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Enhancing Civic Information Access in Web-Based Platforms: A State Case Study

Explore the analysis of 50 US states' websites to improve e-government services, user experience, and access to information. Guidelines, metrics, and recommendations for optimized web design are provided.

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Enhancing Civic Information Access in Web-Based Platforms: A State Case Study

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  1. Improving Web-based Civic Information Access:A Case Study of the 50 US States Irina Ceaparu and Ben Shneiderman Department of Computer Science & Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory University of Maryland

  2. Main features • Analyze home pages of 50 U. S. states (www.state.md.us) • Size (source code, gifs, total bytes) • Navigation (incoming & outgoing links, style of navigation) • Graphics (governor’s picture, state seal, statehouse picture, scenery picture, map, use of tables and frames ) • Services (privacy policy, universal usability statement, contact information, online help, search box )

  3. Design goals: Improve E-government • Requirements: • better delivery of government services to citizens • improved interactions with business and industry • citizen empowerment through access to information • more efficient government management • Solution - set of guidelines & metrics: • solve architectural and design problems • lay out requirements for content • improve the users’ experience with the web site • minimize time & effort to access information on similarly web sites

  4. Size metrics: Reduce Download Time • Methodology: byte count • source of the home pages • images on the home pages • largest image on the home pages • Results: • smallest total byte count - Vermont (42k) • largest total byte count - Washington (274k) • largest image - Nevada (84k)

  5. Navigation metrics: incoming & outgoing links • Methodology: number of • outgoing links for the home page • incoming links for the whole web site of each state • Results: • outgoing links • Delaware & Nevada (10)  Vermont (115) • incoming links • Washington (627)  Tennessee (72138)

  6. Navigation style: Consistency & Rapid Access • Methodology: navigate web site • Results: • 9 states use a navigation bar throughout the entire web site • 26 states do not use a navigation bar at all • some states have a navigation bar just on the first two-three levels of navigation

  7. Graphic features • Methodology: record image categories • Results: • more than half display governor’s picture • more than half display state seal or statehouse • half show their map • over 70% display a scenery image • all states’ websites use tables • 4 states’ websites use frames

  8. NC MI IN MT MO

  9. Service features • Methodology: record service features • Results: • 80% provide privacy policy • 38% provide universal usability statement • 48% offer contact by email, 36 offer full contact info and 16% do not offer any contact info • 29 states offer online help • 40 states offer search features

  10. Recommendations • Keep number and size of images small (image bytes < 50K) • Use a broad and shallow menu tree (30-80 links on the home page) • Use a navigation bar consistently • Avoid frames to support universal usability • Feature most popular categories: • Government (40) Tourism(40) Business(33) Education(27) • Employment(26) Legislature(17) Online Services(11) • Health(11) Citizens(11) Living (9) Tax (5)

  11. Recommendations (cont’d) • Achieve consistency in naming links MD:www.gov.state.md.us TX:www.governor.state.tx.us OH:www.state.oh.us/gov AR: www.state.ar.us/governor • Present on home page • privacy policy • universal usability statement • contact information for public officials • search box/button • online help & phone help

  12. Conclusions: For NASCIO • Promote best practices • Broad trees, privacy policies, universal usability • Encourage consistent design • Similar structure, common terms • Support search • Voluntary agreement on tags • Work towards shared web site construction tool • Simplify, speed construction • Facilitate maintenance

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