2026 Winners
International and Region 2
Georgia Department of Revenue
Motor Vehicle Division Landing Page Upgrade
In late 2024, the Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) finalized a comprehensive review and update of the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) section of its external website. The goal of this initiative was to improve user experience and make it easier for Georgians to find the information they need quickly and efficiently.
The MVD team reorganized and streamlined all online content, grouping information into clearly defined topics to create a more intuitive navigation experience. This ensures that visitors seeking registration details can locate what they need without sorting through unrelated content such as title information or general resources.
The redesigned main page preserves quick access to the top online motor vehicle services used by visitors, while also providing flexibility to highlight new features, important announcements, or seasonal reminders. When no special notices are active, these service links expand seamlessly across the page for optimal visibility.
In partnership with Digital Services Georgia, the MVD used website analytics and in-depth user behavior data to shape content organization and page design. The new layout employs visual imagery instead of traditional menu links to better guide users through their journey — a format that performs exceptionally well on both mobile and desktop devices.
As one of the most frequently visited areas on the DOR website, the Motor Vehicle Division’s refreshed web section has significantly enhanced accessibility and usability, reaffirming DOR’s commitment to customer-focused service and digital innovation.
Region 1
Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration
Data Dashboard
In summer 2025, the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) launched a real-time data dashboard designed to provide customers with up-to-the-minute information on branch office wait times, average visit durations, available services, and other important information. The dashboard serves as an informational hub for several MVA objectives, including operational information, electric vehicle acceptance in Maryland, account creation for myMVA Online Services, and tracking transactions completed online or at a kiosk.
The dashboard, most easily accessible through the MVA website’s homepage icon, is managed in Microsoft Power BI and optimized for both desktop and mobile devices. It empowers Marylanders to make informed decisions, improves accessibility to MVA services, and provides information on important topics that might otherwise need to be requested through the Public Information Act. The dashboard is part of MVA’s ongoing efforts to improve customer experience by enhancing transparency and accessibility.
For the customer looking for information on services at a particular branch, the dashboard has simplified the MVA locations page, helping us cut down from 24 separate pages of information on each branch into one central spot that provides live wait times for all branch offices statewide; average visit times to help customers estimate the duration of their trip; and branch details, including addresses and operating hours, as well as the services offered at each location.
For the customer interested in electric vehicles in Maryland, a click on the EV box on the main page of the dashboard will send the user to a trove of information regarding electric vehicles in Maryland, including the top 10 EV models, the top 10 EVs Marylanders are driving, and the ZIP codes where those owners reside.
Two additional boxes on the main page include a box that measures the creation of myMVA Online Services accounts, with a direct link to create an account for those interested customers. The other box is a monthly count of transactions completed without a customer needing to make an appointment. Otherwise known as Alternative Service Delivery, the information gives a glimpse into MVA’s efforts to meet customers where they are—giving them the ability to complete a transaction in the way that makes the most sense for their schedule.
The project was developed completely in-house, with the MVA team providing the concept of the look and feel of the landing page as a “heads up” dashboard display. All graphics were created by the in-house design team. The MVA Data team took the lead on developing the actual pages, and the Communications team provided ideas for content.
Since the early 2025 go-live, the most viewed page of the Data Dashboard, with over 33,000 visits, has been the Location Hub. The EV Hub, which has been available for a shorter period, has garnered more than 5K customer views in a three-month span. The dashboard is designed to accommodate ongoing development of additional portals, which will be added over time.
Region 3
Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services
DVS Customer and Partner Website
DVS’ decade-old website had significant barriers to success, like difficulty finding information and 12th-grade reading levels. Our audience members, including statewide drivers, vehicle owners, community organizations, and business partners, often commented about challenges using the old website.
Our strategy included pre-development community engagement, including surveys. We reviewed web page traffic and community comments to help focus our development efforts. During the rebuild, over 150 Department of Public Safety staff members, including many DVS associates, rewrote and reorganized website content for clarity, ease of use, and prioritization based on user data.
Tactics used included a focus on site search functions, which can be fine-tuned by pinning specific results, boosting values, controlling weights of fields, and creating synonym sets. Editors use a browser-based user guide to ensure consistency in tone and structure.
The new website outcome is a modern, mobile-friendly design aligned with our brand. The design is focused on easy access to our diverse information and services. The website includes featured events and news articles, all displayed in a way that doesn’t disrupt the overall branding or site structure. We also have “I want to” search bars customized with quick links to their top-requested services.
The site is built to be responsive, meaning it will adjust seamlessly across all devices, including smartphones and tablets. It uses a decoupled architecture where the front end—the site users see—loads in under 1 second, even on older devices or slower internet connections. This exceeds the industry standards for load time by 300%. Additionally, this decoupled architecture can handle surges in traffic without slowing down or crashing.
The new website meets or exceeds state and federal accessibility standards, supporting our mission to create a safer Minnesota to support all communities. It offers multiple language options, including the prominent locally used Spanish, Hmong, and Somali. Our high-contrast design improves readability. Clear headings, accurate labels, required alt text for images, and page landmarks improve navigation, while full keyboard navigation options ensure all users can easily access and interact with content.
The site was built with the latest in web design best practices, including SASS (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets), CSS3, HTML5, and responsive design. Our access and permissions system makes sure only authenticated users can make site changes. The site was also developed within the SOC2 framework, and traffic is geofenced with failover protocols according to the overall state of Minnesota guidelines. Access to the site is integrated with the statewide SSO to guard against rogue actors.
We use ongoing site surveys to measure effectiveness for the new website. These surveys indicate user satisfaction has increased by more than 50 percent and user success rate by more than 39 percent.
Region 4
Arizona Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division
Arizona's Website for Services: AZMVDNow
This year, Arizona put a strategic emphasis on improving communication and the customer experience through our services website. Through the use of User Experience testing, observing customers live as they use the portal, and robust survey feedback, we significantly leveled up how we communicate with our customers and the ways they can communicate with us.
To hear from our customers and give them a way to communicate with us about each specific transaction, we pivoted from using an expensive industry survey platform to our own custom solution integrated into our operating system, MAX. We use the same custom survey platform for customers who interact with us online, in the office, and over the phone. The survey is configurable and can be deployed in any interaction on AZMVDNow, MVD’s customer portal. It provides robust metrics and reporting, including a calculated “Customer Satisfaction Score”—a critical metric to measure customer engagement. In-office customers can complete a survey tied directly to a transaction from a QR code on their receipt or from their service history. The call center can also send a text or email with a link to the customer survey without needing to validate customer information to fill it out. The survey is available in English or Spanish.
Customers are welcomed to give feedback in an approachable way. The survey uses a friendly tone and simple questions, asking for an “easy peasy” rating as well as comments. Administering the survey questions is simple and allows us to rapidly adjust our questions and analysis based on changes we make in our processes and interface.
In addition to improving the way customers communicate with us online, we significantly upgraded the way we communicate with customers. Dashboard 2.0 is a customer-centric, responsive redesign of the AZMVDNow Dashboard that better highlights credential and vehicle status and makes important services easier to access.
Electronic titles are new to customers and require special communication. In an expansion to the electronic Title Transfer service, customers can now transfer the ownership of vehicles with multiple owners. This opens eligibility for online title transfer to a significant number of Arizona MVD customers, and online prompts guide the buyer and seller through the process. eTitle Transfer text alerts further support customers through the process.
Online security is important to customers, and communicating their options can be complex. Previously, security features were spread between multiple services and confusingly named. By consolidating and better organizing features into a customer-focused “center,” we created awareness and accessibility so users can better protect their account. These before-and-after images display the improved communication to customers available on the MVD website.
Previously, for a customer to book an appointment online, they would need to have an account. This excluded customers who were new to Arizona. Now, new-to-Arizona customers can schedule a visit to any MVD office location with better guidance. This new communication and capability specifically for new-to-state customers is meant to make it easy for customers to find their way online.