online communication and usability in public administration
TRANSCRIPT
NKE WUD 2015 USABILITY AND RESEARCH IN PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION Csilla HERENDY
TOPIC
Clients/ci9zens need
WELL DESIGNED, EASY TO USE, ERGONOMIC
websites
BUT: they oDen
DON’T LIKE TO USE websites of public administra9on sector because
-‐ their surface is complicated,
-‐ hard to understand and some9mes
-‐ neglect actual user expecta9ons and needs.
It is a
GENERAL PROBLEM in most countries that
users (ci9zens) have
DIFFICULTIES using public administra9on websites
and orien9ng on it/them
What kind of
PROBLEM do they have?
they do not understand the public administra9on and
LEGAL PHRASES that are used there
they do not see
THE STRUCTURE (informa9on architecture)
of the website, the logical relaCons between topics.
The sites are not stylish and absolutely
NOT COOL.
Design is old-‐fashioned, colors, fonts. AND mayor's welcome on main page
Redesign, 2015 (!) -‐-‐ Mayor's welcome, here
Mayor's welcome, there
Mayor's welcome, everywhere
Too much informaCon
It looks like paper world and an administraCve order
Flash intros... Mobile access?
AS A RESULT
Users
HAVE DIFFICULTIES naviga9ng on given sites
They soon
LOSE THEIR PATIENCE
ODen choose
PERSONAL ADMINISTRATION instead of electronic
which
DOES NOT HELP the spread of e-‐government
WHY IS THAT? REASON 2/1.
[TYPICAL HUNGARIAN PRACTICE]
DESIGN STRATEGIES Neglect users’ point of view Reflect officers’ mental models
DEVELOPMENT Starts with beau9ful design in Photoshop / jpeg pics The content must be adjusted to it Or the design will be subsequently modified again and again Rarely tested, oDen the wrong way
CAUSES Lack of experienced professionals (in house IT developers) Lack of funds, harmful development prac9ces Lack of professionals
WHY IS THAT? REASON 2/2
[MENTAL MODEL]
The content, wording,
structure of the sites
REFLECTS THE MENTAL MODELS OF OFFICERS
….aaaaand, there is
MISMATCH between
mental models of the ci9zens
and the website owner (employee in public administra9on / programmers)
“Mental model is the representa9on that a person has
IN HIS MIND about the object is interac9ng with”
(Weinshenck, 2011)
How could we
MAKE IT BETTER?
It is useful to
GAIN INFORMATION about mental models of the user
HOW?
INVOLVE the users!
METHODS
Choose the one which is best for the actual goals
Card sorCng test (open/closed) (Online) focus groups Interviews Task analysis Surveys Ques9onnaires Par9cipatory design Usability tesCng
SOME EXAMPLES
(1) analysis of the most popular content (2) Google sta9s9cs: which are the most popular keywords? (3) Online survey research
Card sor9ng tests, focus groups, user test
Eye-‐tracking research + user interview (ujbuda.hu 60+, subjects: 60+) -‐ Don’t recognize and don’t understand the “accessible version” icon [real Hungaricum!] -‐„Print“ icon was tought to be a speaker -‐ Don’t know and don’t understand icons of social media: “F, G, limle bird???”
