A snapshot of local authority websites

1
A snapshot of local authority websites

• Better connected 2004
• Helen Williams
• Socitm Insight Associate

2
Our Better connected reports
3
Plus

• And many consultancy assignments linked to the
  reports

4
Contents

• A Todays context
• B Overview of results
• C Useful content
• D Usability
• E Usage
• F The future
• Appendices

5
Local e-government across the UK

• England National strategy gtgtgt IEG3
• National projects gtgtgt LAWs
• Priority service areas
• Scotland Modernising Government Fund
• Wales No earmarked funds now
• N.Ireland Innovation and Modernisation Fund

6
Principles of survey

• Useful? Does the website have the
• information that people are
  looking for?
• Usable? How easy is the information to
• find and use?
• Used? How well used is the site?

7
Useful, usable and used

• 3. Usage
• Access
• Measurement
• Feedback
• Promotion

• 1. Content
• Information
• Currency
• Links everywhere
• News value
• E-mail
• Forms
• Services
• Participation

• 2. Usability
• Ease of finding
• Use of A-Z list
• Use of word search
• Use of location
• Navigation
• Accessibility
• Readability
• Resilience

8
The main survey

• Five scenarios
• Teacher looking to move to new job
• Company applying for planning permission
• Single parent on a low income
• Small business with a range of enquiries
• Person concerned about crime and community safety
  on behalf of elderly friend.

• Four themes
• Currency of information
• Links to other organisations
• Interactive services
• Navigation

9
Other sources of information

• The main survey by team
• plus special surveys by team members on
• Evidence of news value
• Responses to sample e-mail
• Use of forms
• Practice of participation
• Use of content management systems

10
Other sources of information

• User feedback survey (RedSheriff)
• Accessibility (RNIB)
• Various technical assessments (SiteMorse)
• Content management systems (Socitm)
• Search engines (SciVisum)
• Readability (Emphasis Training)
• Access to the Internet (Mori)
• Statistics on use of websites (Hitwise)
• Local authority switchboards (Socitm)

11
Our ranking system

• P Promotional site
• C Content site
• C Content plus site
• T Transactional site

12
A transactional site..

• Essential content and self-service values
  drive the whole of such sites and combine to
  offer a compelling user experience. Such sites
  demand attention for their accessibility,
  completeness, thoughtfulness and coherence. They
  have developed more than one type of online
  interaction (eg payment, applications,
  consultation, bookings) and also offer examples
  of customer recognition (eg ability to check
  outstanding Council Tax balance, renew library
  books). They also provide specific e-mail
  contacts for different service enquiries and make
  widespread use of databases, downloadable forms
  and online form filling (e.g. for service
  requests, appointments). They routinely utilise
  the potential of the Internet for joined-up
  government (e.g. OFSTED reports listed alongside
  schools listings, life event scenarios) and offer
  unique examples of the application of the medium
  in a local government context.

13
Overall state of development...

• 2003 2004

14
Key findings.

• Nearly 1 in 3 websites have moved up one position
  in a four stage ranking system
• Transactional sites now 23 (10 in 2003)
• No of transactions increased by 46 (sample)
• 77 increase in Yes to repeat Qs
• Correlation between CPA and website rankings
• London is leading the way
• (8 transactional sites out of 33 boroughs)

15
Changes from 2003

• DOWN 37 fewer promotional sites
• 25 fewer content sites
• UP 48 more content plus sites
• 13 more transactional sites
• NET 146 up but 47 down
• 31 improvement
• 157 no change over three years

16
Top 20 most developed websites

•     Barking Dagenham
•        Birmingham City
•   Bracknell Forest
• Brent
• Brighton Hove
• Camden
• Corporation of London
• Durham CC
• Hertfordshire CC
• Hillingdon
• Isle of Wight
• Knsington Chelsea

• Kirklees MBC
• Maidstone BC
• Borough of Poole
• South Tyneside MBC
• Stroud DC
• Surrey CC
• Tameside MBC
• Wandsworth
• West Lothian
• Westminster City
• Wrexham CBC

17
But some qualifications

• News value lacking on home page
• No reply to sample e-mail within 3 days
• No evidence of forms in use, or poor use
• No evidence of participation, or poor use
• Poor use of search engines
• Failure on Level A WAI accessibility
• More than 100 technical errors
• More than 10 service failures in 10 days
• Less than 3 out of 5 home page tests passed
• Failure in council telephonist survey

18
Most improved websites

• East Devon DC gtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtgt
• Fermanagh DC
• Fife
• Newcastle-under- Lyme BC
• North Devon DC
• Sheffield City
• Shrewsbury Atcham BC

• Detailed case study
• in report

19
Northern Ireland Districts
20
Northern Ireland Districts

• 12 (of 26) sites have remained in the same
  category for the third year
• Four have improved
• Four have slipped back
• Top four are
• Fermanagh DC, Coleraine BC
• Derry City, Newton Abbey BC

21
Fermanagh DC

• Achieved the highest rating of all NI Districts
  (C)
• One of only four NI sites that have moved up a
  category since BC 2003

22
Fermanagh DC

23
Useful, usable and used

• 3. Usage
• Access
• Measurement
• Feedback
• Promotion

• 1. Content
• Information
• Currency
• Links everywhere
• News value
• E-mail
• Forms
• Services
• Participation

• 2. Usability
• Ease of finding
• Use of A-Z list
• Use of word search
• Use of location
• Navigation
• Accessibility
• Readability
• Resilience

24
E-mail Can people do business with the council
by e-mail?

• 68 reply in one day but
• 20 do not reply at all
• Im coming to visit
• your area over
• Christmas and will
• be travelling around.
• Can you tell me where
• I can access the
• Internet and whether
• its free?

• Replies to sample e-mail

25
E-mail Can people do business with the council
by e-mail?

• In Northern Ireland
• 57 reply in one day
• 42 do not reply at all

• Replies to sample e-mail

26
E-mail Can people do business with the
council by e-mail ?

• Shire county (offers free Internet access in all
  libraries)
• Reply to e-mail about Internet access
• Sorry, this is not something that we will be
  able to help you with, as it is not something the
  council has anything to do with
• but the website says
• you will find in every library in the county
  free internet access

27
AccessibilityCan people use the site if they
have a disability?

• Assessment for compliance with level A of Web
  Accessibility Initiative Guidelines
• Stage One Automated survey
• Stage Two Manual reviewer checks
• Stage Three RNIB specialist manual survey

28
AccessibilityCan people use the site if they
have a disability?

• Only 18 sites (out of 467) achieved level A
  accessibility
• 404 sites had missing alt attribute for some or
  all images
• Only half had meaningful alt text for images
• Over 420 sites used Javascript three quarters of
  them did not function when Javascript was not
  supported
• 143 sites had text only but only 7 of these
  achieved level A

29
AccessibilityCan people use the site if they
have a disability?

• Armagh City DC was the only site in Northern
  Ireland to pass our tests

30
Access Do people have easy free access to the
Internet?

• MORI survey
• Increases in Internet usage are levelling off
• Approximately half the adult population has
  access
• 14 of the remainder use public access points
• Of these 25 weekly, 49 monthly

31
Access Which of the following websites have you
heard of?

• 87 BBC Online
• 69 Inland Revenue
• 61 NHS Direct
• 46 Local council site
• Nearly half of people who had heard of their
  council site had visited it

32
FeedbackWhat do we know about visitors
experiences?

• Nine sites took part in a survey of website usage
  using RedSheriffs services
• An exit poll was launched as visitors left the
  site
• Asked How did you find this site?
• 35 via a search engine
• 20 guessed the website address
• 12 followed a link from another site
• 11 through advertising on council literature
• 10 someone at the council told me about it

33
FeedbackWhat do we know about visitors
experiences?

• Which of the following information were you
  looking
• for on the council website today?
• Over 30 options presented (e.g. job vacancies,
  housing, bin collection, report a problem)
• Biggest response (21) was Other, please state
• Top two services selected were Job Vacancies
  (14.5) and Planning applications (7.6)
• Spread across the remainder shows the sheer
  diversity of information sought from council
  sites

34
FeedbackWhat do we know about visitors
experiences?

• What brings you to this local authority site?
• 57 of visitors say they live, work or do
  business in the area
• Only 2 say they are visiting or planning to
  visit
• 13 say they are accessing the site in connection
  with their job
• 6 are studying or researching
• 6 are seeking work
• 2 are accessing on behalf of someone else

35
FeedbackWhat do we know about visitors
experiences?

• Did you find the information you were looking
  for?
• Two thirds of visitors are able to resolve their
  query using the website alone
• If you were looking for similar information
  again, what is
• the likelihood of the website being your first
  port of call?
• 83 say they are likely to use the website for
  similar information again

36
PromotionAre websites being fully marketed to
key audiences?

• Survey of council switchboards
• Can you tell me the website address of your
  organisation?
• 72 got it right
• Of the remaining 28
• 35 got it wrong
• 75 passed the call on to another department
• 19 did not know and offered no alternative except
  try a search engine or discussed it with other
  colleagues

37
Useful, usable and used

• 3. Usage
• Access
• Measurement
• Feedback
• Promotion

• 1. Content
• Information
• Currency
• Links everywhere
• News value
• E-mail
• Forms
• Services
• Participation

• 2. Usability
• Ease of finding
• Use of A-Z list
• Use of word search
• Use of location
• Navigation
• Accessibility
• Readability
• Resilience

38

• Thank you