The UK's local councils are not doing enough to make
their websites usable, according to astudyby consultancy firmWebcredible.
The firm found that out of
Soctim's
top 20 council websites, only four achieved a score of more than
60%. The average rating was 45.5%.
The research found the most common problem was websites being
hard to navigate, making key information such as online payment
applications hard to find.
London boroughs
Lambeth and Camden
offered the best online experience, whereas Barking and Dagenham,
also London, were the worst.
Webcredible interviewed 949 members of the public, and asked for
their feedback on four areas of web design:
- Site and homepage priorities, such as a prominent "contact"
link, homepage returns buttons, lists of services and text resizing
controls
- Important tasks, such as paying council tax, finding a
councillor, planning applications.
- Transactions, ease of online forms and information
gathering
- Navigation and orientation, including sitemaps, searching and
language
Councils did not fare well in providing visible contact details,
access for people with visibility problems, or a clear link back to
the previous page.
The report said councils were good at providing contact details
for councillors and a homepage link on every page.
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