Frequently Asked Questions About the DX Platform

The State of Iowa has built an enterprise platform for its Digital Transformation initiative. This platform helps all state agencies create content for constituents in a consistent way.

The platform has various content types and a media library. This helps authors publish information that is easy for users to understand.

The bulk of State agencies have been assigned a "Cohort" in the queue of rollouts onto the platform.

Your Public Information Officer gets updates about the next steps for their group.

Use your assigned login to access the system. The vast majority of website authors will be State employees and will log in using your existing single sign-on process.

The site uses a structured content approach to standardize data and work towards the ability to "edit in one place, update everywhere".

The majority of content on the site is made up of "Content" including Basic Pages and Landing Pages, with many different pieces of "Microcontent" embedded.

Learn how to use those two types of content: Content vs. Microcontent.

A single piece of Microcontent can appear multiple times. If you change the original, that change shows up everywhere it’s used. For example, if a Promo called "Subscribe to Newsletter" gets an updated image, that Promo will be updated with the new image, in all places where it's used.

The DOM DoIT team working on the initiative has shared approximate website launch dates with all initial cohorts. If you have questions or need more information, reach out.

Our guidelines are to use shorter menu titles and to use fewer than six menu items at a time. If there are more items, the hamburger menu will show up in the top-right corner. We suggest keeping top-level navigation menu items short. Limit it to six items total.

We recommend adding a featured image on pages to "fill" the space to the right of the screen. Most screens will display what's expected. On smaller screens, some information will be cut off. This prompts users to scroll for more details.

Users who are using a Listing Page will more than likely anticipate a scroll.

To help encourage users to scroll, please include more information in the summary, like “see special factors to consider below.”

All authors on the site are assigned one of multiple pre-defined "Roles":

Writers: submit content for review
Editors: edit content
Publishers: publish content

Agency Managers: manage the agency settings

Here is a breakdown of the roles: Authors on the platform