Part of the Commonwealth?

3 Quick Questions for my essay about your government's website.
1. Do you like your government's website?
2. Do you feel the site is easy to navigate through and easy enough to find what you're looking for?
3. Anything else you might want to say about the site would be greatly appreciated.

I'm doing my final essay (one of only 2 before I graduate University yaaaay!) on commonwealth government websites: specifically Canadian, UK, Australian and New Zealand. It's an academic paper but I thought it would be useful (for myself) to hear what some of their users thought.
Thank you very much in advance to anyone who's willing to reply to this post.

UK: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
Australia: http://www.australia.gov.au/
New Zealand: http://newzealand.govt.nz/

1, no
2, no
3, the site is to busy needs to be more effectively sectioned.

You know what I'll look it up and let you know in the morning.

1. No.
2. No.
3. Damn ugly and FAR too cluttered. There's no direction or focus, with the whole screen screaming for attention at an equal level. It's like an assault on the eyes. I'm a web developer by profession, and it goes against pretty much everything I know or have been taught in terms of design, usability, user experience and alike.

1. Bit of a loaded question. Like it on what basis? Appearance wise - no, it's gawdy.

2. Yeah, seems clear/straight forward enough.

3. It looks like someone's eaten a packet of starburst then puked on their monitor.

Quote: ian_w @ March 30, 2008, 9:38 PM

3. It looks like someone's eaten a packet of starburst then puked on their monitor.

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LOL

Why the hell would I look at my Government's web site?

1. Agree with other comments - the colours clash and I prefer to see a coloured background on a website. It just looks better.
2. I tried to find some information; it was reasonably straightforward but some lists were alphabetical and others weren't. Sections regarding the same issues were separated in places, so not particularly clear.
3. Section entitled 'What you can do with your allotment' - well, that just sounds offensive.
I don't think it is very well written - some rather clumsy language.

Good luck with your final studies!

Quote: Curt @ March 30, 2008, 9:27 PM

1. Do you like your government's website?

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Which one? They've got about 100 all over the place. Which leads on to...

Quote: Curt @ March 30, 2008, 9:27 PM

2. Do you feel the site is easy to navigate through and easy enough to find what you're looking for?

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Definitely, definitely not. It's a total and utter maze of websites; all run by different departments so there's no cohesion or uniform design.

www.direct.gov.uk is a nice idea but it only answers the basics. You have to take a deep breath and head into the department specific websites to find out anything more detailed. I once went onto the tax website and nearly didn't make it back out alive!

Quote: Curt @ March 30, 2008, 9:27 PM

3. Anything else you might want to say about the site would be greatly appreciated.

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Completely hidden away in this maze of websites is the following website: http://www.transportdirect.info

Why they spent millions on it when there are other websites out there (like Google) already doing route planning I don't know, but that's an aside (as it happens it does have some cool unique features)... the thing is if you're going to spend that much money you'd think you'd at least try and let people know it exists! I'm pretty sure it'd be a safe bet to say only 1/30 UK internet users know about it*

* And of those 1/30 probably only 1/60 can easily find it... it just took me 5 minutes to find the link and that's knowing in advance that it exists!

Quote: Mark @ March 30, 2008, 10:32 PM

Which one? They've got about 100 all over the place. Which leads on to...

Definitely, definitely not. It's a total and utter maze of websites; all run by different departments so there's no cohesion or uniform design.

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I didn't even want to go near that particular can of worms. It's shocking. And considering the web was invented by an Englishman, we should be absolutely f**king ashamed.

Have to say though Mark - might be a nice earner for us, once the new site's finished!

(But almost certainly not worth the hassle.)

To late Sitcom boys I've already put a tender in.

Like I said, probably not worth the hassle - you're welcome to it!

Coincidentally, the company I work for developed the original Webcameron - which, I notice, now seems to have been totally rebult twice. What a clever use of party funds.

Let the minions deal with hassle I'l just swim in my money bin.

Thank you all very much. Feel free to answer these questions though if you have not done so already.

Quote: Aaron @ March 30, 2008, 10:51 PM

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I loved the Raccoons!