This was the conclusion of the latest eGovernment Benchmarking Report compiled by IQ Content, which follows up on the first survey carried out early in 2003. The latest report benchmarks 40 Irish and UK e-government sites, to measure their effectiveness from the citizen's perspective. The survey found that government Web sites are overly-reliant on files in PDF format, which are not properly indexed within the site are not accessible to people who don't have an Adobe Acrobat reader. It also found that not enough sites offer consistent navigation and orientation.
"Most e-government surveys assess the availability of transactional services as a mark of maturity -- the more services on-line, the better the provision," the report observed. "But amid the targets, progress reports and maturity surveys, there has been very little attention given to users."
The IQ Content survey attempted to measure the performance of the Web site from a user's perspective. This meant that the content should have clear audience groups and be tailored for Web consumption, with short jargon-free sentences, with clear headings and links. In terms of functionality the survey sought a clear and powerful search facility with e-mail alert functionality, printable versions and discussion forums. The design of the Web sites was to be consistent and straightforward. Sites were also expected to be accessible and to have an awareness of the needs of users with disabilities, rather than simply an adherence to standards.
The survey found that UK sites performed better than Irish sites by a wide margin. Seven of the top ten sites are from the UK, while nine of the bottom ten sites are from Ireland. Of all the sites surveyed, only two sites were awarded Grade 1 standard, or "excellent". Twelve reached Grade 2 standard or "good." Sixteen reached the Grade 3 standard of adequate and ten sites qualified as Grade 4 or "poor."
The average Irish site made it into Grade 3, but nearly half of the Irish sites evaluated received Grade a 4 score. Only four out of the 20 Irish sites reviewed reached Grade 2 or above. In the UK, the average site just makes Grade 2, with ten sites Grade 2 or above and only 1 site falling into the Grade 4 category.
Autor: Ciaran Buckley
Quelle: Electric News Net, 01.07.2004
