The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) and Texas NICUSA, LLC (NIC) are proud to announce a transformative state government portal experience with the launch of the new, one-page Texas.gov. As the state’s official website, the goal of Texas.gov has always been to provide citizens with simple, secure, and immediate access to government information and services. The reimagined Texas.gov showcases a considerably streamlined, yet charming interface featuring only the best, most helpful information that users actually want and need, and offers it in an intuitive way that lets them interact in a manner that is most comfortable to them. In addition to simplifying the experience, the approachability of the portal shines through with a Texas-friendly conversational tone and imagery that celebrates the state’s unique character.

Janet Gilmore, Director of Digital Services for DIR, says, “Texas is a big state and achieving the Texas.gov mission to provide access to Texas government services and information anytime, anywhere is a big job. The new Texas.gov website design fulfills that mission using a simple, yet elegant, customer and information-centric design.”

Based on years of analytics data, NIC – the private partner that develops and maintains Texas.gov for the state – had a very clear understanding of what users come to do on Texas.gov, and the portal was redesigned accordingly. Dozens of web pages and layers of navigational architecture were removed, unnecessary and unused features of the portal were eliminated, and thousands of links were manually curated and organized into a structured table format. Today, via the one-page portal, Texas.gov delivers the following noteworthy features:

• Search. The most popular place on Texas.gov was strengthened to deliver relevant search suggestions, related agencies, and related services as a user types. Furthermore, the ability for users to search “safely” within the boundaries of an official government website ensure that they will not mistakenly click on unofficial, look-alike sites that may mislead them to provide personal information or pay unnecessary fees.
• Find It. This data table powers a sortable, filterable, “find it your way” experience. Easily accessible via the Find It tab or when a user clicks a “more” button, this single element replaces dozens of pages of hierarchy and content with an organized way for users to quickly gain access to thousands of official government links.
• Responsive Design and Styling. More than 30 percent of visitors to Texas.gov come via a mobile device, so the streamlined, simplified design of Texas.gov across all platforms serves users well. Texas.gov also lets visitors from mobile devices decide to activate certain options, such as the map and social media, as their data plans allow, and images were styled so they are not burdensome to download.
• Analytics-based Content. The government services and information that we know users really want and need is readily available via clear, top-level navigation and also grouped by topic in the horizontal sections of the long-scrolling website.
• CSS Animations. Animation helps users understand what is happening on the screen as they interact with Texas.gov by delivering smooth transitions when they click buttons and open/close modal windows.
• New Look and Feel. Texas.gov features plain language content with a Texas touch, colorful images of the more unique and interesting places across our great state, and updated typography that optimizes readability and usability.

Visit the Texas.gov YouTube channel for a guided tour of the new Texas.gov.

About Texas.gov

Texas.gov is the official website of the State of Texas (www.texas.gov) and is a collaborative public/private partnership managed by the Department of Information Resources (DIR). Texas.gov helps state and local government entities web-enable their services and operates without tax funds through a partnership between the State and Texas NICUSA, LLC. Texas NICUSA builds, operates, maintains, and markets Texas.gov and is part of eGovernment firm NIC’s (NASDAQ: EGOV) family of companies. Since its launch in 2000, Texas.gov has securely processed more than 247 million financial transactions and collected more than $33 billion on behalf of participating entities.

About NIC

Founded in 1992, NIC (NASDAQ: EGOV) is the nation’s leading provider of official government websites, online services, and secure payment processing solutions. The company’s innovative eGovernment services help make government more accessible to everyone through technology. The family of NIC companies provides eGovernment solutions for more than 3,500 federal, state, and local agencies in the United States. Forbes has named NIC as one of the “100 Best Small Companies in America” five times, most recently ranked at No.11 (2013), and the company has been included four times on the Barron’s 400 Index. Additional information is available at http://www.egov.com.

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