Supporting State Department's Travel.State.Gov

Modernizing One of the Most Visited Federal Websites
In the time of COVID, we are now, more than ever, aware that traveling can be complicated. When you embark on international travel, having access to reliable information is key. Travelers rely on the State Department for information about travel advisories, passports, visas, international adoptions, and more. And the Department provides this information through Travel.State.Gov, one of the federal government’s most highly viewed sites (800+ million views per year).

Travel.State.Gov was plagued by an outdated site and legacy infrastructure that was slow and difficult to keep updated, depriving travelers of crucial real-time information. Further, information was disorganized and hard to navigate—for both visitors to the website and those responsible for maintaining it.

Our team engaged with all stakeholders to build trust and restore hope that the site could be modernized. We facilitated conversations to understand disparate requirements from across six stakeholder groups, developed an Analysis of Alternatives, and advised on the tradeoffs of each option.

Within 6 months, we rescued the stalled modernization efforts by implementing Adobe Experience Manager, a content management system, as the backend of the site. We further integrated an Esri Geographic Information System (GIS) to transform static maps into interactive web maps and applications. These dynamic tools allow users to filter and display data that is most relevant to them.

Our integrated team includes experts in cloud-native design, user-centered design, systems integration, and geospatial technologies. They instill cloud-native techniques to allow back-end users to quickly add features, publish new data, and integrate new tools. And because our team is grounded in designing for the user, content managers can perform complex functions regardless of their technical prowess.