Usability for Government: improving service delivery

Usability for Government: improving service delivery Ruth Ellison & Adrian Newton Local Government Web Network Conference 2008 22 August 2008

Introduction

People Feel

People

Cameron Adams - Web Design:

Print = visual

Web = interactive

Interaction : behaviour : feelings

People

People Satisfaction? Relief? Impressed? But probably not happy...

People Confusion Frustration Anger

Brian Hardy- Accessibility:

” Put the user in control ”

People

Involve users in design:

What do they want?

How do they want to do it?

People

Collaborative design extends beyond the user.

Boundaries

Governments:

Large, conservative bureaucracies

Hierarchically structured

Functionally organised

Boundaries

Functional silos distance stakeholders from each other

Boundaries

Silos reflect functional specialisation.

Boundaries

Build synergy through cross-functional teaming.

Boundaries

80% of Australians now use the internet

Stats from Nielsen Online, March 2008 Boundaries

59% of Australians internet users have contacted Government at least once in the past 12 months

Stats from Australians’ use of and satisfaction with e-Government Services 2007, AGIMO December 2008 Boundaries

User expectations are evolving:

61% locality based information online

60% ask/answer questions by email

29% live chat while browsing

27% personalise government sites

11% access services by mobile

Boundaries Source: Demographic Profiling of Victorian Government Website Visitors 2007

” Culture is cultivated behaviour ”

Texas A&M University

Cultivate behaviour by transmitting experience through learning

Culture

Adapt approach:

Communicate

Integrate

Iterate

Culture

Joanna Lewis – IA

” It’s not about Town Hall... ”

Adapt your services by engaging your users.

Culture

Embed usability.

Culture

What is usability?

I'm as confused about this intersection as that sign is.... By sweeneytoad from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweeneytoad/344506101/ Available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Hmmm... By aturkus from http://www.flickr.com/photos/aturkus/395919628/ Available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Red route - Road signs on my way to work by Gaetan Lee from http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaetanlee/152102309/ Available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

“ Usability really just means making sure that something works well ”

Steve Krug

Lets take a look at paying rates via the internet

Meet Jenny

Wants to pay her rates online

Needs to create an account before she can pay her rates

Interrupted by baby Lachlan

Pick Sam from school

It’s not that simple

It’s more than just a simple function It’s now about people

Time is precious

Time is money

What type of user experience do you want your residents to have?

We need to design effective and holistic user experiences

“ Design is not decoration ”

Garr Reynolds

Consider the user experience right from the beginning

Take a user centred approach

Research

Flip-flops by theogeo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/theogeo/619457456 Available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Who are your users? Flip-flops by Joe Shlabotnik from http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/305410323/ Available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Many different techniques

Understand the business

Understand the users

Understand the content

Understanding the business

Stakeholder interviews

Requirements analysis

Understanding the users

Contextual enquiry

Mom’s desktop.. By striatic aturkus from http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/131932697/ Available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Understanding

the users

Surveys

Archetypes that represent the main user groups of a site

Personas

Mark Personal information Age: 20 Location: Sydney suburbs Access internet: from home and uni Internet usage: daily Background Mark is a full time student at Uni of NSW. He’s studying journalism and is particularly interested in citizen generated media. He uses the internet on a daily basis and keeps up with his friends via social networking sites such as Facebook. He lives in a sharehouse with two other people.

Short story about a user interacting with a site

Scenarios

Ordering a new bin Mark is a full time student at Uni of NSW studying journalism . He lives in a sharehouse with two other friends. Mark recently discovered that their rubbish bin was damaged. As it is nearly bin collection day, he and his housemates need to organise for a new bin.

“ A mind-numbingly detailed odyssey through your web site ”

Jeffrey Veen

Understanding the content

Content audit

User Goals Business Goals What users want to achieve by using your website What the business wants to achieve by releasing the website Designing with users

Design

Card sorting Designing with users

Example only

Wireframes Designing with users

Visual treatment

Evaluate

“ Fortune 1000 companies each spend an average of $2 million per year on site redesigns, without knowing if the redesign made the site easier to use. ” Forrester Research

Evaluation techniques

Expert review

Usability testing – formal & guerrilla

Standards checking

Review design against industry standards, heuristics and current research

Examples from Jakob Nielsen:

Error prevention

Consistency & standards

Match between system and the real world

Evaluating - Expert review

Evaluating – Usability testing

Evaluating – Standards checking

10 tips to take away

Tip #1

Think about who your users are

“ Know thy user, and you are not thy user ”

Society for Technical Communication

People aren’t going to your website to be entertained

People are task focussed

Tip #2

Think about how they find information on your site

4 types of information seeking behaviour*

Known item

Exploratory

Don’t know what you need to know

Re-finding

* Refer to Donna (Maurer) Spencer’s excellent article: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/four_modes_of_seeking_information_and_how_to_design_for_them

Tip #3

Get users involved early in the design process

Tip #4

Usability testing doesn’t have to be expensive

(or usability testing on a shoestring)

Guerrilla usability testing

Need a room

Mock-ups of the design

Users

Set some realistic tasks

Observe

Analyse

Tip #5

Content is key!

“ 5% of your website delivers 25% of value ”

Gerry McGovern

Giraffe - Kruger National Park by Yogi from http://www.flickr.com/photos/yogi/410605111/ Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license