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Renovating the Government Portal

by Despina Babbage, Information Victoria, Department of Business and Innovation, 19 December 2011

Creating the virtual front door

Citizens have always needed information from government. With the advent of online platforms in the 1990s, government portals provided an additional way for citizens to find that information.

As the unified point of access to online information from a range of diverse sources, the portal had the advantage of providing a consistent look and feel for an array of otherwise different government agencies. Bringing together a mass of aggregated government information via numerous hyperlinks on the home page, portals became the virtual front door to government.

In today's more complex digital era, with both the massive expansion of the digital consumption of information, along with the emergence (and convergence) of a plethora of new mobile devices with which access this information, the debate centres on the continuing value of such portals.

This paper explores the way online government information is discovered and accessed and the implications for government in presenting this information. In so doing, it suggests ways to renovate the portal to better meet the needs of citizens.

Out with the Old

Increasingly, the onus on portals is to evolve away from being the one-way front door to government information. To keep pace with the expectations of citizens, governments are renovating portals – stripping away static text and injecting interactive features and functions – to deliver not just content, but to also make possible both engagement and the sharing of data across a mix of social media and other user-centric platforms.

This remodelling adds value and richness to the portal online experience of government.

And, as it relates to the discoverability of information, there is increasing acknowledgement that information needs to be searchable in the way that citizens like to search. The days when it was good enough to organize a portal according to government-designed categories or life-events, based on departmental silos, is wanning.

Search is King

Government information needs to be easy for search engines to find. The focus on better search functionality is highlighted in the United States 2010 Open Government Research Report – Right Now (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader) which confirms that almost all sessions on the web begin via a browser search.

Search Engine Optimization is the term used to describe the process of making pages discoverable by search engines by emphasizing the language that people use. The onus is therefore on government to publish online content that is free of jargon. Using keywords that citizens are likely to use, rather than formal government language, is fundamental to this process. This remains an on-going challenge for government portals. As one analyst notes – portals can sometimes be the 'pretty face on an underlying mess.'

Responding to Citizen Demand

The Open Government Report confirms the need for governments to continue to meet changing community expectations about the way they communicate.

Not only do citizens want government to offer better online functionality and search, they also expect to be able to access this information via mobile devices and for government to maintain an insight into the way they like to interact with them.

Governments are responding and there are a number of portals that already reflect some of these expectations:

• Utah.gov
• Arkansas.gov
• RhodeIsland
• GSA Launches Notifications.USA.gov as Public Information Resource
• USA.gov
• Texas.gov
• West Virginia

All these sites are worth further consideration, with the Utah site, a particularly good example.

Based on extensive research to meet the needs of citizens, the site is organised around a prominent search function. A citizen visiting the Utah.gov site isn't presented with a set of links to navigate – instead – the search function is front and centre on the redesigned site, reflecting how citizens prefer to navigate online. The search box aligns with user behaviour on government websites – namely – to easily get an answer to a query.

The site also integrates collaborative features from Twitter and Facebook as well as videos from YouTube. Other features worth highlighting are:

• Google Custom Search: The search function is built with Google Custom Search to deliver the most relevant results to site visitors.
• Location: The site has a location filter to enable visitors to receive search results that are relevant to where they live. The "Near You" tab provides relevant results within a few kilometres of the visitor's location.
• Optimised for Mobile: In recognition of the fact that more people are accessing websites on the move, the site is optimised for mobile. In addition, the developers of the Utah portal recognised that users like to share information which is why social media icons are found on every page.
• Personalised: The Utah site encourages public contributions of photos, videos, blogs, maps and mobile apps, widgets to create a citizen-driven community. Even the prominent photo on the main page rotates from the mix of photos submitted by residents of the state.

Similarly, the new 2011 Arkansas state portal displays an innovative use of technology, an ease of use and a mobile payment service. It offers mobile-optimised content and a 'Text4Help' customer service option via mobile text messaging.

A geo-location widget to help find government services by the user's location is worth noting.

Is Google the new Government portal?

Because of the growing recognition that people look for information by using search and not by visiting official government portals to follow pre-determined navigational categories, Google has sometimes been described as the new government portal.

The debate about the role and on-going value of government-wide portals is at least a decade old. The Gartner research analyst, Andrea Di Maio has been writing on this theme since 2001 (see Gartner paper: Why Today's Government Portals Are Irrelevant).

Seven years later he blogged as follows: '…portals aim at providing… information according to a government view of what citizen-centric means. Therefore … information may not match what people expect. Will individual agency web sites completely vanish? Or will they ultimately prevail over centralized government-wide portals? And how will the latter respond to demand for different ways to access and combine information and services?' (Will government portals thrive or fight to survive?)

In 2010, Di Maio again emphasised the issue of search: '…citizens interact with government primarily for information, and what they expect is to find what they need through a search rather than through a cumbersome … life event model.' (Government portals keep struggling). And most recently: 'Citizens who are occasional users of a government … portal, will most likely search for what they need: whether on an external search engine (more likely) or on the web site itself, they are not looking for a fancy, consistent interface that takes them through the 'logical' steps, but just for effective search results'. (Time to pull the plug on government websites).

This emphatic view on the primacy of search is echoed by other web analysts. Google as a de facto citizen engagement portal was the theme of a blog on the 2009 initiative of the United Kingdom (UK) Government's Central Office of Information (COI): 'If you are a Government agency that provides services for your citizen you are not competing for clicks – you are the authority… you have the likely #1 search result the searcher needs… the COI have recognised that Google is the new Government portal.'

The debate about portals has occasionally thrown up even more radical views on the way government portals could operate. One suggestion being that portals be outsourced to commercial agencies motivated by the opportunity to profit from targeting promotions on personalised accounts. (Do You Still Think That Government Portals Are Relevant?).

This outsourced concept is generally countered by the perennial issue of trust and the authoritative voice – the one source of truth – that citizens expect from government sources, in addition to the fundamental point of accountability in a democracy.

Is this the new government portal?

Alpha.Gov

In May this year, and as part of the broader rethink on the way governments deliver information, the UK government acknowledged changing online user behaviour by designing an experimental prototype portal - alpha.gov.uk.

With the overarching philosophy of '… putting the needs of citizens ahead of those of departments', the site was shaped by a strong focus on meeting user search needs.

The prototype was created on the understanding that people:

• Start their journey on a search engine (as the vast majority now do)
• Want to minimise the time they spend on a gov.uk site
• Do not understand anything about the structure of government

The functionality of the Alpha site was based on the 100 top tasks performed on the existing UK Government portal – DirectGov.

Analytics relating to the top tasks revealed that 90 per cent of traffic is from people arriving from Google to a transaction page, completing their task and leaving - with the homepage rarely seen and very little horizontal navigation.

The analysis traced how visitors arrive at central government information, revealing that Google, Bing and social websites are the main starting point for citizen access to government information.

Upstream Websites visited before Government – Jan 2011

Site Type	All govt sites	Central govt sites
Search Engines	47.40%	47.50%
Govt sites	3.80%	4.00%
Social	4.30%	4.30%
Portals	2.50%	2.40%
Others	4.40%	4.30%

Source: What was the evidence? Users' information needs and analytics.

Guided by this research, the Alpha site design prominently features a search engine box at the centre of the home page and the addition of a small number of popular tools. The portal perennial - usual latest news from government - is relegated to the bottom of the page.

The development team on the Alpha site, blogged the significance of the landing page over the hierarchy of the website. As they put it: 'People interact with government online either when they have to or to get information that government provides …for the majority of the population the starting point is Google … people want to be in and out as quickly as they can, with as few surprises and as little faff as possible'.

Because their research told them that citizens were coming to a government site from search engines with the aim of completing a specific task, the Alpha team created '…an unashamedly flat, task-focused website to help people find the 'quick do' as we termed it.' (It's all about the nodes and what lives at them).

Listening to Users

Built in three months at a cost of UK £ 261,000 (by a small in-house team of the UK Cabinet Office), the site invited public feedback from the outset. Over 1,000 structured feedback responses were received and a further 3,000 comments posted on Twitter. In addition to user's comments, further demographically-balanced user testing was undertaken. This research emphasised the following:

• Ensure that content is not edited down too much
• Navigation may still be needed for browse/category/related links
• Pay attention to content location so that it work well for all users

The research showed that user orientation is critical, especially when users are arriving deep into a large and complex site. It prompted further consideration of the following issues:

• Does the user think they are in the 'right' place and what clues to offer to help them?
• How to help users understand when they are in the wrong place?

Feedback also raised concern about how a too narrow a focus, just on the specific needs of a user's task, does not allow government to proactively tell people things that they don't know they don't know, and/or to affect behaviour change – all aspects of the wider social contract in the citizen's expectations from government. (Alpha.gov.uk wrap-up)

From Alpha to Beta

Alpha.gov.uk was the first government website prototype that was made available for public testing and feedback right from the beginning, highlighting a government commitment to developing public services with the user actively involved in deciding how services are designed and delivered.

Feedback and testing of the Alpha site closed in early August 2011. The development of a beta stage to test a wider range of features and to continue the focus on understanding and meeting user needs in online information and services was announced. (Gov.uk – from Alpha to Beta).

Public testing of the beta version of the site is expected in early 2012 with final decisions on the future of the project after the beta stage of testing is complete (One step closer to a single government domain).

Victoria Online

Closer to home, Information Victoria in the Department of Business and Innovation operates a whole of government portal – Victoria Online.

As a portal site for Victorian government state agencies, Victoria Online links to a mass of information, including some federal and local government content. And, like similar such portals, the site has had the usual challenge of structuring its navigation to accommodate easy access across a complex range of topics.

Currently undergoing redevelopment, the site is being reviewed by research staged in two parts to determine website benchmarks and to test home page layout options.

A sample of users has been tasked with scenario based activity using their own devices in their own environment with user behaviour tracked remotely.

Results from the research to date have validated the trends thus far described.

Most research participants had difficulty knowing where to start in order to locate the information they were tasked to find. User perceptions of the home page were that it was cluttered and that navigation was not as intuitive as it could be. Only 52% of users reported that they were satisfied with the process of finding the information they were seeking.

Not surprisingly, clear and easy navigation is emerging as the key user requirement. And, with regard to the options for the home page layout, users liked a single search home page because of its clear starting point and easier navigation.

Conclusion

These observations on developments relating to the role of portals all highlight the need for governments to continually test assumptions about service delivery and especially as it relates to its online channels.

The need to maintain a regular feedback loop with citizen-users is essential, especially given the rapid changes in digital communications and community expectations. Government needs to demonstrate a current awareness of the way people live their lives today.

Satisfaction measurement, using both qualitative as well as quantitative research, needs to be maintained and a user partnership model for communication with government, embedded in policy and the wider, public-sector culture.

The Obama administration is currently engaged in just such an exercise. In September 2011 they launched a public online dialogue to generate ideas on how to improve thousands of federal government websites.

The National Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites invited citizens to share their ideas on how to re-invent the delivery of information and services online. With a commitment to: 'bring the best of the web to the .gov domain' the National Dialogue invited citizens to submit their ideas and to vote and rank them.

With the aim of bringing together technology experts, innovators, and citizens who use government information, the dialogue is seeking to garner the best practices of modern web communications. The government has also set up a .gov Task Force to oversee the process and to keep the conversation going. In the two week period of the dialogue, 436 ideas were generated and will be incorporated into a summary as part of a National Web Strategy.

Keeping a watching brief on the concurrent developments with both the UK beta site and the Obama administration's National Web Strategy will prove instructive.

In the meantime, it's worth noting that the winners of the US Centre for Digital Government Awards for the Best of the Web and Digital Government (September 2011) all had a focus on combining a clear and easy search function with a more dynamic delivery of government information.

Positioning the portal so that it can continue to remain a relevant and useful part of public service delivery, requires a constant focus by government on building a dynamic and citizen-centric information partnership – as such, the renovation never ends.

Last updated: 21 December 2011 Tweet

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