Site Architecture: Gov 2.0 Implementation

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1 Site Architecture: Gov 2.0 Implementation September 21, 2009 Prepared By: Robert Woolley, Chief Technical Architect and David Fletcher, Chief Technology Officer Introduction Utah does a major State portal redesign on a typical two year cycle. The redesign efforts are initiated to refine and add new functionality. As a consequence, the architecture of the site has also evolved. The overall goal of the 2009 redesign, which began in 2008, was to develop an aggregated Website that would organize local and state government information that could be easily accessible from the homepage. This would transform the way information is currently organized by agencies to a less segmented format. By directly presenting local and state information on the homepage, it would meet the goal of presenting an individualized and relevant set of information for the user for each visit to Utah.gov. This change would also decrease the number of "clicks" by the user to reach desired information, resulting in a more efficient experience for the user. Objectives 1. Update the look and feel of the site, maintaining the integrity of an official government site while incorporating mainstream features and design elements that appeal to a mass audience. 2. Reorganize information that was currently cataloged by agency. Reorganize site information to make it less segmented by agency and organize it for easier access to local information such as city and county websites, local recreational opportunities, and other relevant information. 3. Consolidate Web 2.0 content such as Twitter, blogs, multimedia, RSS feeds that were currently scattered throughout the site and organize them in a format that is easily accessible. 4. Accommodate the expectations of existing high-level users. Research supports that 97% of Utah.gov visitors have flash enabled browsers; over 97% have higher-end screen resolutions at 1024+; and more than 97% use a broadband connection. 5. Provide direct access to public State data resources for reuse and independent analysis. 6. Geo-enable online services and enhance map and data mashups. 7. Provide enhanced search access to forms from State agencies. Goals Based upon these objectives, the Utah.gov site was architected to meet the following goals: Provide access to Government Services without having to navigate Government; Detect and adjust site presentation based upon user platform capabilities; Leverage technology to create a rich visual resource; Leverage site search capabilities (services, facilities, forms, etc.);

2 Enable location awareness using Geo IP detection services; Geocode online services, facilities, and public meeting information based on locality; Enable social media opportunities for users to connect with Government; Leverage popular and familiar Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Blogs, etc.; Create a sustainable technology stack that leverages open source solutions; Integrate Rich Internet Applications (RIA) within static Web resources; Expose State Data resources for reuse and mashups; Assure compliance with State accessibility standards; and Implement the site to be as computing platform independent as possible (e.g. Support for diverse computer OS and browsers environments, and common mobile platforms). Major Website Components Users, content, and context form the basis of effective and easily understood real-world information architecture as illustrated in Figure 1. These components form the information ecology of the Utah.gov Website. Once the information-seeking behaviors of users are understood, it is possible to create a rich environment that aligns with user needs. This has been accomplished in the context of the State, and by leveraging content resources. User behavior and trends indicated a need to access online services and incorporate external services that are not part of the core infrastructure of the State, such as social media resources. Figure 1. Basic Information Architecture Components. In the case of Utah.gov, the site takes a citizen-centric view of government that supports a portal to all government services irrespective of whether they are State, Local, or Federal. The site also assumes that some citizen-centric services such as social media resources may be used by Utah.gov but need not be a part of the content repository belonging to the State. In this instance the content components illustrated in Figure 4 looks at existing structures that are internal and external to the State. 2

3 Figure 2 provides a more detailed look at the information architecture supported by the Utah.gov Website as currently implemented. Search is used to unify all of the Utah.gov information elements, and provide reliable information and services access. Information from Local and Federal government Web sites are added selectively based on known and perceived needs. Figure 2. Utah.gov Information Architecture Figure 3 provides a high level view of the underlying business architecture that drives the Utah.gov Website. Figure 3. Utah.gov Business Architecture 3

4 The following elements in the business architecture are common to all agencies and to cross agency business implementations: Agency Business Processes: This incorporates information needed to operate the agency, preferred business processes, and business rules adopted by the agency. Agency Business Programs: Business programs incorporate program mandates, goals, strategies, client needs and associated services, and accountabilities to and from stakeholders. Agency Business Context: Business context incorporates the reasons why the agency exists, enterprise wide mandates and objectives, and stakeholder relationships and accountabilities. Agency Services Accountabilities: Service accountabilities include service level agreements, memorandums of understanding, key service providers, and performance measurements for services. Agency Services Inventory: This includes an inventory of services provided by the agency incorporating accountabilities to and from clients, existing delivery models, processes to deliver program services, and performance measures. These agency business characteristics result in agency requirements for the data and information resources that can be used for the creation of online services, which form the application portfolio. Application requests are initiated by agencies or stakeholders such as the Legislature or other government and citizen bodies. Utah.gov then prioritizes these requests and works with agencies to develop the application portfolio. The Utah.gov portal currently provides access to more than 870 State agency and cross agency services. Access to an additional 300 plus services from local and federal government agencies is also provided. Utah.gov becomes the gateway and entry point to these services. Access is also provided from agency Web sites and from search engine entry points. In some cases such as sites like the database has been site mapped to enhance search engine access. Utah.gov also provides some important shared services such as Utah.gov search, and payment processing. Agencies often have to take payments as one of their business service requirements and Utah.gov provides Utah GovPay as a PCI compliant payment gateway for any agency desiring to use the service. GovPay processed more than 1.1 billion dollars in payments in the last twelve months. Figure 4 illustrates a holistic view of the major components of Utah.gov that support the overall information architecture described in Figure 1, 2, and 3. 4

5 Figure 4. Utah.gov Website Components Static Website Elements The persistent architecture of the site is illustrated by the menu and Government submenu example illustrated in Figure 5. The menus and associated submenus are available to site users from anywhere in the site. Persistent menus include Government; Residents; Visitors; Business; Employment; Education; About; and Online Services. Figure 5. Utah.gov Persistent Architecture Featured Utah.gov Sites Carousel The carousel incorporated into the Utah.gov site offers a method for the site to feature internal content sections and sites that are external to the Utah.gov portal. The icons utilized are meant to convey an attractive image that causes the user to mouse over the image. When they do so a text label appears that explains what resource the image represents. The carousel has been designed to encourage site exploration. Images by themselves rarely communicate an exact meaning, but images plus text let the user explore with some certainty as to what the images represent. Figure 6 illustrates the carousel with the text label for the Multimedia component of Utah.gov. When the user selects that item by clicking on it, they are taken to the State multimedia portal. 5

6 Figure 6. Utah.gov Featured Sites Carousel Rich Internet Application Components The site uses the following seven major database components that form the data architectures that support site application code: Location Awareness: GeoIP Database Public Meeting Notices: PMN Database Online Services: Keyword Database State Buildings and Offices: Facilities Database State Blogs: Blog Database Multimedia Resources: Multimedia Database Government News and Events: What s New Database These data resources interact selectively with user location and are utilized to provide many of the service and information components of Utah.gov. The database resources have administrative and management sites associated with them to enable content updates. World Wide Web Service Components Utah.gov integrates a number of external services such as YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, SlideShare, RSS, and the Google Custom Search Engine (CSE). These resources are utilized in order to minimize costs and to avoid duplication of infrastructure at the State level. The services are integrated as seamless parts of the Utah.gov site. Examples of the integration of these external services are illustrated with the use of YouTube in Figure 7 for the multimedia portal and the Google CSE for multiple levels of site search as illustrated in Figure 8. The Multimedia portal illustrated in Figure 7 integrates video segments posted at YouTube on the Utah.gov YouTube site. The portal also uses the Utah.gov Multimedia Database to track the videos, set display priorities, and associate the agency videos with thematic video and agency-based video channels. 6

7 Figure 7. Utah.gov Multimedia Portal Integration with YouTube. The Search function illustrated in Figure 8 using the term Business Registration presents the user with option of selecting online services relating to business registration. Options are provided on a single screen to: Identify online services pertaining to Business Registration. Select searching for the term in all of the sites included in the Utah.gov Google CSE; See a map and the address of the principle agency responsible for Business Registration. Search for downloadable and online forms pertaining to Business Registration. Figure 8. Utah.gov Search Integration with Google. The search function illustrated in Figure 8 utilizes the Google CSE and integrates State data from the online services and facilities databases. Figure 9 illustrates the Mobile and Social 7

8 Connections page at Utah.gov that exposes a wide range of externally hosted social media and RSS news services, mobile phone applications, and widgets. Figure 9. Utah.gov Mobile and Social Connection Services The Utah.gov Mobile and Social Connection Services page provides access to Utah.gov mobile applications, widgets, Utah blogs, Twitter feeds, Flickr photo repositories, and the Utah.gov Multimedia page. Links are also provided to a wide range of Utah-related RSS news services. One of the objectives of this page is to provide more opportunity through mediums such as blog comments and interaction with government sponsored twitter accounts for citizens to easily communicate with government employees. Virtually all of these services are hosted external to State government and are utilized based upon the State s Internet based Collaboration Tool Standard This enables a much richer content delivery environment than could be economically produced if the State had to duplicate all of these services. The iphone applications expose professional licensing, online services and Utah.gov news for that mobile platform. Other mobile aware Web sites such as CommuterLink are also featured. Agencies may request assistance from Utah.gov and the Department of Technology Services (DTS) on making agency Web sites mobile accessible, or for the development of mobile specific applications for mobile platforms. 8

9 Technology Stack The technology stack for Utah.gov consists of many low cost or open source components as illustrated in Figure 10. The intent is to create a financially sustainable infrastructure that is rich in functionality and can be delivered to users as enhanced Website offerings. Figure 8 illustrates the basic technology stack components and some examples of their use at utah.gov. Figure 10. Utah.gov Technology Stack Apache Utah.gov uses Apache HTTP Server version 2.2.x and Apache user agents for mobile device detection. User agents that are currently detecting mobile devices include: Blackberry, iphone, IE Mobile, Nokia, Palm and Windows CE. Flash Flash is a multimedia platform provided by Adobe, commonly used to create animation, and various web page Flash components, to integrate video into web pages, and to develop rich Internet applications. Utah.gov supports Flash versions 8.x to 10.x. HTML and CSS The Utah.gov site has been implemented using HTML 1.0 Transitional and varying CSS 2 and 3 implementations. 9

10 JavaScript JavaScript is a scripting language used to enable programmatic access to objects within both the client application and other applications. Utah.gov leverages JavaScript as an integrated component of the user Web browser, allowing the development of enhanced user interfaces and many of the dynamic features of the Utah.gov Website. Google Map API Utah.gov uses the Google Maps API to integrate Google Maps into Utah.gov with State data points. The service is used in a variety of ways but the most common use on the Utah.gov site is for mapping agency and other types of facility locations. Google Custom Search (Google Co-op) Google Co-op is a platform provided by Google that allows Utah.gov developers to feature specialized information in Web searches, refine and categorize queries and create customized search engines and results displays, based on Google Web Search. The Utah.gov search is based on this platform and the Forms search uses Google Advanced Search. GlassFish GlassFish is an open source application server for the Java EE platform. GlassFish is free software, based on source code donated by Sun and Oracle Corporation's persistence system. It uses a derivative of Apache Tomcat as the servlet container for serving Web content. Utah.gov uses version 2.2.x with all application development coded using Java 6. Web Services Internally hosted Utah.gov database connections are connected directly. Web Services are defined by the W3C as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-tomachine interaction over a network. Connections to externally hosted Utah.gov databases use SOAP messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards. MySQL MySQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). The program runs as a server providing multi-user access to all of the Utah.gov site databases. The version in use is 5.1.x. Browser Detection and Adaptation The Utah.gov Website has many different users with a wide range of browsers and capabilities as illustrated in Table 1. Full browser support is provided using all common browsers and versions (e.g. Internet Explorer; Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, etc.), Flash is supported for versions The site appears as illustrated in Figure

11 Figure 11. Utah.gov with Flash Enabled. JavaScript code has been refined as needed to support the characteristics of the browsers listed in Table 1 and their respective versions. Table 1 lists the technical capabilities and browser types used by those accessing Utah.gov. Table 1. Utah.gov User Capability Profile User Technologies Flash 9.x or greater 97.49% Java Support 95.10% Resolution 1024 X 768 or greater 97.32% Connection Speed T1 or greater 97.31% Browser Types Internet Explorer (Versions 6.0.x or greater) 73.23% Firefox (All Versions) 18.87% Safari (All Versions) 5.46% Chrome (All Versions) 1.70% Opera (All Versions).14% All Other Browsers.60% An illustration of the site for users without Flash enabled is illustrated in Figure 12. The Flash carousel in and menus are all replaced with non-flash implementations. The rotating Utah images are replaced with a randomly selected graphic image. Site functionality is identical between the Flash and non-flash implementations. Accessibility and usability testing provides equivalent results. 11

12 Figure 12. Utah.gov without Flash enabled. Mobile Platform Implementation Mobile devices are viewed as important platforms for Utah.gov content and services. The State desires to adapt the content at Utah.gov to different platforms in much the same manner as Utah.gov is adapted to different browser platforms. The use goal was to provide mobile access without any modification to the Utah.gov URL. This was implemented using Apache agents to detect the type of mobile platform and then rendering site code using a CSS optimized for specific mobile platforms. Agents currently implemented include the following: Blackberry, iphone, IE Mobile, Nokia, Palm and Windows CE. Search Engine Optimization and Site Mapping Utah.gov has been designed to be search engine friendly with appropriate HTML text equivalents for all Flash menus. The site also uses sitemaps which is a hierarchical list of Web pages that belong to Utah.gov. HTML versions are provided as part of the site's navigation structure for users. XML sitemaps are also generated to communicate the site's structure directly to Web search engine crawlers. Metatags have been utilized on all Utah.gov pages. URL s are static to facilitate consistent URL access from search engine referrals. Website Accessibility Utah.gov is required by State Web standards to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) at level one. The site has passed accessibility testing at WCAG Level 2. Specific accessibility considerations for the site are detailed in the site accessibility policy at The following accessibility design standards are supported: 12

13 Straightforward Design Utah.gov uses simple information architecture, organized navigation and reliable headings throughout. Utah has adopted a statewide header used on every state agency Website to provide consistency to the user and an easy way to navigate back to the home page regardless of location. Images With Alternative Text - This text provides further detail for an image or destination of a hyperlinked image. They are commonly called ALT tags, and they are accessible to screen readers and visible when the mouse is placed over the image. They also provide a description of graphics for people who have images turned off on their browser. Relative Font Sizing - The font size of the Website can be modified (up or down) using the tool at the top of the page. The Navigation - The main navigation, located just below the title banner (Utah.gov logo), uses lists. Lists make it easier for screen readers to literally read down the list without having to sort through unnecessary code. Lists also allow the users to use the tab key to move from link to link. Style Sheets - Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) centralize the style information for the Website. Using CSS allows for greater flexibility when a style change is needed to accommodate a specific disability. It also keeps the code clean and is faster to download. Layout - The design was built to accommodate the vast majority of visitors. Utah.gov is best viewed at 1024 x 768 resolution, which was selected as it accommodates 97.32% of Utah.gov visitors. Image Maps - When an image needs to be linked to several different locations, this is used rather than dividing the image into separate image files, and causing more confusion for screen readers. Multimedia - When available, the transcripts of audio and video description are linked with the file. Hypertext Links - Text is specifically chosen to make sense when read out of context, so all users know where they are going when they select a link. Scripts and AJAX - Alternative methods for searching or alternative content are provided in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported by a user s browser. Validate - Our design work is checked using tools, checklists, and guidelines at 13

14 Summary and Conclusions Government 2.0 has been characterized as government as a platform. Government 2.0 has been described as a convergence of three potential major trends: this century s version of the commons where government information is meant to be free and shared, the rise of low to zerocost communications, and the availability of universal broadband. At least two of these trends, universal broadband and the expectation of free government information are clearly impacting Utah citizens. Using images and maps, the Utah.gov Website aggregates locally hosted services and data, cloud based internet services, and social media components to enhance communication with government. These capabilities are executed in a visually rich environment. Even so, there remain many opportunities for added development. Expanded Data Access One of the areas that has generated surprising interest at Utah.gov is the State data sub-portal at which has attracted both State and national attention, and is illustrated in Figure 13. This page identifies downloadable State data files, major sources for State and local data, Data visualizations, GIS data repositories, and external links to major Federal data resources such as data.gov. Over time this section of the site will become database driven, will have its own unique search functionality, and will support multiplatform delivery. Figure 13. State Data Resources. The Utah.gov Website has been designed to be as platform and browser independent as possible, so citizens can efficiently access State services and information efficiently using their computing platform of choice. The site uses strong visual imagery to add interest and encourage site exploration and browsing. Search, which has become such a common function for Web users, is an integral part of the site and produces results that are familiar to users. 14

15 Geo-enabling Gov 2.0 The State currently provides numerous mashups and maps for facilities and other datasets. This is viewed as only a beginning of the possibilities for using maps and data together to enhance service and citizen understanding of key datasets based on locality. Additional opportunities exist for greater location-aware functionality as more of the State s data resources are appropriately geo-coded. A logical next step for Utah.gov is to leverage the vast mapping resources and data of the State to geo-enable data in the context of location. Visualization would become a primary method for citizens to use and understand data, as opposed to just being able to see it in reports and download data sets. This approach has the potential for democratizing data in some new and visual ways. Context Delivery Architecture (CoDA) Context Delivery Architecture (CoDA) is an architecture that is aware of the end user s context such as platform, location, preferences, identity, etc. and delivers the information that is most suited based on context. This approach has also been described as the purpose-based Web and as WYNIWYG (what you need is what you get) service. A user s specific context could drive what information they receive, how the Website and related applications interact with them, and where the process choices may take the end user. All of this has to be balanced in ways that empower user choice, rather than constrict or hide potentially useful information and services. CoDA applications will need to ubiquitously run on a variety of devices, technologies, and platforms. Technology needs to allow the same services to be delivered to a variety of platforms that possess the same context aware capabilities. Users should benefit from being mobile, not be hampered by it. Government services need to be able to be delivered on major user platforms. The State has taken initial steps for context awareness based on location with the implementation of Geo-IP, and information based on locality, such as public meetings. Context delivery architecture suggests many new opportunities for both geo-enabling government information and presentation based upon user platforms, context, choices, and entry points. Vision The site has implemented a no wrong door approach to finding and utilizing government services irrespective of the type of government. One of the key objectives of the site is to enable the user to find government services without having to navigate government. This approach has become reality for many Utah.gov users and can only improve over time. As we geo-enable more government data, become more aware of user context, and continue to allow users to see more government information based upon where they live, this will add value and enhance citizen interaction with government. Platform independence for access to government services is a key driver to reach a diverse user audience. Finally, the intelligent application of social media services has the potential to make Utah.gov a rich experience for communication to and from citizens. These services can be provided with a sustainable and low cost architecture that leverages Web 2.0 services, and creates added value for end users regardless of points of entry. 15