We are living in a world where we depend on digital technologies to meet our various needs. Acceptance of digitisation has grown in the public sector and more governments are embracing technologies to speed up service delivery.
Citizen expectations with government websites are simple and easy to handle, rather than an overwhelming amount of information. Navigating through lots of different departments turns frustrating.
To address these expectations, government CIOs invest in website modernization projects with the intention of making the site citizen-focused.
In reality, once implemented, these sites often mirror organizational inefficiencies and, over time, drift deeper and deeper into that structure, notes market research firm Gartner.
“Instead of tailoring websites to different users, they fail at being all things to all people by presenting large volumes of information, much of which is irrelevant to the visiting citizen,” said Bill Finnerty, research director at Gartner.
“To build a sustainable, trusted relationship with citizens, governments need to build, and then maintain, citizen-oriented websites,” Finnerty adds.
Gartner suggests four practical actions government CIOs can take to lead their organizations to a citizen-centric website and improve their appeal to constituents.
#Implement digital design principles for website interactions that will inspire, motivate and empower continuous improvement of the citizen experience by leveraging social science and customer journey mapping experts.
#Create a personal and engaging online experience
Create a personal and engaging online experience by integrating customer experience analytics and a personalization engine into website capabilities. Amazon, Google and Facebook have raised expectations by using analytics to deliver a personalized experience on their platforms. Governments have not invested significant resources in personalization to improve user experience and access to relevant information.
# Establish a citizen advisory group
Engage the community in the website life cycle by establishing a citizen advisory group, instituting public testing and developing a website outreach program.
# create bonding with diverse group of users
Focus on accessibility requirements among a diverse group of users by reaching out to advocacy groups. Developing these relationships can facilitate their assistance in educating website development teams on the needs of disabled users and testing by being proactive in seeking opportunities to discuss new projects and user needs. Ensure website development teams receive sufficient training on accessibility tools and techniques.
Increasing popularity
As a result of increasing awareness about digital services among citizens and authorities, online chat, quick response service, online directory of staff to contact and engagement through social media pages are becoming popular.
Yuma County, Arizona website is an example of citizen-friendliness. To help people quickly find what they want, the Yuma County homepage now has a giant Google-like search bar across the center, as well as drop-down menus from broad categories at the top of the page. At the bottom of the homepage, three tabs with large icons clearly display links to Popular Services, Meetings & Events, and News.
Every page of the website features an option to live chat with a county staffer. It appears as the top option in the “Online Help Center” overlay on the right of every page.
Google empowering Indian citizens
In March, Google and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology announced new initiatives including, digital payments, imparting digital skills for artisans and Android skills training for students and developers.
Additionally, Google is involved in proliferating the Indic web, enhancing government’s online presence especially on mobile platforms to enable citizen engagement and training and capacity building programs on digital tools.
Source: Gartner
