Maine.gov – A New Year, A Fresh Look

New enhancements to the Maine state Web portal improve the user experience across multiple platforms and devices

The State of Maine’s award-winning website, Maine.gov, receives over 10 million visitors and nearly 4 million online transactions each year. This level of public demand requires constant improvements. Therefore, Maine.gov is updated on an annual basis to better meet the needs of the constituents it serves.

“The State of Maine understands that the Internet has become a primary source of news and communication for many individuals,” stated Governor Paul R. LePage. “It’s our job to ensure that state government is providing accessible tools and current information on our website in order to meet this significant demand.”

Based on this year’s user trends, Maine has made innovative advances, by proactively designing for mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones and highlighting the site search features. The State’s high standard for usability ensures that the enhancements work well across the broadest possible range of browsers/versions and is fully accessible on all devices. The 2014 updates include:

• Mobile Design: The new design groups content into a unique tiled layout. Using responsive design the layout automatically adjusts to display three columns of tiles for desktops, two columns of tiles for tablets, and a single column of tiles for smartphones. The new design also makes use of a mobile off canvas menu, which slides out to display the site navigation, providing more space for the pertinent content users are seeking.
• Search Visibility: Web browsing trends point to a high frequency of searching. Therefore, adjustments were made to highlight the Maine.gov search tool and top search terms are presented directly underneath.
• Wearable Technologies: Maine.gov was tested and optimized to be compatible with Google Glass.
• Email/Text Notifications: The Subscriptions.maine.gov notification service, expanded in partnership with GovDelivery, allowing for cost-effective communication, outreach, alerts, and marketing by state agencies. 14 agencies are now participating, offering a total of 563 notification topics, with over 377,250 citizens subscribed to receive instant notifications.

“Maine.gov has built its reputation by seizing new opportunities to innovate,” commented Maine’s Chief Technology Officer Greg McNeal. “The needs of the everyday user will render content and services irrelevant if states rely on accomplishments of the past to try and achieve future success. The State of Maine stays on the cutting edge of technology by evolving with user trends.”

The State of Maine has kept pace with advances in technology by consistently delivering a high quality, innovative, online resource for the public that encompasses over 1,400 online services and 300,000 pages of content. For a complete list of services, information and State of Maine contacts, visit www.Maine.gov.

About GovDelivery

GovDelivery empowers government to create better lives for more people. More than 1,000 organizations worldwide use the GovDelivery platform and network to inform and engage over 90 million people. GovDelivery is the only digital marketing platform built exclusively for public sector organizations in order to promote usage of services, enhance public awareness, and increase the contributions and involvement of citizen communities. GovDelivery is an Actua (Nasdaq: ACTA) company.