Improving Government Online Review
Evaluation of Review
Thanks to all who gave feedback in the Improving Government Online Review. This was a new approach to reviewing COI guidance - making use of social media applications e.g. Commentariat-themed blog, Uservoice, Netvibes and Twitter - and we are encouraged by the way it worked. We received 87 high quality suggestions from 44 individual participants. We ran a survey following the review to assess the effectiveness of our approach. Most of the twenty respondents found out about the review online (via Twitter or blog posts), read the document online and then commented online.
Respondents praised the openness of the exercise and the combined use of the various social media applications but criticised the style the guidance was written in and the visibility of the Review, which was regarded as being too low. We asked respondents if they would participate in a similar exercise in the future: 16 said they would, two were unsure and only two said 'no'.
Overall, the key benefits of this new approach to reviewing digital policy guidance were:
- Better collaboration through openness and transparency of commenting
- Rapid response to participant concerns through monitoring and polling suggestions
- Effective use of digital engagement channel appropriate to the target audience
Some of the lessons learned were:
- The need to participate actively in the debate online
- The need to make frequent updates on Twitter to facilitate the debate
- The need for moderation arrangements to cover out-of-hours work
We intend to take a similar approach to reviewing guidance in the future, building on the experience gained here. However, we will continue to use existing channels for comment and feedback (e.g. email, Digital People, telephone etc.)
Summary of actions taken
We have updated the guidance on measuring website quality (TG126) and published it on the COI website. The following summarises the changes made based on the comments received.
User satisfaction guidance updated
- Alternative methods of maximising user satisfaction highlighted (e.g. user testing, polling user suggestions, competitor analysis etc.)
- Minor amendments to the core question set including standard answers to user profile questions
- Added caution to avoid excessive survey length and encouragement to include an opt-in for follow-up e-mail communication
Simple, jargon-free editorial content
- Guidance on editorial quality updated to emphasise the importance of simple jargon-free content and linked to the Usability Toolkit
Usability and user testing
- Summary of the content of the Usability Toolkit added
- Guidance added on user testing and the importance of prioritising on key site objectives and user groups.
Strengthened links to other guidance documents
A summary of existing standards was added with links to relevant documents, for example:
- Minimise broken links: Added link to Managing URLs (TG125)
- The need to archive out of date material: Link added to Archiving websites (TG105)
Continue the discussion via a blog
Many areas discussed by participants were very broad and challenging in scope. We see here the potential to open up and sustain a dialogue with those who share a passion for digital communications. To facilitate this debate, we will set up a blog to promote better collaboration on digital policy guidance and to discuss some of the wider issues raised in the Review including the following:
- Understanding the cost-benefit of government’s overall digital engagement, not just websites
- Re-use of data and information: impact on costs, usage and quality
- The challenge of measuring Visit Duration as websites increasingly deliver content through Flash and AJAX interfaces