Why Create a Citizen Focussed UX Site?

Citizens are a specific, yet very diverse group that have very different obligations, needs and desires than your average “Customer”, “Client” or “Consumer” (CCC). Very often they are trying to use a government site that has never been researched, user tested, and improved before launching to the public. Governments are beginning to catch on that their citizens are a different type of user that requires a specific focussed approach to UX, content creation and marketing.

Citizens are generally on the government site, not through choice, but because it is the only option they have available in order to access a specific service, receive a benefit, or fulfill a legal obligation. Many are new citizens and require additional government support, but often don’t yet speak the language of their new country, or are not very fluent.

“Governmentese” is an entirely different language; often full of jargon, acronyms, form numbers and specific legal terms that never occur in the normal use of language. While many governments are trying to use simpler ‘plain language’, they often fail due to restrictions requiring that the correct legal terms be used. Another issue is that the people writing the content are experts in their domain, so they have no issue writing the content, but forget that they are not the audience that the text is meant for.

Unlike the CCCs mentioned above, if a citizen does’t like how the site is set up, or the level of customer service they receive they have no option of choosing a competitive option. CCC sites follow a very Darwinistic approach; react, evolve successfully, or become extinct. Many companies fail to evolve quickly enough in the right direction, while their more successful competition thrives as they quickly and correctly react to the changing needs of the marketplace.

Government sites must host a wide variety of services, and the resources to build and maintain any application are stretched very thin. Web ‘front ends’ often need to connect to obsolete coding platforms or databases hosted on outdated mainframes. While the front-end web experience may be easy(ish) to modify, the integration and recoding of back-end systems is extremely expensive and time consuming.

There are many more facets to why citizen-centric sites, and the successful experience design practices involved in creating them, needs it’s own platform for sharing and discussion.

Hope you enjoy the site!

Article by: Jonathan Rath
Site Administrator