Read more → of Navigating government barriers to human-centered design

Human-centered design helps government make better decisions

October 16, 2019

Why is human-centered design different? Why should you pay attention to this term, and how can it add value and meaning to government work?

Read more → of Human-centered design helps government make better decisions

Design systems in government: How to ease handoffs

October 11, 2019

The end of a contract and subsequent transition represents a risk: not only will the system potentially sit idle or be forgotten, but the culture change you’ve been trying to effect may stop as well.

Read more → of Design systems in government: How to ease handoffs

Design systems in government: When to start

October 03, 2019

These two systems provide a helpful contrast for what it looks like when you begin a project with a design system and when you add it later. Let’s dig in.

Read more → of Design systems in government: When to start

Launching a government MVP in less than a month

October 01, 2019

On behalf of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, we recently launched a site for insurance issuers. We went from zero lines of code to a production MVP serving pilot users in under a month.

Read more → of Launching a government MVP in less than a month

Design systems in government: Improving documentation for better collaboration

September 26, 2019

In this post, we’re going to provide some guidance on building or maintaining the documentation for design systems, but many of these concepts could easily apply to other types of projects.

Read more → of Design systems in government: Improving documentation for better collaboration