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Consumer Research (RS-07) - Victoria Online Project

November 2001

• Introduction
• Approach
• Findings
• Recommendations
• Reports availability

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Introduction

iFocus were commissioned to perform consumer research on behalf of Multimedia Victoria. The research was conducted in three phases. The outputs of the research included:

• Executive summary - An overview of all the reports
• Consumer profiles - A presentation of the individual profiles of online government users within Victoria
• Phase 1 - Demographic assessment - A detailed report of 'who' are the users of government information and services
• Phase 2 - Target market needs analysis - A detailed report of 'what' the users of government information and services want
• Phase 3 - Life events and groupings - A detailed report on how the users of government information and services may like that information.

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Approach

The consumer research was undertaken using a combination of quantitative, qualitative and ethnographic methodologies to build a detailed picture of what the users of online government services required. The tests undertaken included:

• An online and paper-based survey
• An electronic taxonomies classification test
• A government brochure selection and discussion
• A life event selection and discussion.

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Findings

General

The amount of research available on government e-initiatives and implementations is very general and often dated. The amount of research that has been conducted and publicly reported, that asks the community specifically about their government online information and service needs is relatively low although research into eGovernment, worldwide was a hot topic of discussion at the time of this research.

Who

The majority of users of Victorian online government services and information are people from within government (including other tiers such as local and federal) followed closely by the external aligned government audiences of community, health and education.

The top 35 users are …
Note:
The likes and dislikes of the following 35 users are presented in detail the Consumer Research Profiles document.

Rank	Audience profile
1	Female, full-time, government and defence, aged 26-35
2	Male, full-time, government and defence, aged 46-55
3	Female, full-time, government and defence, aged 36-45
4	Female, full-time, government and defence, aged 46-55
5	Male, full-time, government and defence, aged 36-45
6	Female, full-time, education, aged 36-45
7	Female, part-time, health and community services, aged 36-45
8	Male, retired, aged over 66
9	Male, full-time, government and defence, aged 26-35
10	Male, full-time, student, aged 18-25
11	Female, full-time, health and community services, aged 26-35
12	Male, retired, aged 56-65
13	Male, full-time, telecommunications and systems, aged 26-35
14	Male, full-time, health and community services, aged 36-45
15	Female, full-time, sports, arts and cultural services, aged 26-35
16	Male, full-time, consulting and research, aged 26-35
17	Female, full-time, government and defence, aged 18-25
18	Male, full-time, government and defence, aged 18-25
19	Female, part-time, education, aged 36-45
20	Male, full-time, student, under 18
21	Male, full-time, education, aged 46-55
22	Male, full-time, telecommunications and systems, aged, 36-45
23	Male, full-time, consulting and research, aged 36-45
24	Female, full-time, health and community services, aged 36-45
25	Female, full-time, education, aged 46-55
26	Female, student, aged under 18
27	Female, home duties, aged 36-45
28	Female, full-time, education aged 26-35
29	Female, full-time, telecommunications and systems, aged 36-45
30	Male, full-time, finance, aged 26-35
31	Female, student, aged 18-25
32	Male, full-time, telecommunications and systems, aged 46-55
33	Female, part-time, retail, aged 36-45
34	Male, full-time, government and defence, aged 56-65
35	Female, full-time, government and defence, aged 56-65

What

Likes and dislikes of the top 35 profiled audiences

The following table depicts the likes and dislikes of the profiled respondents. For further information on the profiles, see Consumer Research Profiles.

My Online Government priorities…	Level of Concern
Issue	High	Medium	Low
General Usability
Speed of site	79%
Ease of information discovery	88%
Trust in organisation	71%
Currency of the information	79%
Advanced search		52%
Using the internet for information gathering	89%
Using the internet for email	84%
Accessed online government information and services from work	66%
Accessed online government information and services from home			32%
Current Government web site usage
Accessed online government information and services via the internet	74%
Most of them accessed government at all levels once a WEEK		45%
Most of them accessed state government at least once a WEEK		38%
Beliefs and needs about transactions and security
Comfortable filling out online forms		58%
Customising information			17%
Concerned about the security of online financial transactions	66%
"Need" access to electronic payments		34%
Concerned about the way in which their information may be being captured and stored		63%
Pay bills, pay fines and make government purchases online		49%
Preferred communication and access
Happy to access government either online or face-to-face		58%
Interested in face-to-face contact with government ONLY			17%
Access government 24 hours a day seven days a week	66%
Didn't want to have to think about which tier of government they needed to access		35%
Social participation
Wanted more say in the way in which their state and country were governed		39%
Wanted to know more about the future vision of Victoria		38%
Functionality and content
Chat rooms			6%
Message boards			13%
Email newsletters			26%
General information and services	76%
Event guides		61%
Whole of government search	70%
Access to government contact directories		52%

Content preferences

1. Tourism
2. General reference
3. Culture
4. Government policies & regulations
5. Utilities & facilities
6. Community & government
7. Law
8. General interest
9. Environment, land & property
10. Education & youth affairs
11. Entertainment
12. Health & Disability
13. Business & worker's rights
14. Industry & investment in the state
15. Rural communities
16. Multicultural communities
17. Other

For further detailed information on what the users of Victorian online government services and information want see, Phase 2 - Target market needs analysis.

How

Non-government users require access to services using plain English terminologies that are not affected by changes to governments, government restructures or government jargon.

Users have no particular preference for life-event models of navigation.

Users do require easy navigation and easy but meaningful searches. There was considerable interest in being able to search across all tiers of government.

For further detailed information on how Victorian online government users would like to interact with state Government see, Phase 3 - Life events and groupings.

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Recommendations

From the results gathered across all reports a recurring opinion was expressed that access to government information (local, state and federal) should not be compromised by an over-emphasis on non-government services and information.

While most of the respondents were either from within government or closely affiliated to the industry of government, it is important to recognise the secondary audiences as an untapped potential market. The main reasons why these users are not primary users are:

• Regular repeatable need has not been created for them
• The benefits of using government web sites has not been clearly communicated and reinforced
• State government sites that have been difficult to navigate, difficult to find (confusing URL's) or slow to load have possibly compromised the user's experience.

While usability and navigation issues can be addressed and tested at the time of site development, the promotion of the site requires an ongoing communication and awareness plan. This plan should include measurable initiatives to target the minority site user demographic segments.

Further, regular performance analysis, reporting and research studies should be implemented to:

• Monitor the changing profile of the online user within Victoria over time
• Gauge the alignment of the Gateway against user needs and performance criteria
• Inform further development of the Gateway and online government information and services.

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Reports

It is the intention of the Victorian Online Gateway project team to make available individual report findings and recommendations for appropriate use by other government organisations. Materials may be downloaded and printed with applicable copyright and other notices included. Any other use including copying, modifying, displaying or transmitting of the content of these reports requires the prior written permission of the Executive Director of Multimedia Victoria.

The complete reports are available in pdf format.

Consumer Research (RS-07) - Executive summary, November 2001 - This provides a high level summary of the consumer research project. [pdf] (69kb) (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

Consumer Research (RS-07) Phase 1 - Demographic assessment, November 2001 [pdf] (536kb) (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

• Section 1: Report summary - This section provides an overview of the demographic profile of the Victorian online services audience compiled from the findings of the documentation study and surveys
• Section 2: Documentation and data study findings - This section details the findings from the literature review of other available documentation and data on the Victorian online public.
• Section 3: Aggregate consumer research - This section details the findings of the online and paper-based surveys.
• Section 4: Appendices - This section presents the details of each of the research stages, the content of each research test and the raw results.

Consumer Research (RS-07) Phase 2 - Target market needs analysis, November 2001 [pdf] (721kb) (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

• Section 1: Report summary - This section provides an overview of the wants and needs of the Victorian government, online user.
• Section 2 - Internal and external interviews - This section details the approach and findings of the internal and external interviews.
• Section 3: Appendices - This section presents the details of each of the research stages, the content of each research test and the raw results.

Consumer Research (RS-07) Phase 3 - Life events and groupings, November 2001 [pdf] (453kb) (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

• Section 1: Report summary - This section provides an overview of the reactions of users to life events and the results from the taxonomical groupings test.
• Section 2: Approach and findings - This section details the approach and findings of the interviews and taxonomy test.
• Section 3: Appendices - This section presents the transcripts from the Life Event interviews and taxonomies test.

Consumer Research (RS-07) Consumer profiles, November 2001 [pdf] (1.43mb) (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

• User profiles - This section introduces you to the primary users of Victorian online Government information and services.

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Last updated: 28 February 2006

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