21st Century IDEA

Requirements for delivering a digital-first public experience

What is 21st Century IDEA?

The 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act, otherwise known as 21st Century IDEA, was a bipartisan act signed into law in December 2018.

In September 2023, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued M-23-22, Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience. In part, this memo provides further policy guidance to help agencies fully implement 21st Century IDEA. The law and policy guidance collectively establish a framework and the requirements for a digital-first public experience.

Why is it important?

Digitally is now the default way the public wants to interact with the government. [1] More than ever, digital experiences are central to federal agencies' mission delivery. And of course, the public expects their digital interactions with the government to be on par with their favorite consumer websites and mobile apps.

Delivering a digital-first public experience is a significant opportunity to improve the lives of millions by making it easier to access the information and services they use and count on each and every day.

Here’s Where We Come In

Among other requirements, here’s what 21st Century Idea requires all executive branch agencies to:

• Digitize services and forms
• Accelerate use of e-signatures
• Improve customer experience
• Make forms available to the public in a digital format
• Be accessible to people of diverse abilities
• Be secure by design, secure by default
• Use mobile-first design that scales across varying device sizes
• Not require a handwritten signature (“wet signature”) or other in-person identity proofing requirements as a requirement for completing a public-facing form or service without providing the public with an equivalent digital method

It looks like the authors had us in mind...

Thanks to Digital.gov - the U.S. General Services Administration