Jeremy

Government websites ‘too complex’ says the NAO

The BBC reports on a new National Audit Office review of government websites commenting;

‘many government websites are still too complicated and difficult to use’.

Haven’t seen the report itself yet, its not available on the NAO website at the time of writing. But it will be interesting to see them expanding on the following reported points:

Nearly 25% of departments do not know who is using their sites, or how much they cost.
Most people only knew a few key sites and tended to use “transactional services” once or twice a year.
Some sites are difficult to use, too “text-heavy” and filled with policy material that irrelevant to the visitor.
The average central government site has 17,000 pages yet most of their search engines “often fail to work satisfactorily”.
The Directgov and Business Link “super-sites” were popular with the NAO’s focus groups, who found they were “laid out clearly”. However few knew about them beforehand, and some felt the name Directgov was difficult to remember.
Up to a third of government websites may not meet standards for disabled or visually impaired people while, of the 3,400 forms available to download, only one in eight could be filled in and returned online.
Government websites have “improved slightly” between 2001 and 2006 in terms of quality, and about a tenth of all government sites had made “major improvements,” but one in six sites had got “significantly worse”.

That sounds like a damning indictment. I’m surprised by the findings, and would be surprised if its as bad as painted – though of course its better not to draw conclusions until you’ve actually read the report.

The importance of conversing and knowing when to let go

Its been a busy last week or so, away from my day job and participating in what is effectively a peer review of others’ work.

During that time I have made a couple of observations that I thought would be worth sharing.

First, I was spent a good few hours at Policy Unplugged‘s excellent summer party last week (thanks for the invite Steve!) where I was able to hook up with a few bloggers whose postings I regularly read, some of whom I hadn’t actually met before. The opportunity to speak together rather than correspond via comments or emails was instructive: these are people whose thoughts I follow avidly but, they are individuals who just happen to have built up a following by virtue of the medium they share their thoughts through.

It brought home to me the importance of dialogue. As government begins to come to terms with social media its important we webbies remember, and promote to our superiors, the real benefits – creating and sustaining conversations with real people rather than broadcasting via corporate websites. Whilst there is a place for the latter, it is the former that can create real opportunities.

Second, the programme I was helping to review is creating a new organisation (as the result of legislative change) that will launch at the beginning of October. Both groups of people making it all happen, the team administering the programme and the team managing the new organisation, are excellent, high calibre people who have done a great job.

But as handover approaches it is clear that is difficult for those who have been involved in running the programme over the last few years to let go of ‘their’ baby. Equally, the team running the new organisation resent the interference of their ‘parents’ as they chomp at the bit to get one with making their plans reality.

Its a natural and understandable situation they find themselves in. I’m equally sure it will all work out fine once the handover is complete.

But there are also parallels to my work. It is easy to mistrust others to produce the goods in the way you think they should be done. But that is missing the value that individuals bring to solving problems. Whilst its important to create a framework and set expectations in online communications, control in a user generated environment is pretty much impossible. You have to trust users to produce in the way that they think is best.

Striking the balance between organisational, corporate messaging and meaningful conversational engagement is a tall order for any organisation, not just government. But that is the real challenge.

away gateway reviewing

Been a bit quiet in the last week while I was preparing for, and now participating in for the next few days, a gateway review. Nothing anything like as exciting or as high profile as this kind of thing I’m afraid to say. Nor anything to do with webby work but a run of the mill organisational change programme.

Its a good opportunity to spend a few days out of the office observing how others conduct their work, learn from them and hopefully give suggestions about how they can do their work better.

Normal service will hopefully be resumed towards the end of the week.

Number 10’s Jimmy gets web recognition

Congratulations to Jimmy Leach, Number 10‘s head of digital communications, for snagging New Media Age‘s annual effectiveness award for the ‘greatest individual contribution to the UK new media industry in the past 12 months’.

This is due recognition for the innovation that Jimmy has introduced since arriving at Downing Street last autumn. Under his leadership the likes of podcasts, webchats, YouTube videos and – yes – online petitions have become regular fixtures on the prime minister’s website.

The awards special isn’t online yet, but just look at the rollcall of other nominees in this article back in May: beating Andy Duncan of Channel 4 and James Murdoch from BSkyB isn’t too shabby in anyone’s book!

Well done for raising the profile of government online communications within the industry.

Update: the citation is here

The reshuffle phoney war

Day after the handover of power and that means reshuffle time. There’s always an air of excitement and anticipation waiting to see if we’ll find out first from our contacts or via the news bulletins (its always the latter) who our new minister is.

But the reality is never as much fun as the preparation. Each reshuffle I’ve observed from inside the civil service has followed the same formula:

Lots of ‘planning’ in anticipation of the changes
Plenty of energy expended by people running around being busy
A few cagey fellows intimating that they are ‘in’ on the impending announcement (they aren’t, ever)
Staff asked to stay late/come in early to provide cover for the announcement so it can be published onto the website at a millisecond’s notice

Then:

People sitting around waiting for something to happen, wondering why they were kept from their evening out/dragged from their bed at first light
Dawning realisation that the announcement will be made at a reasonable hour (what a surprise)
Still plenty of nervous energy being expended around us, ‘getting things ready’

In the middle of this maelstrom, sitting serenely, are the webbies. Their fingers poised above the keyboard ready to unleash one of a few biographies prepared earlier. Suddenly, the BBC confirms the cabinet, and we publish.

Much later, of course, somebody always asks us if we are going to publish the announcement on the website. Today was no exception (wish they would actually check the site once in a while).

If that all sounds rather dull, it isn’t. A change at the top is an exciting time. Today was no exception.

Many of the staff popped down to see Lord Falconer off at midday. He’s been popular with the staff and it showed today when he got a rousing round of applause (even my Dad likes him and he’s a dyed in the wool Tory) . He looked touched by the send off and for once was lost for words.

So one Lord Chancellor exits, another enters. Tomorrow we’ll be once again poised to scramble up announcements about the rest of our new ministerial team as we find out.

Who knows what ideas they might have that affect my work. Perhaps one of them will want to start blogging?