FormFest brings together 2,000 global attendees to discuss government forms in all their forms
On Dec. 4, 2024, the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation hosted its second-annual FormFest, bringing together more than 2,000 virtual registrants from 30 nations to discuss improving government through forms.
The event was co-hosted by the Beeck Center’s own Kirsten Wyatt, senior director of the Digital Service Network, and Marlena Medford, senior director of strategic communications at Code for America. It included sessions with U.S. government agencies from the city, state, and federal levels—including an inspiring conversation with Pennsylvania First Lady Lori Shapiro and a keynote from Maryland Governor Wes Moore—in addition to other professionals in the civic technology field.
Over the course of FormFest and 10 packed sessions, participants heard from government practitioners and civic technologists about a range of projects focused on improving the government form experience. Each session offered a unique look into efforts to improve forms; below, we highlight a few overarching takeaways from the event as a whole:
Learning directly from users is critical to ensure forms are designed to meet people’s needs and specific context.
Across government levels, an important theme was gathering feedback from diverse user groups. Numerous projects highlighted how they collected this feedback and used it to inform the design and redesign of government forms. By iteratively testing and incorporating user feedback, many of the sessions outlined how user research led to improved clarity, reduced delays, increased transparency, and a smoother end-to-end process for users.
There are a range of techniques and focus areas for improving government forms.
A number of sessions walked through approaches teams took to identify specific aspects of the form experience to improve. Some projects focused on plain language, improving error messaging, or removing jargon, while others spent time on creating clear visual cues to break up content and highlight the most important information. Another core focus area across sections was accessibility and adherence to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA and Section 508 standards. Practitioners also shared data collection considerations around privacy and ways to simplify the form experience by leveraging existing data.
Relationship-driven approaches and collaborative efforts are key for making meaningful progress in government form improvements.
Nearly every session emphasized the importance of building thoughtful collaborations while improving government forms. From innovative statewide competitions encouraging incremental improvements across agencies, to breaking down silos between internal and external partners, relationships played a crucial role in advancing the research and design work that improved the form experience. Practitioners shared lessons around active listening, inviting stakeholders to various stages of the process, and establishing clear communication pathways. They identified these as key strategies for creating a collaborative foundation for this critical work.
FormFest serves as a place for government practitioners and civic technologists to come together and discuss the ways they both optimize form usage as well as ways to best leverage the data forms collect. The sessions served as a way for the speakers to build the kind of community they discussed, illustrating the similar problems governments around the country face, and offering a variety of perspectives. Whether you are a government decision-maker, a designer, a civic tech enthusiast, or just curious, FormFest has something to offer.