Category 2: Delivering Excellence in Digital Services
IMPROVING PUBLIC SERVICE THROUGH HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN: HUD'S STATE WEBPAGE TRANSFORMATION
Office of Field Policy and Management
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Office of Field Policy and Management
Jeremy Ames
Director, Data Analytics and Stakeholder Engagement (Washington, DC)
Angela Hui
Former Supervisory Management Analyst
(Los Angeles)
Alex Russell
Program Analyst
(Los Angeles)
Dr. Mel Kline Lee
Design Strategist and Project Manager (California)
Eduardo Cabrera
Field Office Director
(San Francisco, California)
Laurie Udit
Field Office Director
(Los Angeles, California)
Non-Profit Community Partnerships (Salvation Army)
Shannon Lamb
Program Manager, The Salvation Army Center for Applied Research and Innovation (CARI)
Dr. Benjamin Hurst
Director, The Salvation Army Center for Applied Research and Innovation (CARI)
Alexandra Grosse
Program Analyst, The Salvation Army Center for Applied Research and Innovation (CARI)
Adam Rumrill
Deputy Director, Data Analytics and Stakeholder Engagement
Andrea Meeks
Program Analyst
(Wyoming)
Ashley Vo
Program Analyst
(San Francisco)
Shivona Brownslow-Curry
Customer Experience Specialist
Effie Russell
Deputy Director, Customer Experience (Colorado)
Dave Matthews
Alaska Program Analyst
University Partnerships
(University of Southern California)
Dr. Annalisa Enrile
Lead Professor, Social Innovation and Design, USC School of Social Work
Dr. Eric Rice
Co-Founder, Center for Artificial Intelligence for Society (CAIS), USC
Office of Public Affairs
Letha Strothers
Deputy Departmental Web Management Officer (Washington, DC)
Eileen Coleman
Acting Internal Communications Director & Departmental Web Management Officer
(Washington, DC)
Helen Savoye
Deputy Departmental Web Management Officer (Washington, DC)
Joanne Johnson
Former Web Manager
(Washington, DC)
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) State Webpage Modernization Team is being honored in Category 2: Delivering Excellence in Digital Services for transforming how millions of Americans access urgent housing support through a compassionate, user-centered digital experience.
With 75 percent of HUD.gov visitors facing housing insecurity and 35 percent actively experiencing homelessness, the outdated and fragmented state webpages posed a serious barrier to assistance. In response, HUD’s Office of Field Policy and Management, working in close collaboration with the Office of Public Affairs, launched a human-centered redesign focused on usability, empathy, and equity.
The initiative consolidated more than 2,400 fragmented state webpages into just 100 streamlined, user-friendly pages, with simplified interfaces aligned to top user needs and clear pathways to rental assistance, homelessness support, and other critical services. A new “Need More Help” feature routes service requests by zip code directly to the nearest HUD field office, while co-creation with individuals experiencing homelessness and organizations such as the Salvation Army ensured the solutions were designed with empathy and tested in real-world conditions. The redesign was first piloted in California before being scaled nationwide to all 50 states and two U.S. territories.
The impact has been extraordinary. The new state pages now rank among the top 0.01 percent of all HUD.gov traffic. More than 17,500 service requests have been submitted through the new feature, with 95 percent resolved within 24 hours, providing timely, life-saving support to individuals and families in crisis. Beyond improving access to critical resources, the initiative has strengthened trust in HUD’s ability to meet people where they are, with compassion and speed.
By placing users at the center of every decision, HUD has created a scalable, sustainable model for federal digital transformation - proving that human-centered design can deliver measurable impact for the nation’s most vulnerable.