We’re excited to officially launch ScanGov Standards, government digital experience standards based on guidance from public policy, web protocol, guidelines and best practices.

The standards holistically address key areas of the digital experience:

Guidance

These standards are based on guidance from public policy, government recommendations, protocol and best practices.

This includes the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA), CISA Cybersecurity Performance Goals, Google Search Central, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and more.

The problem

Governments and their technology vendors don’t holistically address digital experience. This results in sub-standard public digital services, which leads to frustration and distrust. Current Project ScanGov report cards show the average overall grade is an ‘F’.

General:

  • Too many policies, protocol, guidelines and best practices to track.
  • Researching and understanding these is resource-intensive.

Governments:

  • Aren’t holistically informed on digital experience best standards/guidance.
  • Don't prioritize digital service delivery.

Vendors:

  • Don’t fully adopt standards into their services/software.
  • Deliver “good enough for government” technology.

The solution

By mapping guidance to specific standards across digital experience indicators, government and vendors can better align on expectations and objectives and deliver exceptional public digital services.

Why it matters

The public experiences government digital services in many ways:

  • Web (websites, web applications)
  • Search engines (Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing)
  • Social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Bluesky)
  • Mobile applications
  • AI (ChatGPT, Claude, Anthropic)

By following standards based on policy and web best practices, governments can deliver better holistic digital experiences that meet user needs and expectations wherever they are.

We want your feedback

If you have input on new or current standards and guidance, we encourage your feedback.

We’ll continue to build on our work (backlog), but we know that this effort will be more impactful with engagement from the public – government, vendors and the public at large.

Demo