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Thursday May 24, 2007
Government websites revisited
More than a year ago I posted here about the lack of information about volunteering on government websites. Given that promoting volunteering is a stated government objective and that it cuts across a huge amount of government work, it seemed reasonable to expect them to at least provide some basic help and links. Yet hardly any did.
Checking back, things don't seem to have improved. A keyword search on the Department of Health site still produces nothing helpful. Likewise the Courts Service and The Department for Work and Pensions,
On the site where someone ignorant of the remit of government departments might expect to find information about volunteering, the Department for Communities and Local Government , I can't find anything, even under the heading "Community cohesion." And here's what a keyword search produces.
Even on the site with formal responsibility for volunteering it would take a dogged user to find helpful information if you actually wanted to volunteer. Here are the keyword search results.
As I said last time, I might have missed something, but then so would other people looking for information. And if the sites are this bad for volunteering, how good are they for other information that people might be looking for?
The exception, now as a year ago, is the self-proclaimed "Website of the government" (known more commonly as "directgov"). It's easy to use, comprehensive and apparently made with users in mind. Try this result for a keyword search for volunteering. There's even a page with a link to do-it.
Of course, directgov has a different remit, but government departments really should learn from it. They could start by giving less prominence to speeches by Ministers and more thought to what members of the public might actually find useful.
Posted by Tom Green ( 8:17 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]