Public Sector IT directors’ organisation Socitm has
ranked six top local government websites alongside commercial
leaders such as Amazon and Friends Reunited, for user friendliness
and delivery.
The six local authority sites, chosen for their user-orientation
and their demonstrable understanding of why visitors might be using
them, are Birmingham, Brent, Maidstone, Poole, Surrey and
Wrexham.
Socitm has rated these alongside Amazon, Easyjet, Visit Britain,
Friends Reunited, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the
BBC.
The organisation has also announced a revamp of its rating
system used to evaluate local authority websites.
In its Better Connected local e-government ranking system, an
"E" ranking will now run alongside the existing ranks of "P" for
promotional, "C" for content, "C+" for content plus, and the
current top "T" for transactional ranking.
To get an E ranking the site will have to be "effective,
efficient and engaging", said Socitm.
Socitm said the ranking system needed extending as technology
managers who had achieved the coveted T status, by developing an
interactive, transactional website, needed a further goal.
Martin Greenwood, programme manager for Socitm Insight, said
that the criteria by which Better Connected judges public sector
websites needed updating after the 2005 e-government deadlines,
because many sites had achieved the T status and new incentives
were needed to recognise the drive for continuous improvement.
“We also needed a way to deal an emerging phenomenon we have
called the ‘patchwork’ site, one which is great in some areas – let
us say online forms – but dire in others, maybe its A to Z
navigation or its accessibility,” he added. “The new system of
assessment will make clear where each site is doing well and
equally where it needs to do better.”