Mass.Gov: Weekly Features (MA)
www.mass.gov
Most state homepages are as dry as toast despite of attempts to jazz them up with photos and bits of trivia. Mass.Gov is not your typical dull state portal. In fact, it's the only state homepage that I look forward to visiting each week (and I visit them all). What's the secret?
According to Robert Nevins, the Director of Mass.Gov, the web team wanted to offer a more dynamic feature on the main page. Last year the staff brainstormed about story ideas and came up with a list of topics. The topics had to be government-related, timely, and non-political. Occasionally the weekly feature is about a new egovernment feature but most have broad audience appeal.
Some recent topics:- Homegrown: Savor the salad days of summer
- The camping experience: Sleep under the stars
- Important tips for water safety this summer
- Risk-free fun for the Fourth of July
- Digging up the roots of your family tree
- Pick a high interest topic.
- Run a grabber headline.
- Add an intriguing teaser:
"Ready to get away from it all?
Think warm summer days and nights, think campfires and s'mores, think camping.' - Include an eye-catching image.
- Offer a selective list of related sites including federal, state, local governments and nonprofits.
- Write a couple paragraphs describing the need and how these sites are a part of the solution.
Although some pieces are recycled from time to time, most are fresh looks are familiar topics. Frequent visitors can look forward to seeing something new each week.
The secret is selecting great links but not too many of them. The material is so engaging and well-written that there should be an archive of them for teachers and librarians to use. I've started archiving a few myself.
Look carefully! There's more!
While the feature story is great fun to read, the Mass.Gov homepage is serious about egovernment. There's a handy list of popular services at the top of the page. The left side navigation provides links to every government level. The drop down list of local governments leads to a page about that includes:
- Links to official local government websites
- Information from state agencies
- Regional information from state agencies
- Links to other information on state pages about the place
- Links to other local community websites
- A map and photo
"Our goal is to help citizens make sense of the news. IssueSource provides instant access to background material on the latest news in Massachusetts politics and public policy. Here you'll find summaries, background, recent developments, and additional learning resources about each issue. IssueSource is a free public service produced by the professional journalists and staff of MassINC and The State House News Service."
This is an outstanding resource.
Back to the Problem with State Homepages
State homepages are oddities. There's no department of web portals, nobody runs for commissioner of websites, and most visitors only show up when they have no other choice. These pages are like operating systems—you need them but you sure don't want to spend a lot time reading them or about them. When they don't work as expected state homepages can be just as frustrating as Windows XP.
Most state homepages are geared to take visitors to other sites or portals. States like Arkansas, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Virginia offer uncluttered easy-to-read homepages with little or no small type, scrolling text, or filler text (lottery results, weather in Podunk, or multiple pictures of the governor).
Aside: There's no rule that says that state or local government homepages have to be so densely packed that it takes ten minutes to find the footer. White space never hurts reading speed.
When you have some free time, visit the sites on SLGN Homepage list. It will be very educational.
Posted by DN: August 3, 2004 Permalink