Expert Insights on Federal UX Design: Q&A with RIVA’s UX Lead Thai Lam

At RIVA, we believe that user experience (UX) is at the heart of creating impactful and meaningful integrated digital experiences for our federal clients. With an ever-evolving digital landscape, the need for intuitive, accessible, and human-centered design in government services has never been greater. As RIVA’s Human Centered Design (HCD) Practice continues to grow, we are excited to welcome Thai Lam, our new UX Design Lead supporting our Health and Human Services (HHS) portfolio.

Thai brings a wealth of experience in crafting user-centric design solutions for federal agencies such as HHS that address their unique challenges and opportunities. In addition, he brings years of commercial digital product management experience from his time at companies such as Marriott, Capital One, and .  This experience will help drive and expand our Optimal Outcomes digital product delivery framework.

Today, we’re diving deeper into his insights on UX design for the public sector through a quick fire Q&A session. Discover his perspective on designing for government clients, the trends shaping the future of public sector UX, and what inspires him to create digital experiences that truly serve all users.

How do you approach user experience design in the context of federal agencies?

Between commercial and federal, it all really focuses on the user. I always start with the expertise level of the user and their frequency of engagement with the product. The expertise level for the user encompasses their technical proficiency in the medium with which they are engaging (device, operating system, and website/digital tool) as well as their expertise in the subject matter the federal agency is providing. I want to know if most users are experts so I do not create an experience that would slow them down or if they are new and infrequent users and create something that guides and informs them.

What project are you most proud of that involved a public sector client?

It would have to be the HHS.gov website re-architecture back in the day when I was with Aquilent. The scope was massive, and our team was doing manual analysis and audits for their pages and content. Our client, Alice Bettencourt, was fantastic too, making our partnership so enjoyable. What we delivered back then is not up to the standards of today with all the new user experience and human computer interaction that we have learned over the years, but for its time we created a well-organized taxonomical hierarchy for the public to navigate. This work led to my next best federal project with HRSA.gov and another fantastic client (now friend), Joni Johns, so that makes the HHS.gov project even more memorable for me.

What trend in user experience do you see as most relevant to the public sector?

The past 12 years I’ve been working in commercial, which really pushed for improving conversion rates and sometimes behavior that focuses too much on business success and not the users’ needs. What I did learn and have continued to push for is the understanding of how the users are engaging with the digital channels (desktop, mobile, tablet, website, and app). How do you translate navigation and content “confusion” from user behavior data? Do users use more of one digital channel than another? For specific tasks? One of the largest lessons I learned was understanding the environment plays a huge factor in thinking about the user experience. Is the user mobile, traveling, with spotty connection? Is the user multitasking or do they have distractions? It is not enough to make the user experience logical and friendly within its own context, but to also integrate the user’s engagement as part of the equation.

What is the biggest challenge you see for federal agencies when it comes to UX design?

It may be the user behavior data tracking. Page visits, bounce rates, and abandons do not tell anywhere near enough and really do not tell the story of success or what needs to be improved. As the owner of the digital channels and my users’ success, I want to be able to view dashboards and reports on the daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and year-of-year on user behavior through my digital channels. This would identify seasonal patterns, trends, issues, that would allow me to build feature and improvement roadmap that could drive improved user and organizational goals.

What do you do outside of work that inspires your approach to UX?

I zone out and think about nothing. I just repeat the problem(s) in my mind that I am trying to solve and then just zone out. This may occur while I’m cycling and just taking in the scenery, running, driving around, or reading. I do not know what my brain does but usually a notion of an idea, a “what if”, pops up and I try to remember that until I can put the idea into a notebook and start sketching it out.

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As Thai highlights, designing for federal agencies is a complex but rewarding endeavor. It involves navigating regulations, embracing innovation, and always keeping the end-user at the forefront of the customer experience. His passion for UX and commitment to improving digital services for our government clients is an example of the expertise and dedication that drives RIVA.

Stay tuned as we continue to introduce more of our talented team members who are making a difference in the public sector. If you’d like to learn more about our approach to human-centered design or have any questions for Thai, feel free to reach out. At RIVA, we’re always excited to share our insights and explore new ways to serve our clients and their missions better.