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Preventing Crime in 2013: How to Get More Tips With Email

May 20th, 2013 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan for GovDelivery in Best Practices | Client News | GovDelivery Features | Tips & Tricks - (0 Comments)

By John Simpson, Engagement Consultant at GovDelivery

Preventing crime is one of the number one goals for public safety organizations. In 2013, we are seeing a shift in public safety groups, many of whom are leveraging the power of local citizens and stakeholders to report criminal activity. This type of interaction helps identify trends and prevent future crimes. Behind this shift is a simple but powerful tool that is driving this engagement: email.

The Sheriff’s Office of Stearns County, MN was looking for new ways to engage and educate the public on information sharing practices that could help prevent and solve crimes. Beyond using new technologies, the Sheriff wanted to be sure they offered clear and easy ways for the public to connect with his Office and interact with employees to help them better serve their constituents.

One of the main crime prevention resources that the Sheriff’s Office wanted to expand on was promoting the submission of urgent and non-urgent tips from the public. An evaluation of the tip submission process found it to be confusing, complicated, and unintuitive.

2013-05-16_16-01-35

To simplify the process and ensure public exposure, Stearns County partnered with GovDelivery to design a new Advanced Bulletin Template for the Sheriff’s Office regular public updates. Embedded within the template, are prominent buttons depicting the different tip submission channels: Phone, Email, or Web. Whether using a computer or a mobile device, clicking on each of the respective buttons now redirects the subscriber to the Sheriff’s Office phone number, email address, or an online tip submission tool.

By regularly featuring an intuitive method for tip submission, the Sheriff’s Office now offers a new opportunity for the public to communicate with county officers through every public bulletin. Just thirteen minutes after sending their inaugural message with the new Advanced Bulletin Template, the Sheriff’s office received a tip from a subscriber. A simple format with a clear, engaging call to action has allowed for the Sheriff’s Office to better encourage crime prevention, empower the public to report information to their office, and ultimately decrease the amount of crime in Stearns County.

While the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office serves as a great example of creating an intuitive solution for public engagement, no two projects are the same. If your organization is looking for better ways to engage the public, contact: EngagementServices@GovDelivery.com.

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GovDelivery Awarded G-Cloud III Framework Contract

May 15th, 2013 | Posted by govdelivery in Client News | GovDelivery Features | Unique Uses of GovDelivery - (0 Comments)

g-cloud

By Kathy Kyle, Digital Communications Consultant at GovDelivery

GovDelivery was recently awarded a G-Cloud III framework contract for its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud-based solutions, making it easier for government to reach more people.

G-Cloud III is important as it continues to enable UK public sector departments and organisations to easily access centrally negotiated deals and transact online. Government is investing in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to achieve economies of scale, deliver flexible and responsive systems, deliver faster business benefits and reduce costs, and enhance customer service outcomes. And the G-Cloud helps them procure these technologies more quickly and efficiently.

Since GovDelivery has always developed cloud-based solutions, we have more than a decade of experience helping government organizations transform their communications. We currently support over 55 UK clients at the central and local government levels, managing proactive digital communications for GOV.UK, FCO, MOJ, DSA, Met Office, Parliament, VOSA, HA, FSA, MHRA and more. Our local government clients are using GovDelivery solutions to achieve cost savings through channel shift, driving residents to cheaper online channels where appropriate, and reducing avoidable contact. Local authority clients like Central Bedfordshire, Southampton and Suffolk rave about reaching 20 to 30% of their target population, increasing online traffic to high-values services by 35%, and generating immediate, cashable savings. One client estimates an annual cost savings of £100,000 by reducing phone call volume alone.

The common denominator for these clients? They all recognise the importance of reaching their stakeholders, and they understand that with proactive digital communications, they can transform online visits to transactions that demonstrate a return on their digital investment. GovDelivery clients achieve channel shift and cost savings through a single platform that links their existing communication channels to email, text messaging, RSS and social media (and soon, voice messages). Suffolk County Council achieved cost savings and accolades (2011 UK Digital Excellence award winner post-GovDelivery implementation) for their proactive messaging and on-demand alerts. Our clients at Central Bedfordshire realised significant cost savings after implementing GovDelivery; they report estimated reductions of up to 100 phone calls per day and continuously improve services by measuring results. Watch their video testimonial and learn about Central Bedfordshire’s comprehensive channel shift programme.

Summer is quickly approaching, and this is an ideal time to implement GovDelivery. With three months of highly-publicised events and activities across UK boroughs, counties and cities, past experience dictates that our clients will generate large subscriber numbers and with proper cross-promotion, also increase subscribers across other high-value services.

Those who promote their GovDelivery service all summer will reap the benefits of increased subscribers across multiple services. By the time the leaves change and autumn rolls in, inclement weather will be the main driver for GovDelivery subscriptions. West Sussex County Council experienced an increase of nearly 1500 subscribers on one cold, blizzard-like Sunday afternoon due to weather and referrals from other local authorities and Met Office subscription links.img_whitepaper (2)

For central government, it is always ideal to promote online services, share emergency travel alerts, or launch a public safety campaign. The Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) recently launched its travel alerts on GOV.UK using GovDelivery, and we are working together to keep UK travellers informed and safe when travelling abroad.

For local authorities, this means opportunities to leverage community events to cross-promote services and a chance to connect with referrers in the GovDelivery network. Local councils that would normally send alerts and updates about cultural events and library services will take advantage of the busy summer event season to feature and promote high-value service areas like rubbish and bin management, school term dates, highways and road works, inclement weather alerts, or even sign residents up for online portals.

As a quick and efficient cost-cutting measure, local authorities might also consider GovDelivery’s Transactional Messaging Service (TMS), new to the G-Cloud III framework, which allows organizations to send fully automated, targeted, one-to-one messages to citizens about council tax statements, benefits information, registration, and key notices. Our clients are achieving efficiencies both through postal savings and channel shift by driving their audience to online channels to complete electronic transactions with government.

With constrained budgets, dwindling resources and pressure to generate cost savings, GovDelivery is key to driving proactive messaging, achieving channel shift savings, and ensuring government achieves customer service goals. We are the engine that drives over 1.7 million UK residents to the relevant online activities that make their offline lives easier.

Contact us to learn how you can procure our services though G-Cloud III to dramatically increase your reach and impact in your respective community.

 

Kathy Kyle
Digital Communications Consultant
kathy.kyle@govdelivery.com or @bonominiyogini

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Let it snow! Inclement weather drives engagement with the public

January 28th, 2013 | Posted by govdelivery in Client News - (0 Comments)

By Kathy Kyle, Digital Communications Consultant, GovDelivery UK

UK-snow2-jan2013The whole of the United Kingdom experienced a week of widespread travel disruptions and school closures due to unusually inclement weather.  The extended forecast promises additional wintry, blizzard-like conditions – with as much as seven inches of snow, rain and ice over the next week. One of the worst incidents reported was last Wednesday, when 30 people were forced to spend the night in a shelter after becoming stranded when the A39 between Bridgwater and Williton in Somerset became impassable.

More than ever, it is critical that government agencies at the national and local level efficiently and effectively alert local residents about floods, school closures, and road and mass transit disruptions.

At GovDelivery, we are finding that the snow has had a tremendous impact on the uptake of subscribers to government services and information, with increases in local authority subscriptions topping 3900% this past week. In one day, West Sussex received 1,447 new subscribers interested in receiving alerts. As we expected, there was an upward trend in subscriptions to the Highways Agency (HA) and the Met Office, with increases in alert subscribers of up to 180%.

West Sussex County Council website

More compelling than the expected increase in subscribers to weather and transit-related services was the surge in citizens subscribing to central government organisations, whose missions are completely unrelated to the impact of extreme weather. For instance, the National Audit Office (NAO) experienced a 16% increase new subscribers over the latest snowy three-day period, and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) saw a 114% increase over the course of the same week.

This demonstrates the power of the GovDelivery Network, a bi-directional relationship formed between government organisations that use our integrated, seamless digital communications platform. Visitors have the opportunity to opt-in to alerts regarding a variety of government services. This cross-promotion of government services drives subscriptions, helping organisations reach dramatically more people, especially those who may have never known about or thought to search for a specific government topic.

Derbyshire County Council, who is using GovDelivery to reach more residents regarding school closures, experienced an increase of 956 subscribers in one day. Other councils – Sheffield, Herefordshire, and Crawley Borough – all experienced increases between 575% and 752%, with the majority of traffic to their websites coming from HA, the Met Office, and Department of Health.

With nearly 1.5 million subscribers in the UK alone (41 million worldwide), the GovDelivery Network not only drives engagement, but connects citizens to potentially life-saving information in an efficient, effective way through a simple, opt-in subscription process.

With pending severe weather across the country, it is more important than ever to leverage the GovDelivery ecosystem to maximise direct connections with citizens.

Learn more about how central government and local authorities are reaching more people.

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Last Minute Sandy Preparation Tips for Government

October 29th, 2012 | Posted by Jennifer Kaplan for GovDelivery in Best Practices | Client News - (0 Comments)

We’ve all heard the numbers. 8,000+ flights cancelled. Hundreds of thousands already evacuated. Mass transit shut downs up the Eastern Seaboard.* (stats from CNN)  Up to 60 million people will be affected. Hurricane Sandy, now the largest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic, is here.

President Obama, addressing the public in a statement this morning, said, “Please listen to what your state and local government officials are saying.” Government communicators are already in the midst of getting preparation and evacuation information out to those who need it. We’ve also seen additional tips for the public on television, radio, through news websites and social media. Here are the top things your organization can do right now if your stakeholders are affected.

Expand Your Reach. The more stakeholders receive your message, the more likely it is that they will be safe and prepared.

  • Update Your Website. Right now is the moment where citizens are most engaged with government organization. Make sure it’s as easy as possible for citizens visiting your website and social media pages to find the sign-up area for your communications. The key to success is a prominent position.  Keep it in the upper right or upper left of your page, but be careful not to blend it with other aspects of your website. For a temporary fix, highlight your sign-up area in yellow or orange.
    Ready.gov website
  • Leverage the Media to Promote Communications. In his public address this morning, President Barack Obama directed citizens to Ready.gov to get up-to-date preparation and safety information on Hurricane Sandy. If your organization is briefing or being featured through any media outlets, be sure to promote your communications and the ways citizens can subscribe to get updates via email or text message. It’s also helpful to include the URLs to your resources in any media graphics.
  • Recommend Power Outage Alternatives. If citizens lose cable, broadcast signal and Internet, they can still receive tweets about the storm on their mobile phone — even if they don’t have a Twitter account. Have citizens subscribe to SMS Twitter alerts. Here’s a great article from the Washington Post on how to do this.

Get the Word Out Efficiently. Be sure to send messages through all your communication channels.

  • Get Preparation or Evacuation Information Out NOW. There is still time to recommend precautionary actions that can be taken by stakeholders. Urge those in recommended evacuation areas to leave. Send reminders to conserve cell and computer power. Ensure citizens have a list of necessary items — enough food, water, cash, medicine and flashlights — should they experience a power outage.
    National Hurricane Center website
  • Don’t Have the Resources? Not sure what information to send out? Leverage existing, official content.  FEMA and Ready.gov, in addition to the National Hurricane Center with the National Weather Service are asking government organizations to share content they’re already creating to spread the word.  Instead of reinventing the wheel, your organization can share the information, tools and resources from these sites. Like and share FEMA’s Facebook page posts. Follow and re-tweet @ReadyDotGov tweets.
    Ready.gov Twitter feed
  • Continue to Send Updates Throughout the Week. Use email, SMS and social media and other channels to keep stakeholders updated. Be sure to use all means (especially SMS and Twitter) as some stakeholders may not have Internet.

Google has also developed a Crisis Map that provides real-time information about where the storm is moving. The interactive map shows Sandy’s trajectory of the entire country, plus the public can subscribe to additional alerts such as evacuation notices, storm warnings, shelter locations and traffic conditions.

Picking Up the Pieces. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, continue to use digital channels to send updates to your stakeholders. Government organizations will need to work together to communicate relief and clean-up efforts, as well as provide additional resources available to the public. Keep an eye on FEMA, Ready.gov, and the National Weather Service for more information.

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APIs ARE the secret sauce

September 17th, 2012 | Posted by govdelivery in Best Practices | Client News | GovDelivery Features | Integration | Unique Uses of GovDelivery - (0 Comments)

By Mike Bernard, Digital Marketing Manager, GovDelivery

Yesterday, I attended an outstanding webinar, by my co-worker Richard Fong, about using APIs to improve how the government communicates with the public.He discussed what an API is and why they’re so important to government organizations.

Application Programming Interfaces (or APIs) are a hot topic in the government these days. Earlier this year, the White House released a new strategy for the Federal government called Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People. This new digital government strategy lists API use as a key element in fulfilling the vision for more open, responsive government communication. And U.S. CIO, Steven VanRoekel tweeted out earlier this year about APIs, with the hashtag “#yesitsthesecretsauce.”

Fong noted that API use has become more critical because the way we access information has dramatically changed. “In the past, businesses and organizations went to the Web because that’s where the customers were…we all sat in front of our desktop monitor and browsed the Web to get content. Then something happened. Technology evolved. The browser stopped being the exclusive gateway to information and content. A few trends that pushed this included social media, mobile, and location-based services.  The public started to consume content using smart-phones, tablets and other intelligent devices,” states Fong.

Fong went on to highlight some of the excellent work being done with APIs throughout the government. For example, here are a few of the API integrations he mentioned in the webinar:

These are just a few of the success stories that Richard covered in his presentation. If you’re interested in exploring creative ways to improve communication with the public, check out the recording of this webinar.

And, if you are in the Washington D.C. area, you should consider attending our Annual Federal Digital Communications Event on October 16th. There will be in-depth discussions about the White House Digital Strategy and how you can use APIs to advance your communication goals. Space is limited, so register today.

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Federal Agency Distributes Content More Broadly, Educates & Informs for Safety

August 31st, 2012 | Posted by Mary Yang For GovDelivery in Best Practices | Client News | GovDelivery Features | Integration - (0 Comments)

If you work in or around Federal government in technology, it’s impossible to have missed the White House’s new strategy for the federal government, Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People. In the White House blog, U.S. Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel discussed the strategy as a critical roadmap for government to take advantage of technological advances and ultimately deliver better services to the American people through digital means.

While the strategy is important, much of it needs further interpretation and deeper analysis. But there were real-world examples throughout the roadmap that offered clear insight into how Federal agencies could deliver against the strategy. One such example was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is “liberating web content” by using a “create once, publish everywhere mindset.” Essentially, the CDC syndicates their content and data via application programming interfaces (APIs) so that information was seamlessly flowing into multiple channels. The CDC example was one of the most clear and immediately applicable pieces of the strategy to me. It’s easy to see how other Federal agencies could provide official content while enhancing their digital interactions with the public in a similar way by automating content distribution to various channels.

A more recent example of this “create once, publish everywhere” approach is at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) which recently launched two widgets to allow anyone to easily publish and distribute FSIS content on other digital properties (websites, blogs, etc.):

  • News & Events Widget consolidates several feeds from FSIS’s email subscription service and provides access to news releases (including recalls) and newsletters.
  • FSIS Policy Widget consolidates the following feeds from FSIS’s email subscription service: FSIS Notices and Directives, Federal Register issuances, scenario-based training, compliance guides.

FSIS_widget

The FSIS mission relies heavily on public outreach as it is “responsible for ensuring that the nation’s commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.” This is critical for the public and stakeholders, including farmers, grocery store suppliers, and more. FSIS’s widgets allow specific information to be broadcast broadly beyond typical communication channels, such as press releases or website updates. Stakeholders or even just the general public can take the code for the widget and use it on their digital properties, helping to promote official content much more quickly and widely.

The FSIS widgets pull directly from digital communications that FSIS is already producing, so keeping the information in the widgets updated does not entail any additional actions or resources. The widgets automatically populate with the most up-to-date news or stories, such as food safety tips and updates during severe weather and recent food recalls. Furthermore, FSIS’s widgets provide an embedded ability for the public to sign up for ongoing updates from FSIS via email — a service that already has over 100,000 active users and that links back to their website, helping to increase web traffic. Leveraging information-sharing widgets to syndicate content saves FSIS time, money and resources, and it also provides the public and partners with an easy way to redistribute relevant and valuable information that directly impact people’s lives and safety.

The Digital Government strategy provides a clear path to delivering better citizen services by leveraging technology and urging government organizations to “go digital.” While there are many milestones to meet, the truth is more than half of all Federal agencies – such as the National Guard Bureau, Disability.gov, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency – are already managing digital communications using a cloud-based platform with open APIs to easily reuse and redistribute content so there is a firm foundation in place to deliver progress against milestones rapidly. FSIS’s widgets are just one clear example of the impact of how creating once and publishing everywhere can provide greater value for both the public and government.

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Congratulations, Maricopa County Air Quality Department!

July 24th, 2012 | Posted by Mary Yang For GovDelivery in Client News | Integration | Unique Uses of GovDelivery - (0 Comments)

GovDelivery client, Maricopa County Air Quality Department, was recently recognized by the National Association of Counties (NACo) with a 2012 Achievement Award for the County’s Rapid Response Notification System, which alerts residents and stakeholders of a pollution problem and provides on-site response from department inspectors and stakeholders to identify and discourage pollution activity to reduce the risk of pollution impacts.

Maricopa County enjoys many days with clean air, but there are several days out of the year when air pollution levels approach, or even go above, the federal health standard. The Air Quality Department’s mission is to provide clean air so residents and stakeholders can live, work and play safely. To help do this, the Air Quality Department maintains a robust ambient air monitoring system with 23 fixed monitoring stations reporting hourly readings. These readings provide air monitoring data that feeds into the notification system and uses automation to create the messages that alert citizens and stakeholders.

We wanted to take a moment to congratulate Maricopa County for being one of only three counties across the country to be recognized by NACo with 33 Achievement Awards. We’re excited about the work that we’ve done with the Air Quality Department, and we definitely think their success is a testament to the ways that governments can help keep residents and stakeholders safe and healthy with digital communications.

 

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What’s the perfect time to engage citizens?

July 12th, 2012 | Posted by govdelivery in Best Practices | Client News | Tips & Tricks | Unique Uses of GovDelivery - (0 Comments)

By Amish Patel, Client Development Consultant, GovDelivery UK

Many of our clients rely on us to help them implement digital communication best practices, and one of the many questions we get is, “When is the best time to launch and promote citizen engagement services?”

In our minds, there is never a bad time, but in working with more than 500 government organisations worldwide, our experiences have shown that people flood to government websites when there is an emergency or other event that impacts service delivery.  Severe weather is a prime example of a time when citizens visit local government websites and subscribe in the thousands to official sources of information.  In the UK, with recent  floods along the south coast,  West Sussex County Council saw nearly 1,000 residents sign up for service information in a 48-hour period.

When there is an emergency you need a reliable, effective way of directly reaching as many residents as possible. The more people you reach the greater the impact your information can have. In addition to the obvious public benefits, effective communications help ease the workload of strained customer service teams.  Proactive, informative alerts are proven to help manage call demand and reduce avoidable contact.

Recent analysis of GovDelivery subscription rates to UK local government clients clearly shows that there is considerably more activity between the months of November and February, and it’s no surprise this period coincides with winter service disruptions.  Interestingly, the majority of new subscribers during this period subscribe to multiple topics of interest, including school closures, missed bins, council tax updates and local events.  Even obscure service areas, such as  Pest Control, get multiple subscribers. A typical resident subscribes to 7 – 10 service notifications before leaving the website, giving your local government organisation multiple future points of engagement.

Derbyshire County Council  captures website visitors’ attention with eye catching sign-up links in key areas.  The result of this is that residents who search for the latest information on winter service disruption can easily sign up to receive future updates and be proactively informed across multiple service areas, maximising direct connections with residents.

It goes without saying that informed citizens make better decisions and are generally much happier.  In these austere times, efficient communications save Government large sums in avoidable contact. Therefore, it’s hard to say there is ever a bad time to increase public engagement and improve communication.

 

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National Weather Service Using APIs for Tsunami Alerts

July 11th, 2012 | Posted by govdelivery in Best Practices | Client News | GovDelivery Features | Integration | Tips & Tricks | Unique Uses of GovDelivery - (1 Comments)

By Richard Fong, Technical Implementation Consultant

Tsunami events in 1946 and 1964 devastated Hawaii, Alaska, and the coastlines of Washington, Oregon, and California. The 1946 event started with an earthquake magnitude of 8.1 near Unimak, Alaska. Tsunamis inundated the coast over 100 feet above sea level and destroyed many structures near the Unimak area. The waves arrived in Hawaii about 4 to 5 hours later, and 159 people lost their lives due to the ensuing tsunami, which occurred before any warning systems were established.

Due to the 1946 and 1964 events, two warning centers were created: the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) and West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WCA). Each Center has an Area of Responsibility (AoR). West Coast/Alaska’s AoR “consists of Canadian coastal regions, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the ocean coasts of all U.S. States except Hawaii.” WCA’s mission is to “help protect life and property from tsunami hazard by providing tsunami information and warning messages to its area-of-responsibility.” They are also tasked with developing new processes to improve responses time and message content to residents.

Since these two tragic events, warning systems have been developed to keep people safe. One of the methods now in place is digital communications, which the National Weather Service (NWS) employs to get out the word about weather and climate forecasts to help protect the public.

NWS quickly and easily drafts messages with forecast information, including severe weather updates, and uses GovDelivery Digital Communication Management to deliver those alerts via email and SMS/text message to nearly 140,000 citizens and stakeholders. But with events like tsunamis, seconds matter, which is why the NWS utilized cutting-edge application programming interface (API) technology to send out tsunami bulletins even more quickly than before.

When issuing a tsunami hazard bulletin, speed and accuracy are extremely important. In order to provide near real-time messaging, the GovDelivery Send Bulletin API is used to rapidly disseminate tsunami bulletins to the public. The application integration is able to send both an email message to subscribers as well as an SMS/text message to mobile phone/wireless subscribers. GovDelivery APIs are designed to automate previously manual processes, so this was a perfect option for NWS to send critical tsunami updates.

With online documentation and support from GovDelivery staff, NWS was able to quickly write the integration. Because the APIs employed open standards such as REST and XML, it made deploying the solution easy.

During the April 11, 2012 earthquake, a number of tsunami messages were sent to the public and officials. While no tsunami warning was issued for the U.S. or Canada, the message was sent once the earthquake was identified.

How does this automation ultimately benefit organizations such as the NWS? Simple: NWS and other government organizations can get out of the business of sending out communications (and all the operational logistics this entails)  and focus instead on their core business mission. For both the WCA and PTWC, the mission is to watch for and alert stakeholders to potential tsunami threats as quickly as possible to protect the lives and property of the public. Taking on the process of automating these alerts with near real-time messaging helps NWS get even closer to fulfilling their mission objectives, and that’s a process no one can properly put a number on.

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Making email alerts simpler, clearer and faster

May 21st, 2012 | Posted by govdelivery in Best Practices | Client News | Tips & Tricks - (1 Comments)

Guest post by John Ploughman, Digital communications manager, Driving Standards Agency (@johnploughman)

I recently spoke about making email alerts simpler, clearer and faster to read at MailCamp 2012. If you couldn’t make it, here’s a summary of how the Driving Standards Agency is doing it.

The UK Government Digital Service published its design principles in April. It’s an excellent set of principles for designing digital services.

A couple of these principles really jumped out at me – especially thinking about how I could apply them to email alerts.

1) Start with needs (user needs not government needs)

The biggest problem with email: it’s so easy to click “Send” without thinking through the reason you’re sending it in the first place. I’ve been guilty of sending email alerts to meet a government need. I didn’t stop to fully think about what the user actually needed from the email.

Our users are busy people. In a lot of cases they’ve signed up for our emails because they need to, rather than because they want to. We have a responsibility to make sure they get what they need as quickly as possible.

I’m now thinking about what the user actually needs. Whether that’s information, or to access an online service, I’m designing for that. In the copy that’s written, I’m getting straight to that point. It’s what our users want and deserve.

2) Build digital services

I use Outlook on my office PC. I’ve been guilty of building email alerts for Outlook users.

That was wrong of me.

I didn’t think too much about Gmail, Hotmail – not to mention people picking up email on smartphones and tablets.

I’ve completely rethought that. I’m now designing for mobile as standard – and making sure that users on a PC still get a great experience. I’ve found two really important things for designing for mobile:

  • make your email easy to scroll and scan through – short (but big) sub-headings
  • clear calls to action – remember mobile users will be touching these, rather than clicking

 

3) The techie bit

I spent a few hours writing the new mobile-friendly template in HTML. I’m making this available for people to look at, reuse, or adapt. I only ask one thing – if you improve on the code (as I’m sure you will), please let me know. Find me on Twitter, or respond to this post and GovDelivery will connect with me on your comments.

<table border=”0″ cellpadding=”10″ width=”560″ align=”center”>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width=”560″ bgcolor=”#231F20″><span style=”color: #ffffff;”><font face=”Gill Sans MT, Gill Sans” size=”2″>DRIVING STANDARDS AGENCY</font></span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=”560″>
<table border=”0″ width=”100%”>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width=”78″>&nbsp;<img src=”http://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/fancy_images/UKDSA/2012/04/81554/dsa-news-icon_original.gif” alt=”News icon” title=”News icon” width=”78″ height=”78″ /></td>
<td width=”482″><span style=”color: #2e8aca;”><font face=”Gill Sans MT, Gill Sans” size=”6″><span style=”font-size: small;”>NEWS</span><br /><span style=”color: #000000;”>Title</span></font></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=”560″ bgcolor=”#D5E8F4″>
<p><span style=”color: #231f20;”><font face=”Arial” size=”4″>Abstract goes here.</font></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=”560″>
<p><span style=”color: #231f20;”><font face=”Arial” size=”3″>Body text goes here.</font></span></p>
<p><span style=”color: #ffffff; background-color: #b01117; padding-left: 10px; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px;”><font face=”Gill Sans MT, Gill Sans” size=”5″><a href=”URL” style=”color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none;”>&nbsp; CALL TO ACTION &nbsp;</a></font></span></p>
<p><strong><span style=”color: #231f20;”><font face=”Arial” size=”4″>Sub-heading example</font></span></strong></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

You can also download a PDF of the code.

How about you? Is your agency or organization doing anything interesting within GovDelivery’s platform that you would like to share? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

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