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Integrated Website Measurement and Demographic Profiling Report - 25 March 2004

Executive Summary

• Overview
• Key Findings
• Project Objectives
• Project Scope
• Recommendations
• Report Availability
• Contact Information

Overview

To gauge the effectiveness of the Victorian Government’s online presence and better understand who uses Government services via the internet, Multimedia Victoria engaged Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and RedSheriff Australia to conduct website measurement and demographic profiling across an average of 97 Government websites. The project began in July 2003 and concluded in March 2004. This report presents our key findings and an analysis of the results.

Key Findings

The most significant findings identified, from the sites examined during the project were:

Online services matter to Victorians – if the site is right

• The internet is a significant channel for the Victorian Government in delivering value to its constituents. In an average month, approximately 800,000 users spend some 31,000 hours interacting with the Victorian Government online. Two sites, betterheath.vic.gov.au and visitvictoria.com, account for approximately 40% of all traffic to Victorian Government websites in an average month. This equates to approximately 350,000 unique visitors and 17,000 hours (1). Two of the six channels (Health and Tourism) are doing relatively well, however what are they doing that Land, Business, Safety and Legal are not?

Online services are showing signs of stagnating

• At an aggregate level, the use of online services provided by the Victorian Government online has plateaued. Usage patterns show stagnation in overall performance across major Government websites examined in this report. Measurements such as frequency of use or amount of information requested/digested reveal no visible improvement over the study period.

Users come from all walks of life

• Demographic profiling is providing greater clarity as to who accesses the Victorian Government’s services online. This establishes an empirical basis to guide site managers on how they can improve content and services to more effectively meet the needs of target audiences.

Ongoing measurement is needed

• Activities to date focused on creating a framework to understand online interaction between the Victorian Government and its citizens. This baseline data must now feed into broader web development activities to drive ongoing improvement.

A unique measurement approach is required

• The project has laid a foundation uniquely able to support integrated measurement of both usage and demographic data in real time via a simple interface. This analytical infrastructure empowers site managers to conduct meaningful analysis as they need it.

It is important to note that the findings and commentary throughout this report are based on an aggregate analysis, across the collection of sites which were included in the measurement and tracking. Any specific insight, recommendation or comment made needs to be put into context, when its relevancy is being assessed for any particular site or department.

Data derived from measurement and tracking of any type is most useful when the context and specific nature of a particular site is factored into the analysis. Due to the nature of this report, this site specific contextualisation was not always possible.

Project Objectives

The objectives of the project were to:

• Provide standardised top-level reporting covering six to eight key metrics across each Victorian Government site;
• Enable the Victorian Government to generate reports and monitor trends at the aggregate, category and site level;
• Create an infrastructure for identifying and understanding the demographic attributes of each site’s users on a continuous basis so each site can tailor content and functionality to meet the needs of its specific users.

The program was successful in each of these objectives. As one of the first initiatives of its size and type in the world, the project has given the Victorian Government access to a breadth and depth of statistics that could only be collated from such a large sample size.

Furthermore, the study has provided a holistic overview of the current state of Victorian Government online. This complete picture enables detailed and frank assessment of the success or otherwise of internet-based Government service delivery initiatives. Analysis of this data enables the Victorian Government to continue optimising the efficiency and value of services delivered to community stakeholders via the internet.

Equally important, the program has laid the foundations for continuous monitoring and improvement of online services by Victorian Government agencies. By putting in place a robust monitoring framework and analytical infrastructure, Government agencies can now constantly measure the success of their online services to ensure maximum value for the Victorian community.

Project Scope

The project consisted of two core measurement components:

Demographic profiling

• A series of questions were put to a random selection of users who visited all sites instrumented for the project (2). These demographic questions included gender, age, occupation, location, employment status and accessibility issues.

Usage statistics

• RedSheriff traffic monitoring tools were used to track general user behaviour within instrumented sites. These statistics were aggregated by category across major portfolio areas such as Health, Business or Land services. There was a range of statistics, including total unique visitors, session duration, pages visited and user return rates.

These measuring activities give the Victorian Government greater understanding about who actually uses Victorian Government services online. This demographic clarity provides a baseline against which future performance can be measured, while the RedSheriff tracking tools provide the technical infrastructure to facilitate regular monitoring and reporting.

Also, the project covered an average of 97 sites during the measurement period. While not exhaustive of all government sites, the findings provide a solid insight into the current situation for Victorian Government online.

Recommendations

The project’s findings feed directly into a strategy for success as online services and e-Government initiatives take on greater significance for the Victorian Government. Initial demographic research and the establishment of a durable measurement and tracking infrastructure has:

• Confirmed the importance of the online channel and internet-based services;
• Promoted a clear understanding about the demographic characteristics of Victorians who interact with the Government online;
• Established a baseline to assess future success; and
• Identified the need for new strategic measures to address the stagnation and narrow usage patterns occurring across Victorian Government websites.

Arresting the initial signs of stagnation in Government online services is a priority as the online channel becomes increasingly central to the lives of everyday Victorian citizens. A number of recommendations are available to redress this apparent slowdown in customer use.

Report Availability

A copy of the Integrated Website Measurement and Demographic Profiling Report is available in pdf format. (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader) (428kb) (Version 5 of Adobe Acrobat and above)

A copy of the report is also available in pdf format compatible with version 3 of Adobe Acrobat and above. (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader) (428kb)

Contact Information

Please contact The Chief Technology Office, Multimedia Victoria if you have difficulties accessing this report or if you require further information, Phone 61 3 9655 1035 or by email - cto@egov.vic.gov.au.

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Note: The total hours figure was calculated using the average session time across all Government sites to provide a comparison with the initial statistic of 31,000 hours. In reality, session times across these sites, when averaged, are much higher than the average of 184.2 seconds seen across the rest of Government.

A site is ‘instrumented’ once it has the appropriate RedSheriff tracking code implemented within it. This code is used for both demographic profiling and general usage measurement.

Last updated: 7 July 2008

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