Evaluating E-Government Web Usability : A Case Study of Penang.Net

Electronic Government (E-Government) initiatives have often sounded very promising but been difficult to implement. Therefore, it is important to ensure that people, have opportunities to benefit from the Web by the government, especially from on-line public services or the online information. The study takes into consideration how E-Government should be understood. It presents the review of literature regarding the examination on E-government evaluation methods adopted in leading information technology advanced countries. This study aims to provide usability evaluation of the Penang state E-Government web sites: Penang.Net by using the benchmarking approach by using a form of the benchmark approach to asess the degree to which each of the web site usability and the contents usefulness. By then it contrasts the web page of the three web sites and a discussion of the best practice for various usability criteria. The result of this study can be used to inform the subsequent re-design of the Penang.Net home page. The finding is intended to measure the performance and quality of Penang.Net web against the others state government service website. The suggested guidelines established in this study aimed to provide suggestions to the Penang state government that enables then to produce E-Government web sites that are both usable and benefit to Penang people

Heuristic evaluation for e-Government websites in Saudi Arabia

This paper reports on an evaluation of two e-Government websites in Saudi Arabia. The aim of the research was to adapt a heuristic evaluation approach that would explain usability problems found on Saudi e-Government websites. The work defines an evaluative approach that offers a detailed view of web design on e-Government websites. The evaluation of the two websites gave a mixed picture with both sites meeting some of the heuristics to a greater or lesser extent. These results will facilitate the improvement of the websites allowing such websites to be more effective in the way they deliver information, and identified the current usability problems found in e-Government websites in Saudi Arabia

Analyzing Turkish e-government websites by eye tracking

Usability studies provide essential information about users' views and perceptions of efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction of given online services. Nowadays, e-government web sites become popular. Therefore, there is a need for usability testing to specify the usability problems and to make the services of the e-government more usable. The purpose of this study is to investigate usability of some Turkish e-government services. The study examined usability of five Turkish e-government web sites: Ministry of National Education - Student Information System (eokul), Ministry of Justice - National Judicial Network Project (UYAP), Turkish National Police: Vehicle Search System, Social Security Institute: Service Details and General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre. It was conducted with nine participants. This study is a case study with mixed design methodology, in which both quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed and combined. Quantitative data were collected through an eye-tracker, a pre-test questionnaire of participants' demographics and previous utilization of egovernment web sites and a post-test questionnaire. Qualitative data were collected through both semi-structured individual interviews and observation during test. The study results identify the usability problems encountered while using government services. The study concludes with specific recommendations for improvement of e-government services in Turkey. © 2013 IEEE

Examining Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and System Usability Design Issues for E-Government Sites - A Study

The Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) discipline is concerned with design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use. HCI and System Usability Design have greater significance in electronic government (e-government) as the usability problems can adversely affect millions of people. The goal of the study is to examine the extent of Interactive Web Applications in India, USA, Finland and China. In addition to measuring the number of websites and web portals, the study will determine if the design of those Interactive Web-applications base sites are effective from the HCI and system usability perspective. The present study will enhance ongoing research on the subject

Victorian local government websites: tracking information provision and e-service maturity

Local and municipal governments worldwide are embracing and using the Internet to deliver services and therefore better value to their communities. Current research has identified the use made of the Internet by higher levels of government. There has been limited research, however, examining the lowest tier; local government’s approach to Internet use. This paper presents the results of a content analysis undertaken on Victorian local government Websites over four years and describes the results of usability testing also conducted on local government sites. The results identify the changes in e-service delivery over that time and the usefulness of the information and e-services to local communities

Digital divide: A study on Portuguese Municipalities' web sites

This paper presents a study performed on Portuguese Municipalities' web sites in relation its usability with regard to digital inclusion. A recent study has shown that Portugal ranks among top in making available e-government facilitators (i.e. web sites and portals) to its citizens. Through a desktop qualitative cognitive walkthrough, using a set of pre-selected usability guidelines linked with digital literacies, a subset of municipalities' web sites were assessed and results showed that in terms of usability for digital inclusion only two of the municipalities' web sites evaluated scored good and a clear majority of 65% of these scored reasonable. This means that there is a long way to work in order to bridge this digital divide. This paper makes an innovative contribution to the discussion about minimising digital exclusion through usability guidelines. © 2011 IADIS

Being Online Is Not Enough: State Elections Web Sites

Assesses state elections Web sites on the availability and accessibility of information on voter registration, registration status, and polling places. Lists the ten best and worst sites and suggests ways to make helpful information easy to find and use

Emergent digital services in public libraries : a domain study

Purpose: This paper explores the emergence of digital services in the public library domain via an extensive study of the websites of all Scottish public library services Design/methodology/approach: In a 4 month period all 32 of Scotland’s public library authority websites were visited by a researcher. The goal of the researcher was to record the options available from the library homepages in the following way: •Role of library in providing page content: content provider or access provider? •Was the page providing a digital service? •What was the audience for the page? Adult, child, or not specified? •Description of page content •Any noted usability issues Each site was only visited to three levels below that of the initial homepage. Findings: The study found a good standard of innovation in digital services around LMS functions, offering users the ability to keep in control of their borrowing and reserving. In addition there was a consistent set of electronic reference resources subscribed to by multiple libraries, offering high quality information both within the library and for library members from their home or workplace. Problems were found with regards to guidance on the usage of these resources, as well as confusion and inconsistency in terminology usage across different library services. Research limitations/implications: The paper examines only Scottish public library sites, thus can only claim to be representative of that country. It also can only represent the sites at the time they were examined. Practical implications: The paper should be of interest to public and other librarians interested in patterns across web sites in their sector. Originality/value: This is the first national study of Scottish public library websites and its findings should be of value as a result