Description

Thousands of visitors worldwide plan trips or experience America’s national parks through the NPS digital experience each day. Together, the NPS digital platforms complement each other to provide an experience that encapsulates 420+ national park experiences. This experience weaves together America’s story using a behind-the-scenes thematic framework that connects stories and places through a tagging engine based on customer interests. Readers engage rangers in real-time and experience the grandeur of park landscapes or the wonder of history and culture through engaging posts and conversations on hundreds of NPS social media accounts. Visitors conveniently consume location-aware services such as interpretive tours, maps, and other content during their park visit through the NPS App.

Why this service was designated

At any one time, 4,000-5,000 people may be on NPS.gov developing an itinerary, watching live streaming webcams, exploring photo/video galleries, or researching America’s story as told through their parks and the countless primary source documents available. The website integrates services from recreation.gov to reserve campsites and purchases passes. Customers expect an increasingly sophisticated, integrated, and media-rich digital experience to help plan an in person visit, learn about a park and its resources, and remotely experience places that they may not be able to visit.

NPS recently modernized key elements of our digital experience architecture – including implementing a content tagging engine and API – to alleviate some costs while also improving our ability to agilely respond to these customer expectations. By doing so, NPS was able to deploy the initial version of the NPS App more quickly with very limited additional resource outlay by individual parks. NPS is now in the planning phase to add new features to the app and NPS.gov to further enhance the trip planning and in-park digital experience. These will include the ability for visitors to personalize their experience and more seamlessly move between the two platforms and beyond when new opportunities arise.

Description

Volunteers are members of the public who provide a defined service to the government through a volunteer services agreement. Volunteers serve in nearly every discipline, unit, and career field within NPS. Volunteers can support large one-time events or work side-by-side with NPS staff for weeks and years. Volunteer.gov is a volunteer recruitment platform and is a public-facing digital service that is a high priority system for NPS. The site currently serves approximately 5,000 volunteers a month governmentwide. Volunteer opportunities include services such as being a campground host, removing invasive species, tracking and recording the presence and health of animals or plants, providing interpretive programs, leading guided hikes or educational opportunities, and answering visitor questions in a visitor center.

Why this service was designated

NPS has a significant volunteer program: each year, nearly 300,000 volunteers collectively contribute more than 6.5 million hours of volunteer service with the NPS. As recovery from the pandemic continues, these numbers are expected to grow, making the priority service designation of this program an opportunity to increase its capabilities. Volunteers are a valuable human resource that strengthens the NPS workforce and the shared stewardship provided to the public. Plans to build out the website have been developed to offer complete volunteer management services, such as volunteer onboarding and scheduling. As the platform is further developed, NPS aims for volunteers to save time and effort through reduced manual and redundant volunteer application processes. The end goal is an improved experience for interested volunteers and streamlined operations for NPS.