HCI in e-Government and e-Democracy

This chapter introduces the application of HCI design processes and design principles in e-government and e-democracy. We elaborate on HCI design processes and six HCI design principles in the context of e-government and e-democracy, including citizen-centered design, usability, accessibility, access to information, transaction efficiency, and security and privacy. Then, we present two cases to demonstrate the value of applying the HCI processes and design principles in developing and deploying e-government and e-democracy. Finally, we highlight the challenges faced by e-government and e-democracy as well as the future trends. In conclusion, HCI can help the success of e-government and e-democracy and their future growth

Evaluation and design of e-government: A holistic overview of e-government initiatives in Harrisonburg, and the challenges of adopting a citizen-centered design

In the past decade, e-Government has received a lot of attention from academia, policy agencies, and IT providers, all of whom attempt to assess and track the factors that lead to a successful e-Government service. I propose a top-level approach assessing e-Government in Harrisonburg as a whole, and then I explore project-level methods of design and implementation. More specifically, I identify 29 electronic services offered by the City and rank them according to a pre-defined four-stage ranking system. This assessment demonstrates that the majority of the services considered fall under the Interaction and Transaction stages (Stages 2 and 3 respectively). This organizational approach is followed by an analysis of the factors that may lead to failure and lack of use of e-Government initiatives, and how a citizen-centered design can be employed to avoid such failures. I then describe the challenges of using a citizen-centered design in e-Government based on my experiences working on the Resource Recovery Facility in Harrisonburg. Lastly, I examine future research topics that should be considered when discussing e-Government

COBRA framework to evaluate e-government services: A citizen-centric perspective

E-government services involve many stakeholders who have different objectives that can have an impact on success. Among these stakeholders, citizens are the primary stakeholders of government activities. Accordingly, their satisfaction plays an important role in e-government success. Although several models have been proposed to assess the success of e-government services through measuring users' satisfaction levels, they fail to provide a comprehensive evaluation model. This study provides an insight and critical analysis of the extant literature to identify the most critical factors and their manifested variables for user satisfaction in the provision of e-government services. The various manifested variables are then grouped into a new quantitative analysis framework consisting of four main constructs: cost; benefit; risk and opportunity (COBRA) by analogy to the well-known SWOT qualitative analysis framework. The COBRA measurement scale is developed, tested, refined and validated on a sample group of e-government service users in Turkey. A structured equation model is used to establish relationships among the identified constructs, associated variables and users' satisfaction. The results confirm that COBRA framework is a useful approach for evaluating the success of e-government services from citizens' perspective and it can be generalised to other perspectives and measurement contexts. Crown Copyright © 2014.PIAP-GA-2008-230658) from the European Union Framework Program and another grant (NPRP 09-1023-5-158) from the Qatar National Research Fund (amember of Qatar Foundation

Interplaying user roles in e-government design : a participatory good governance perspective

The interplaying roles among the user groups must be adequately-mapped to fulfil the design needs of Egovernment applications. In previous studies, the design of citizen-centric e-government and its theoretical understanding is still limited in relation to the requirement of engaging malleable features for supporting all relevant users&rsquo; roles in governing bodies. Operationalising IS theories to improve the design of e-government application has been a much sought-after objective. Yet, there is a lack of actionable guidance on how to develop e-government application that exhibits high levels of users&rsquo; engagement through malleable features. Under a participatory good governance perspective, the paper reports a qualitative study and identifies requirement of malleable provisions to support the interplaying roles among users in a case demonstration of extensional service delivery in government. While service content describes the features available on an e-government application for assisting user groups in completing their support services.<br /

Requirements for redesigning the interface of Iraqi e-government portal

Many countries have provided their government services to the people online. However, Iraq is still looking for opportunities to implement the online technology for their government services. The initiatives to venture into online government services, or called electronic government (e-government) have not shown good return. Although the e-government is available, people still prefer to work on traditional way, or enter into the e-government modules through improper channels. Hence, they are viewed as not using the e-government portal. Many factors were identified influencing the disadvantages of the existing e-government portal; nevertheless the design of the front office is not making users attracted to enter into the portal through the proper home page. In contrast, the users tend to go directly to the module they intend to. Hence, his study deduces that the user interface of the front office of the portal was not usable, not supporting user experience. This study proposes a set of elements for the Iraqi e-government portal to ensure that it is perceived usable in terms of usefulness and ease-of-use. This study develops the prototype that incorporates the elements as Iraqi e-government portal (Ie-gP). Therefore, the aim of the study is to propose a set of elements that make the Ie-gP usable from users‟ perception. To accomplish that, three specific objectives are formulated: (1) to determine the interface elements for the front office of Ie-gP, (2) to design and develop the front office of Ie-gP, and (3) to evaluate the ease-of-use of the front office of Ie-gP. Comparative analysis, prototyping, and experimental studies are used to accomplish the objectives and aim. General findings show that Ie-gP is perceived useful and easy-to-use. The main contributions of this study are the elements of usable e-government portals for Iraqi context and the prototype of the usable portal called IegP

Civic Engagement in a Citizen-Led Living Lab for Smart Cities: Evidence From South Korea

Smart cities have emerged in the hope of solving growing urban problems. In addition, unlike past citizen participation in tokenism, new technologies in smart cities have shed light on creating cities with high levels of civic engagement. However, contrary to expectations, technology-centric smart city development has resulted in a lack of opportunities for citizen participation. Consequently, smart cities are increasingly adopting a citizen-centric living lab methodology. Previous research on living labs has emphasized the significance of civic engagement and the potential as a collaborative platform for governments, businesses, and citizens. However, keeping individuals engaged and motivated during the living lab process might be challenging. This study examined the significance of citizens’ active participation and determined the elements that influence the level of participation in a living lab. In this study, the first citizen-led living laboratory in South Korea was selected as the subject of a case study. An empirical analytic approach was adopted and a survey was conducted among living lab participants regarding their level of participation and the sociocultural elements that may impact it. Our findings revealed that living lab activities were associated with enhanced civic self-esteem and positive attitudes toward smart cities. Moreover, they display the socioeconomic elements that influence the degree of participation. This study offers evidence that living lab activities encourage citizen engagement by giving participants a sense of empowerment during the co-creation process with multiple stakeholders, boosting civic competency through learning activities, and improving a sense of community ownership

ARCHITECTING STRUCTURAL FLEXIBILITY IN DESIGN PROCESSES – A CASE STUDY OF PUBLIC SECTOR DIGITAL INNOVATION

Public sector organizations (PSO) are under pressure to undertake digital innovation in order to meet the challenges of a higher demand for service quality despite tighter budgetary restrictions. Effective digital innovation presupposes the flexible and appealing collaboration of heterogeneous actors possessing distinct knowledge loosely coupled in a complex service ecosystem. However, many PSOs lack access to employees possessing the specialized knowledge needed to execute digital innovation design processes and may thus need to seek external collaborations. This paper reports a case study of a PSO pilot project attempting to facilitate an inclusive design process for digital innovation. The study examines how teams comprising public sector professionals and private sector developers come to be involved and awarded agency during a digital innovation design process in the public sector. Findings indicate a need to architect conditions that allow for flexible provisional participation in the design process, thereby allowing novel collaborations to emerge, facilitating access to innovation intermediation and the integration of knowledge resources required for successful digital innovation. This paper contributes to our understanding of the setup and execution of digital innovation design processes in the public sector

FROM COMMERCIAL AGREEMENTS TO THE SOCIAL CONTRACT: HUMAN-CENTERED AI GUIDELINES FOR PUBLIC SERVICES

Human-centered Artificial Intelligence (HCAI) is a term frequently used in the discourse on how to guide the development and deployment of AI in responsible and trustworthy ways. Major technology actors including Microsoft, Apple and Google are fostering their own AI ecosystems, also providing HCAI guidelines, which operationalize theoretical concepts to inform the practice of AI development. Yet, their commonality seems to be an orientation to commercial contexts. This paper focuses on AI for public services and on the special relationship between governmental organizations and the public. Approaching human-AI interaction through the lens of social contract theory we identify amendments to improve the suitability of an existing HCAI framework for the public sector. Following the Action Design Research methodological approach, we worked with a public organization to apply, assess, and adapt the “Google PAIR guidelines”, a well-known framework for human-centered AI development. The guidelines informed the design of an interactive prototype for AI in public services and through this process we revealed gaps and potential enhancements. Specifically, we found that it’s important to a) articulate a clear value proposition by weighing the public good vs. the individual benefit, b) define boundaries for repurposing public data given the relationship between citizens and their government, c) accommodate user group diversity by considering the different levels of technical and administrative literacy of citizens. We aim to shift the perspective within human-AI interaction, acknowledging that exchanges are not always subject to commercial agreements but can also be based on the mechanisms of a social contract

Making More Efficient the Dissemination of the Information in the Field of Anti-Aging through Information Technology

ICT have become extremely important because they allow everybody to participate at the Information Society, in spite of under-privileged personal or social situation. Health Education Informatics Systems (HEIS), as a method for facilitating the exchange of information between specialists, physicians and patients, or authorized organisations, become a necessary modern tool which offer quality solutions, a correct source of information and pertinent instrument for taking decisions. The members of the aging society must be motivated to have access through ICT at knowledge that can improve and prolong the active life. The dramatic demographic transformations of our century have imposed the reconsideration of the social policies and of the use of HEIS for disseminating the anti-aging information, for empowering the person regarding his own state of health, and also for the real involving of the elderly in using the Internet. AgingNice is a multidisciplinary complex system that belongs to the health informatics systems with particularization in the anti-aging domain and that allows the sharing of the knowledge concerning the specific research and the promotion of the theoretical and practical information, both among the stakeholders from the medical area and at the person level.anti-aging, elderly, ICT, health informatics systems, web services