GSA Announces SAM Redesign / Before & After Guide
After months of hard work incorporating much user and stakeholder feedback, GSA’s Integrated Award Environment (IAE) is pleased to announce an updated look and feel to beta.SAM.gov will debut on April 26, 2021. The new user experience includes not just a new homepage, but changes to beta.SAM.gov’s help pages and search function incorporating your ideas and suggestions for more useful function and design. For example, the newly designed header now provides a single level of quick access to important functions like search, databank, data services, workspace, and more.
To better address how you use the site, each domain in the new design of beta.SAM.gov (ex. contract opportunities, assistance listings, wage determinations, contract data reports, and the federal hierarchy) has a dedicated landing (home) page or starting point for users. Help and training resources related to each domain will be conveniently accessible from each domain home page.
All help resources will be centralized at the Federal Service Desk (FSD.gov) and the new help landing page will highlight the most popular help topics.
The new search experience addresses numerous issues raised by our users and enhances the overall search experience. The new design makes it easier to find and use advanced search filters. We received lots of feedback about the date filters and responded with design changes that make it easier to find and use advanced search filters. Based on suggestions, we’ve made other improvements aimed at making search easier to use including a more compact design and a calendar picker. We also added more options to view and organize your search results.
To provide more flexibility, you can start a new search from the menu bar on any page, a search bar on the home page, or search bars on the domain landing pages. To guide users to the specific data they need, you can select a domain directly from the homepage. Note that all search areas now ask for some filter or keyword to be used before showing any results. The workspace, roles, or data entry pages, or access will not change.
The new design is being intentionally introduced to beta.SAM.gov users ahead of the integration of legacy SAM.gov into the beta.SAM.gov environment (happening on May 24, 2021) so you can take advantage of the improved user experience as soon as possible. For a deeper dive into the new design ahead of the April 26, 2021 launch, watch this Before and After Video or read our Before and After Guide. Again, your feedback is crucial to the design and development of GSA systems and we welcome your thoughts on the usability and functionality of beta.SAM.gov! Please share your comments with the feedback tool located at the footer of each page.