Citizen Experiences: How to Improve the Usability of Government Websites
“A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it,” says Alexis de Tocqueville, a famous French diplomat. But de Tocqueville also believed the more people participate in a democracy, the more democratic it becomes. So how can governments increase participation so as to increase democracy? In order to improve participation, governments often have to rely on the use of information and communication technologies which help build a two-way communication channel between citizens and the government. This kind of channel can result in great benefits ranging from having policies that are good for society, making public relations more ethical, and plenty more explored in our previous blog here!
An example of a great tool for building citizen participation is a government website. Government websites can be a great driver for participation because they can provide a space where public officials interact with citizens and can help promote the bottom-up approach to democracy. Government websites can furthermore act as channels through which the government can seek input from the community.
In Uganda, the access to information act, 2005 states that “Every citizen has a right of access to information and records in the possession of the State or any public body, except where the release of the information is likely to prejudice the security or sovereignty of the State or interfere with the right to the privacy of any other person.” and with growing numbers of internet users (from 3.2 million in 2009 to 18.2 million in 2017); as such Uganda’s public institutions have resorted to using websites to avail this information to citizens. In fact, the inspectorate of government uses https://www.igg.go.ug/complaints/ as a channel for citizens to report cases such as corruption.
But for these activities to be successful, government websites have to be usable. So what is usability anyway? Web usability simply means that websites are clear, simple, consistent and easy for users to use. A usable government website creates a great impression for citizens and improves trust in the government and allows users to efficiently get the information they need. When web users cannot access the information they need online, they resort to visiting government institutions which can be costly to both the government and the citizens. Usability can be measured through the following five quality components;
- Learnability — Designers need to ensure that users can easily accomplish intended tasks when interacting with the website for the first time.
- Efficiency — Time is another component to ensure. Users often get easily frustrated once they cant perform a task in a given time frame so ensure that tasks can be performed as quickly as possible.
- Memorability — Designers need to ensure there is a possibility of relearning for users who return to a website after a period of not using it.
- Low error rate — Designers need to track the errors users make and how easy it is to recover from the errors in order to improve usability.
- Satisfaction — Satisfaction deals with determining how pleasant is the website is in terms of design. This can make a difference as to whether users use the website again or not.
In order to fulfill the five quality components above, information must be on your website must also be: Useful, Usable, Desirable, Findable, Accessible, and Credible and the secret to achieving all these lies in planning before you design. The planning stage is a crucial part of any design process. During the planning process always consider the following;
Your Audience
Although government ministries believe the general public to be their audience, this never works out well. Just like running any business, you can never satisfy the needs of the general public. Instead, one needs to target the needs of those they are sure than can satisfy. As a public institution, look out for key target audiences whose needs you can satisfy and tailor your website towards these Personas. Personas are vital to the success of a product because they drive design decisions by taking common user needs and bringing them to the forefront of planning before the design has actually started. Personas also provide the team with a shared understanding of users in terms of goals and capabilities.
Have focus
With the help of the above-created personas, you can easily focus on meeting the needs of your target audience and prioritizing these makes your website stand out from others. Always know that people come to your site with a goal in mind and making sure this goal is achieved as easily as possible is key to improving the usability of your website.
Do research
Once you know your target audience and have established needs you are set out to meet. Go ahead and do extensive research. Usability is also about understanding the general likes and dislikes of your users. It is good to remember that: Users scan and don’t read in detail, Users like content, but images are better, Users have limited patience, Users don’t make great decisions, Users get frustrated easily.
It is also important to know that people’s interests change over time and the research process must continue on even after the website and been established. Continuous improvement is the only way to ensure the site remains relevant.
UX design
Once you have understood your users deeply, you can then jump into the User experience (UX) design. To complete this stage successfully, you need to know what your users need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations.
An example of a simplified interface is the Uganda Electronic Visa/Permit Application System. This website is spot on and easy to follow because it focuses on a single process at a time. If you are using the website for the first time, you can easily navigate to your area of interest and navigate through that specific process. https://visas.immigration.go.ug/
On the other hand, websites like ura.go.ug can be quite complex. URA has taken many giant strides in digitizing processes and making a diverse range of payment methods possible. However, when registering to make a payment at any government institution, URA’s https://www.ura.go.ug/payment.do can be confusing for first-time users. For example, you must have detailed information about the specific government body you are paying to, the department, the category, and the tax head, etc, to get a payment slip for making a payment to the Uganda National Bureau of Standards when certifying your product.
Monitor Usage
After deploying the website, ensure you monitor the usage. Take a look at the usage data and try to find some patterns on user behavior. Monitoring helps you answer questions such as; What are the frequently asked questions? What are the most popular/least popular sections of the website? How much time do people spend on the website/bounce rate?
In summary, in order to improve usability, governments have to embrace user-centric design which emphasizes having a clear understanding of user and task requirements, incorporating user feedback to define requirements and design and early and active involvement of the user to evaluate the design of the website. After all, the users are who you are designing the website for.
Written by Arthur Kakande, Communication Lead at Pollicy
