Annapolis, MD – May 26, 2015 — The state of Maryland has launched a "mobile-first" design on its award-winning official website, Maryland.gov (www.maryland.gov). Mobile-first refers to designing and developing websites for smaller screen sizes, such as those found on smartphones. The newly designed state website focuses on providing quick access to online services and user personalization features.
Visitor analytics and mobility drove the mobile-first design with up to 50 percent of visitors accessing the portal and agency websites on a mobile device. The Maryland.gov portal serves as the gateway for the 63 million visitors to Maryland state agency websites each year.
User analytics show Online Services continue to be a top pick for visitors, along with the unique Insta-Search, which facilitates quick access to services and information across the enterprise of Maryland government. In the past year, Maryland has launched more than 30 new mobile-ready online services and has improved access to hundreds of online state government services through its search results, Online Services Directory, MyMARYLAND Clipboard, and the Featured area within each main navigation section.
"We are always looking for new ways to better serve Marylanders," said Secretary of Information Technology David Garcia. "We believe these enhancements to the state's Web portal will help people and businesses quickly discover the wide range of government services available to them, whether they choose to conduct their business on a desktop or a mobile device."
The mobile-first, card-based design streamlines and stacks the most vital content for a super-lean mobile experience first, and allows for seamless expandable content when viewports change. The design also highlights the Maryland Experience through visually stunning, crowdsourced Maryland photography and a real-time social media dashboard that aggregates feeds from more than 300 state agency social media accounts.
The personalized MyMARYLAND Clipboard is now featured front and center on all pages of the site and includes a sticky panel at the bottom of the user's browser for quick and easy access to their most preferred services. Users can "click and drag" clips to the Clipboard and view suggested clips that are context driven in each main navigation section of the site. Analytics capture that users most clipped links to their personal Clipboard such as online services, county and state government websites and specific links for traffic, MVA locations, state parks, Twitter accounts and calendar events. Additionally, MyMARYLAND is now paired with the site's Near Me geo-location functionality to easily find government offices, MVA locations and wait times, state parks and state jobs for specific locations.
Maryland continues to lead states in creating a cohesive, cross-agency mobile-first user experience for visitors regardless of how they choose to interact with government. Enterprise Web templates are utilized by agencies that inherit key elements from the portal, such as the enterprise Google search, statewide navigation, and a fully responsive, common look and feel design. More than 50 agencies have already updated their websites to use the new responsive website templates, demonstrating the commitment to serve the growing mobile community.
Over the past two years, the Maryland.gov website has been awarded 17 national and international awards for its creativity and innovation in web design, usability, and mobile development for a government website.
The Maryland.gov website was redesigned at no cost to taxpayers through NIC Maryland's partnership with the State Department of Information and Technology via a competitively bid contract, which enables the company to provide eGovernment applications and services to state and local government agencies in the state of Maryland.
About NIC Maryland
Maryland builds, operates, maintains, and markets the official website of the state of Maryland, www.maryland.gov and its eGovernment services. NIC Maryland is a collaborative public/private partnership managed by the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) and NIC Maryland. NIC Maryland helps Maryland state and local government entities web-enable their services and operates without tax funds through a Self-funded eGovernment Services contract. NIC Maryland has developed more than 50 eGov services for the state of Maryland since the contract was awarded in August 2011.
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