Making e-Government Services More User Friendly

humanITy Briefing Paper 11

Date: 16/07/2003

1. Introduction

1.1 During the last four years the UK Government has been working towards a target of providing on-line facilities for "all who want them" by the year 2003. In the sense that the Government defines "Access" the target has been met. The Government has also exceeded its target of 6,000 UK on-line Centres by the end of 2002. The number of people with access to on-line facilities through computers connected to landline telephones is over 50%. In the course of achieving these targets the Government has spent more than £6 billion and plans to spend the same amount in the next three years. In a speech to the e-Summit in London (19.xi.02) the Prime Minister said that the emphasis would shift from 'raw' accessibility to uptake. If this aspiration is not substantially met, the Government will face double costing for its communications by investing in e-services without saving on traditional methods of transacting with citizens.

1.2 In comparison with perhaps 60% of the population who are on line, only 5% of them, or one in 12, uses on-line Government services. Why?

1.3 The purpose of this Paper is to try and answer that question.

1.4 This Paper will deal with:

Web and Digital Information Design (Section 2.)
Understanding the Market (Section 3.)
Tools (Section 4.)
User Interfaces (Section 5.)
Multi-channel and Hybrid Systems (Section 6.)

2. Web and Digital Information Design

2.1 The Government has signed up to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG Version 1.0) issued by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (w3.org). It is clear, however, that simply to adhere to these standards at compliance level A is not enough. A site may conform to these Guidelines and be almost completely unusable, e.g., it may have too many links, offer confusing navigation options or be too self referential. This last point is key because most Government sites reflect the structure of Departments and the requirements of officials rather than reflecting the needs of citizens. A good example of this is the insistence of many units in Departments in having a link to their activities on the site Home Page; this at the very least breaks the rule of the "Power of Nine".

2.2 The e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF), even where it is observed, does not extend to the need for an identical or at least similar site 'look and feel' for users.

2.3 The OEE, custodian of accessibility and usability, should extend the e-GIF to cover some basic design and look-and-feel templates.

3. Understanding the Market

3.1 More than 4/5 of Government transactions with citizens involve people who are not currently on-line. Most of this group are, however, multi-channel television subscribers and their uptake of mobile telephones is not far below the general population. This at the very least should call into question the traditional and current concentration on PC-based services.

3.2 As in other aspects of life, on-line behaviour reflects the balance of effort and advantage, the incentive factor. At the moment most people have no incentive to abandon traditional service routes to go on-line:

The experience is sterile
The cost feels high even if it is not
Many analogue documents and processes have been migrated to the Internet without being properly re-engineered for the environment; for example where boxes in forms need to be completed accompanying notes are separate rather than popping up in the active box
Most people cannot seek help by telephone when on-line (See Section 6. below) and so the experience is often bewildering and lonely.

3.3 The experiences just listed might be undergone for a high incentive but not for little or no incentive. If the Government really believes that it will save money by transferring its services from traditional methods to on-line then it ought to make a clear statement that citizens will share in the savings; it might, alternatively, pay citizens to go on line. This latter approach would have the benefit of targeting those who are currently not likely to participate.

4. Tools

4.1 Even for experienced computer users the task of customising Internet information (using tool bars, adjusting browser settings) is quite daunting. e-Government sites should integrate tools with data so that simple functions such as text enlargement, font changes, colour foreground/background, image rejection, moving 'up' and 'down' layers, is made as simple as possible.

4.2 The next generation of e-Government sites, however, should contain some or all of the following:

Language Simplification. This is most effective if: the simplification rules are declared and the original can be reached with a simple process (one click); if any disambiguation tool resides with the author not the end user.
Intelligent Agents. These become more efficient as data is tagged and linked either through automatic metadata allocation systems or through 'semantic web' techniques such as a resource description framework (RDF). Either way, these processes radically reduce user time wasting.
Reactive Configuration for Personal Profiles. Currently user configuration is painstaking and most of it is not portable even though that has been easy since the advent of Microsoft NT. The next step should be the development of systems which identify user behaviour and adjust to it in terms of basic configuration (print size etc) but also in terms of ranked known use and 'reading age'.
Point Oriented navigation. This allows a system to base information on the user's location, e.g. transport timetables begin with where the user lives or the location she has specified or is calling from.
Voice in/voice out. The performance of voice in/voice out systems varies according to the size of the vocabulary the system must carry. Many Government operations operate on small, technical vocabularies and would adapt well to these technologies.
Language Translation. This is still in its early stages but it is vital that it is developed as our language diversity increases.

5. User Interface Choice

5.1 In spite of the evidence both on the uptake of the PC and multi-channel television, the Government has been far too oriented towards the PC. Given, currently digital television suffers from presentation limitations (approx. 16 lines of text) but all design should be tending towards its use and towards the use of the telephone.

5.2 The convergence of the telephone with consumer electronics designed to receive broadcasting is already rapidly approaching and the Government should integrate this into its planning. The advantages of accessing e-Government through the telephone are obvious:

Always connected
Private
Instant Access
Flexible
Familiar Technology
Optionally non visual
No typewriter keyboard
Easy for voice in/voice out.

5.2 The use of wireless and the development of large, flat screens should also provide the kind of interface flexibility which radically reduces the emphasis on publicly provided hardware tied to centres or kiosks.

5.3 Ultimately, the combination of technologies will almost certainly lead to a combination of an identity card with biometrics, the SIM card of a mobile phone and some attributes of a PDA (see Briefing Paper 9, Section 5.). In the interim, information should be designed so that it can be re-purposed across platforms and user interfaces with macro-driven tools rather than with expensive re-engineering.

6. Multi-Channel and Hybrid Systems

6.1 We have already referred to the problem of simultaneous Internet and voice telephone access (see para 3.2 above) but with the advent of broadband these problems will be overcome. The Government should, therefore, already be thinking about designing systems that integrate on-line and call centre access so that users can switch between the two or run both in parallel.

7. Resources

Carey, K. and Stringer, R. (2000) The Power of Nine. A Preliminary Investigation into Navigation Strategies for the New Library with Special Reference to Disabled People. Resource (former Library and Information Commission) LIC Research Report 74. http://www.humanity.org.uk/articles/pr_po9.shtml
Electronic- Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) http://www.egifcompliance.org/
Carey, K. (2003) humanITy and the Challenge of Convergence. Speech given at the 27^th meeting of the High Level Group of Employment and Social Dimension of the Information Society. European Commission Centre. Brussels, 23 May 2003 (forthcoming in humanITy website).
Prime Minister’s Keynote speech to e-Summit, http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page1734.asp
Scott Cree, J. (2003) How friendly are UK government websites? http://pages.britishlibrary.net/johnscottcree/
Web Accessibility Initiative, www.w3.org/WAI

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