Growing Goals, Focused Strategy
Founded by President Abraham Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was created for the American people, to protect their health, well-being, and safety through what they need most: food. From promoting innovation and development in agriculture to preservation of natural resources and conservation, the USDA works tirelessly to help us all.
As the purview of the USDA expanded, it never wavered from its primary aim of caring for the health and well-being of the country. Now made up of 29 agencies and nearly 100,000 employees spread out over 4,500 locations, new methods are needed to carry out each goal. the USDA came to WebFirst with a goal of redeveloping the new www.usda.gov website in Drupal 8. The new website should address the needs of a wide variety of audiences—from rural development to the Foreign Agricultural Service. When we at WebFirst were contacted, we recognized the challenge we’d face, but working closely with members of the USDA we were able to answer that challenge.
Collaboration for Innovation
USDA’s primary goal was to build a state-of-the-art website that communicated their mission, fostered collaboration between various stakeholders, and created a knowledge base of information that the public could use to improve their lives. After examining USDA's unique requirements, we decided immediately that the new site architecture would be best suited for the (latest) Drupal 8 platform.
WebFirst’s Information Architects and Developers formed a team with members from the USDA to construct the new framework the entire project would be built around. We helped the USDA develop a content and migration strategy, taxonomy, and site architecture. In addition to the information needs of the new site, meeting federal security and accessibility (508 standards) was critical. Moreover, since the site receives over one million users on average per month, stability and reliability of the platform was of great importance.
Onward and Upward
President Lincoln once said: “Every man is proud of what he does well.” The outcome of our project was most certainly something for the USDA and WebFirst to be proud of. Focused on the goals of the USDA, the security needed, adaptability, usability, expansion potential, and standards set on the Federal government, the framework we were able to develop with and for the USDA is one that will serve them, and the American public, for decades to come.
