How we designed and built a system and standards for making COVID-19 data accessible by Emily Vontsolos, Blake Valenta, and Lauren Jong This project was done in collaboration with San Francisco’s COVID Command Center, DataSF, the Controller’s Office, and SF Digital Services. If data isn’t accessible and understandable, it isn’t helpful. …

Local government is a unique place to be a designer. In the San Francisco Digital Services team, we get to focus on accessibility, user needs, and the impact of our work on real problems in real people’s lives. This year especially, we’ve been directly involved in COVID-19 response. From delivering…

Accessibility for people with low vision is an important goal for SF.gov, the City’s website. So I started where many people start — by checking our colors against the WCAG standards. …

In my last post, I talked about how my team at the SF Digital Services gathered public perceptions through a big user research project. What we learned fed directly into the visual design of the new City website. — My team and I approached design for the website in two parts: how it functions and how it looks. Visual design and interaction design are, of course, inseparable. Both come together to create the overall experience. …

A year ago I joined the San Francisco Digital Services, a new team in city government. We work with other departments to deliver their public services in the best way possible. While user research is a key part of any design process, it’s especially important for us at the City…