As Americans increasingly use their mobile devices to view content, federal agencies need to stay in the game. They are beginning to make a shift toward a more responsive web design, in order to have information be as easily accessible from smartphones and tablets as it is from desktops.

It’s a challenge to make this transition within the federal government.

Two agencies, the Energy Department and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), recently presented a webinar showcasing their efforts in implementing a responsive web design and the difficulties they faced.

Shortly after the Energy Department launched its new energy.gov website in 2010, officials noticed a drop in desktop users and increase in mobile and tablet users. Overall, visits doubled, but officials also found that users sought information on consumer energy savings.

In response to this interest, they developed a new section called Energy Saver to provide consumer energy efficiency data. They also realized this content needed to be easily accessible from any device, including smartphones and tablets.

The DFAS faced several challenges in implementing a responsive web design. Their site was seeing more mobile usage, but bounce rates were also high, meaning users left quickly if they had trouble finding information.

Though mobile templates were developed in less than two months, technical upgrades required several more months. Once the new responsive design was implemented, the site’s analytics improved dramatically.

To read the entire article, please visit www.fiercemobilegovernment.com.