Post on 21-Aug-2020
Enhance Citizen Experience
Through Your Website
I’m GordonCUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT MANAGER
Gordon Duffgduff@west.com
1-877-519-3851 x 706
OVERVIEW
• Founded in 2001; joined West in 2015
• Headquarters in Scotts Valley, CA
• Offices in St. Louis, Joplin and Toronto
• Best-In-Class Integrated communication platform
• Broad Offering of Modules Specifically for Government including Content Management, Intranet, Engagement and Emergencies Notification
• Serving States, Counties, Cities, Towns & Government Departments
CivicLive was an excellent partner on the complete transformation of our website... We continue to value our ongoing relationship with CivicLive for web hosting and site enhancements.
City of Vallejo, California
CivicLive is…
Built for Government
End-to-End Solution
Usable Design
Accessibility & Legal Compliance
• The ROI on a citizen-focused website
• Steps to building a usable, citizen-focused website
Agenda
What Is ROI?
• ROI: Return On Investment
• Popular metric organizations for evaluating the rewards or benefits of an investment
• Traditionally used to calculate monetary benefits
• Non-traditional ROI: Helps you to determine how a website upgrade can improve your governments performance
ROI = (how much money my investment netted – how much my investment costs)(how much my investment costs)
Impact of Digitizing Governments
• 2015 Adobe Commissioned study completed by Deloitte
• Focused on municipal, state & federal branches of government in Australia
• 20% increase in online services provided an additional $18B AUD in productivity, cost saving and efficiency benefits to governments
• Average cost per online transaction: $0.40 AUDAverage cost per face-to-face interaction: $16.90 AUD
Calculate Savings in USD
Type of ChannelCost per
Interaction
Number of
Interactions per dayTotal cost per day
Face-to-face $12.25
Telephone $4.78
Postal $9.27
Online $0.29
Note: These numbers are based on Deloitte’s US conversions. Numbers, rates or cost savings may vary for each municipality in North America.
How do you measure the time an investment saves you?
The Non-Traditional/ Non-
Tangible Benefits or ROI
1. Improved Service Delivery
• Streamlined online service delivery system with:
– Automated workflows
– Electronic record keeping
• Prevents lost information and miscommunications
• Allows your residents to do more, faster and easier
• Keeps staff organized
• Saves staff time
2. Higher Citizen Satisfaction
and Engagement
• Serve citizens through your website
– Help citizens get answers faster and on their schedule byoffering up-to-date informationand services online
• Involve citizens in the city’s decision-making process
– Use polls & surveys
– Encourage engagement through social media
– Offer monthly newsletters and live stream town halls
2. Higher Citizen Satisfaction
and Engagement
3. Increased Staff Well-Being
and Development
• Modernization keeps staff up-to-date with new technology
• Outdated Content Management Systems (CMS) impair staff efficiency
– Energy spent making changes to your backend and updating contentis time consuming and draining
• Intuitive eGovernment CMS is equipped with tools that speed up content creation
4. Greater Confidence in
Your Government
• Your website is your first impression businesses and visitors
– An engaging, usable website attracts tourists and new businesses
– Broken links, outdated pages, incorrect information lead to a lack of confidence in your government’s capabilities
• Robust website helps you better serve your community
• eGovernment CMS platforms help foster civic engagement between governments and their citizens.
• Offering quicker, cheaper online services saves time for your citizens and your staff.
• Time savings build engagement, lower stress and strengthen residentand staff satisfaction
Save Time, Save Money
When you focus on site usability, you get a citizen-focused site that saves citizens time and enhances citizen experience
13 Steps to Building a
Website that Enhances
Citizen Experience
1. Know Your Audience
• Define audience
• Define audience needs
1. Know Your Audience
DEFINENEEDS
DEFINEAUDIENCE
PRIORITIZEAUDIENCE
DRAFTIA
1. Know Your AudienceHome
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1. Know Your Audience
• Accessibility Guidelines and Legal Requirements
– WC3
– ADA
– Section 508
• Top things to avoid
– Text inline with images
– Not having alternative text
– Tables for layout
Accessibility Requirements Overview
• Provide appropriate alternative text
• Provide appropriate document structure
• Provide headers for data tables
• Ensure users can complete and submit all forms
• Ensure links make sense out of context
• Caption and/or provide transcripts for media
• Ensure accessibility of non-HTML content
• Allow users to skip repetitive elements on the page
• Do not rely on color alone to convey meaning
• Make sure content is clearly written and easy to read
• Make JavaScript accessible – Keyboard Accessible
• Design to standards – Separate CSS and HTML
2. Plan the Navigation
• Keep it simple
• One navigation
– 4 - 7 top levels
– 3-click rule
• Not everyone comes from the home page
– Give everything context
3. Design Matters
• Your site represents your city or town
• Consistency across sections and pages
• Clear call to action in a prominent position
• Minimize visual clutter
4. Use Great Images
• Images should be:
– Professional
– Represent content
– Avoid stock images
– Cropped correctly
– Put a color texture on images to reduce color variances
5. Make It Mobile
• Responsive Design vs Mobile App
• No flash or content that doesn’t work on a mobile device
• Above the fold is dead, scrolling is okay!
6. Write for the Web
• Keep it short, bulleted and make it scannable
• Use correct headings (H1, H2, P)
• Fixed font size
• Not stuck in PDFs and documents—breaks flow
• Do not upload scanned content
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
7. Keep Up-to-Date Homepage
• Fresh content
– What is happening?
– What is engaging?
• Keep quick links to a minimum
• Remove anything that looks like an advertisement
8. Tell Them Everything
• Give users all the information required
• Explain everything—limit jargon
• Don’t assume they have read the preceding page / article
9. Make It Social
• Build-in-social tools
• Make sure your audience finds the content important to them
10. Make It Timely
• Timely and Consistent
• Competing with Twitter / Facebook
• Emergency Alerts
• Helps reduce calls
11. Remember Search
• Review search analytics
• Search vs Browse
• On average 14% of users started with search
12. Use Friendly URLs
• Gives content context
• Explains the navigation to the users
• Doesn’t work on a newsletter
13. Test, Test and Test Again
Gordon DuffGduff@west.com
1.877.519.3851 x 706
Questions?