Maryland.gov Honored with International Awards

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – December 11, 2017 – Maryland’s award-winning website, www.Maryland.gov, has been honored nationally and internationally by nine prestigious organizations this year and boasts 39 awards since 2013. These honors highlight the improvements Maryland.gov has made to government website design, thereby providing an increased number of interactive solutions to better serve the citizens in the state of Maryland.

“The Maryland Department of Information Technology is proud of the evolution of Maryland.gov. These awards are a testament to our ability to keep pace with current IT trends and consumer preferences, in an effort to provide citizen-centric IT solutions to Marylanders.” said Acting Secretary, Mike Leahy.

Maryland.gov provides a gateway for more than 87 million visitors to agency websites and hundreds of time-saving digital government services. Agencies and visitors have access to payment processing gateways, a real-time social media mashup for more than 300 agencies, help desk with live chat, interactive events and public meetings calendar, and a citizen-centric Google site search.

Maryland.gov’s engaging design was developed with a mobile-first approach. The portal utilizes responsive design techniques for flexible display on smartphone, tablet, desktop or laptop devices.
Maryland’s innovative social media strategy provides meaningful updates and information relative to the section of the site being visited, delivering a best-in-class communications platform. A prominently placed search box utilizes predictive text to dynamically update results while the user enters search terms. Results are categorized by online services, publications and maps to quickly locate information across the enterprise of Maryland government.

Maryland’s use of GIS state data mash ups within the NearYou geo-location mapping service integrates the Motor Vehicle Administration’s queue system with office locations to display current wait times at branch offices. Additionally, state park, agency locations, and even state jobs are visibly displayed using this citizen-centric feature. Maryland.gov is truly cutting edge, putting citizen’s needs at the forefront of design.
The Maryland.gov website was developed in conjunction with NIC Maryland, through a statewide self-funded digital government master services agreement with the State Department of Information Technology (DoIT).