Treasury Taps 18F to Craft New $10 Bill's Digital Strategy

The Treasury Department asked federal tech team 18F to consult on part of the $10 bill redesign, according to an 18F blog post. 

The Treasury is currently reworking the $10 bill to feature a woman, to include tactile and high-contrast features for the visually impaired, and to include new security features. Representatives from the Treasury recently approached 18F Consulting, the General Services Administration's tech quick-fix team, to ask for advice on how to involve the public in the redesign process, 18F member Kara DeFrias wrote in a post.

The 18F team's goal was to ensure a Treasury website describing the new $10 bill "made it easy to understand the news quickly, get folks to the information they wanted, and had a clear call to action for people to share their thoughts on 'the new 10,'” DeFrias wrote. The group set up "creative reviews" including members of 18F and the Treasury's design team.

"Our key approach was focusing on a conversational tone throughout the site," DeFrias wrote in an email statement to Nextgov. This included using "approachable headlines and navigation titles" to get visitors to click on the next page, and using a "Share your ideas" button instead of a "Submit" button for comments. 

The Treasury site also asks the public to add its input on "ideas, symbols, designs or any other feedback that can inform the secretary" by posting with the hashtag "#TheNew10" on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. (During the redesign process, the Treasury plans to review tagged content; the social media posts the Treasury collects will be treated as "temporary records" and will be deleted "after one year or when no longer needed for business, whichever is later," according to a June 24 Federal Registrar notice.)

The 18F team also pitched a strategy called "handshake before the handout," DeFrias told Nextgov -- a way of presenting information on the homepage "so visitors understand what's going on (the handshake) before we ask them to take action (the handout)."

The Treasury plans to unveil the new $10 bill in 2020, 100 years after the passage of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote.

(Image via ClawsAndPaws/ Shutterstock.com)