Camden Website Redesign

Camden Council (UK) Web team

This document outlines phase one of the Camden Council (UK) website redesign project
published in May 2010

[http://www3.camden.gov.uk/camdenwebsite]
Follow Camden’s progress at http://www3.camden.gov.uk/camdenwebsite

Camden Council (UK) Website Redesign Project –

1st Stage Overview
Table of content
Page

Why do user research? 3

Research methods 3

Recruiting users 4

Other ways of recruiting users 5

Challenges in recruiting users for this project 5

Questionnaire Design 5

Usability Testings 7

Why usability testing is important 7

Our finding shows what’s currently happening 8

This chart shows what should be happening 9

Research Findings 9

Our Research on eyetracking Vs. observational tracking 12

Citizens ‘wish list’ and frustrations with local government websites 12

Increasing transparency through local government 16

web development blogs

Local government website redesign project phases and 22

business requirements for Camden Council UK

Conclusion 27

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 User Research
For the past few months on this project, we have been going through several
user research sessions using different approaches. From focus groups to
individual user testing’s in the users home.

Why do user research?

You should do some level of

of user research when the high level design of your
application is underway.

• Task analysis provides important clues to what the interface organization

and conceptual design should be,” (Weinschenck, p. 26)
• Yes it costs money to do user research. It costs even
even more money to go
into litigation because nobody though about the user first.

According to Jakob Nielsen

“Modern
Modern day user experience research methods can now answer a wide range of
questions. Knowing when to use each method can be understood by mapping
them in 3 key dimensions and across typical product development phases.”
phases.

We felt the user research will

• Be able to remove stumbling blocks from the user’s path through the
website.
• Be able to get it right early, means moving on faster.
• Help to satisfy users achieve their goals through the interface

Research methods

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Here are some of the research methods that can be used in website redesign
projects like ours. We however chose to use focus groups, eyetracking, usability
lab studies, A/B testing’s, user interviews and contextual enquiries.

Recruiting users

Since Camden has its own consultative panel of nearly 2000 residents called
“Camden Talks”, we decided it was the best way to recruit our users from this
pool of residents. Emails were sent out to prospective users according to types
and categories of users. They were given a week to respond and were also
offered some incentive to participate.

Other ways of recruiting users

Steve Krug gives some great examples on ways to recruit users for website
redesign:
a. Throw money at the problem (outsourcing)– You can hire a
recruiter if you don’t have the time or inclination to do
recruiting.
b. Look in places where the kinds of people you are looking for
tend to congregate. For example, if you want to test senior
citizens, consider senior centres, libraries and church groups. If
you want people who use your website, put a link on your
homepage or create a pop-up invitation that appears when
they enter or leave.
c. Testing with people who work for your own organization.
d. Tack it up on bulletin boards.
e. Post it on message boards.

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 f. Email it to your professional or personal network and ask them
to pass it on to anyone they think might be interested.

Challenges in recruiting users for this project

There were a few challenges in obtaining users for this research.

• Doing the user research during working hours caused people to decline
the invitation.
• In the beginning we didn’t offer cash gift incentive making it harder for
users to commit to the research and cancelling at the last minute but this
was promptly overcome by offering the cash gift incentive.
• Finding the right users for the right categories. It was difficult to match
users to the exact profiling that was needed for the research. But we tried
to match it as best and close as we could.

Questionnaire Design

We conducted some user interviews and contextual enquiries for this project
and you might be wondering what sort of questions we asked. In order to fully
understand our users, we felt we needed to understand their background, skills
and habits.

Therefore the questions were divided into different categories which include:-

a. About you
b. Tech and gadgets
c. Mobile
d. Internet
e. Contact and engagement with Camden Council
f. Perceptions and reputation of Camden Council
g. A typical scenario using Camden website
h. Frequent tasks and improvements of Camden website
i. The users wish list for Camden’s new website

About You

In this section, we wanted to learn more about the user such as

• How long they’ve lived in Camden.

• Are they currently employed.
• What qualifications they have.
• How they travel for work or leisure.
• What their typical day is like

Tech and gadgets

In this section, we just wanted to understand their approach to technology in

regards to when, where and how they buy new devices and gadgets. And also
what technology devices they own.

Mobile

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We also wanted to understand their mobile usage and how it affects their
internet usage by asking questions such as:-

• Do you have a PAYG or fixed contract?

• Do you use your mobile to access the internet?
• Have you ever paid for anything using your mobile?
Internet

This section was important to understand how users use the internet in their
everyday lives. The questions would ask: -

• Where they would typically access the internet.

• What device they would use
• If they are comfortable and confident using the internet
• How frequently they use it
• If there is a breakdown between personal use and for their job or
studying
• How they connect to the internet at home
• What is the display resolution
• What are the websites they like and frequently visit
• Do they ever contribute to any websites personally
• If they have ever used the Camden Council website

Contact and engagement with Camden Council

In order to understand how users and currently engaging with the council, it was
important to ask how they typically contact the council and which services they
most use and benefit from.

Perceptions and reputation of Camden Council

We felt users perceptions and Camden’s reputation may have an effect on their
willingness to use the council’s website, therefore we asked the following
questions to gain insight on this matter.

• In your view is there anything that Camden council do particularly well?

• What do they do badly?
• Would you say you are broadly happy or unhappy with Camden council?

A typical scenario using Camden website

This section tested users experience using the website by asking what and why
they were trying to do on the website as well as what happened at each stage of
the process. We also asked whether the problem or task managed to get resolved
or completed in the end. This is so we could better understand any frustrations
that a user might have while undertaking a typical task on our website.

Frequent tasks and improvements for Camden website

This section covers the basics of our website such as:-

• What are your first impressions of the website?

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 • How easy do you find it to get around the site generally?
• How easy do you find it to locate the content you want?
• How good is the quality of the information you want?
• What improvement would you like to see Camden make?

The users wish list for Camden’s new website

This section explores further improvements that the user would like to add to
make their user experience more usable and accessible.

Usability Testings
It was important for this project to carry out usability testing’s that accurately
explored the problems and barriers users face when using our website. So the
usability testings were conducted in the users home where they would use the
machine and be in their normal surroundings. This helped to understand the
constraints and challenges users face in their own environment.

The image above shows how the usability testing was conducted and the typical
desktop environment that is found in a users home.

Why usability testing is important

In most situations or other types of websites, it’s quite easy to understand why
usability testing is important. For instance, an e-commerce website will see
users leaving a website before they finish a transaction as a loss of income but
for a government website, the impact of bad website usability goes much further.
Users use government website such as Camden Council’s website need to find
essential information or carry out transactions that effects their lives. Failure to
do these tasks can lead to users failure to benefit from council services that could
help make their lives easier and more manageable.

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Therefore, usability testing in this project is vitally important to ensure
residents get the services they need in a timely and efficient manner to avoid
frustrations and delays.

According to Jakob Nielsen usability is a quality attribute that assesses how

easy user interfaces are to use. The word "usability" also refers to methods for
improving ease-of-use during the design process.

Usability is defined by five quality components:

• Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first
time they encounter the design?

• Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they
perform tasks?

• Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not

using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?

• Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors,
and how easily can they recover from the errors?

• Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

Our finding shows what’s currently happening

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This chart shows what should be happening

These charts clearly shows that there is a disconnect between what should be
happening and what is currently happening. We are hoping with the new
website redesign, we will be able to address the disconnection and reduce users
contact with the council through more costly channels such as the phone, letter
and in person.

Research Findings

We did discover a couple of things while conducting our usability testing on the
current website.

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Search box overlooked

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The main sections are not as explicit as the popular links

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Our Research on eyetracking Vs. observational tracking

We also conducted our own research on eyetracking testing Vs. mouse

tracking/observational testing’s. You can find the research here.

Over the past few months, I’ve been getting myself acquainted with my new Job at
Camden Council and learning the ropes. I’ve been brought in to work on Camden’s
new website redesign project. For the past few months, I’ve not only learnt a lot about
why and how the website works but also understand the mechanics and workforce
that work behind it. Being a researcher, I’ve always valued how much data can help
improve customer service. And all of the research conducted on this project so far has
proved to be a very valuable process to the project. It has delivered some insightful
data on how we should design the website.

Design Vs. Usability

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, redesigning a council website does not have
the same impact as redesigning an e-commerce website. Its impact has further
implications to citizens lives and is not just about fulfilling a desire to get a new pair
of shoes or even a brand new car. They just want to find the information they need
and complete transactions without any fuss. And this leads to the argument of what is
more important, design or the website’s usability? Or can we find a balance between
the both? If yes, how do we do this?

Citizens ‘wish list’ and frustrations with local government

websites
Based on the user research that we did on Camden residents, we found that people’s
expectations on a council website are not that difficult or unreasonable. They just
want things to work. Sometimes just an email or letter notifying the process of the
query is enough to put their minds at ease. But the truth is, a lot of council website are
failing in doing just this based on my own personal research into local council
websites. Among the most obvious challenges for citizens when using local council
websites and specifically for Camden residents are as follows:-

• Better e-forms – E-forms are not clear, confusing and sometimes just
doesn’t work.
• Need bigger headers and better filters – Some users complained that
the headers were too small and the need for better filters of the
information.
• Need acknowledgement of service, not referring to automated reply
– Need notification or acknowledgement of current processing stage of
query or transaction.
• The site is confusing, there is too much information – The site is very
heavy text and a bit too overwhelming for users who don’t come to use
the site regularly or are novice internet users.
• Wanting to pay online for recycling – Users don’t mind paying for
council services online, even the novice users. They feel secure enough to
make even the smallest transactions online like for their recycling.

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• Better and clearer way to sign up for leisure centre and library
online – The sign up process can be unclear and confusing.
• Website should have distinguishing categories like the BT website –
Users agreed that there should be a clear distinction between corporate
and resident users versions of the website like the BT website where
business and home users are clearly defined.
• Prefer information such as news, events and general information on
updates or emergencies to come to them through social networking
channels – A regular social network user who subscribes to Love
Camden, Camdentalking and our uservoice Facebook page described our
social network channels to be useful to her because she likes information
to come to her instead of coming to the website.
• Ability to give feedback – Users also expressed the want and need to
give feedback on service, not necessarily on the website but through
online channels.
• Have a “What is your diagnose” type facility – A lot of users seem to
like using the NHS website because it has the “What is your diagnose”
facility and wondered whether that could be incorporated into the council
website
• Wanted to order lid for bin online but there wasn’t any for lids –
User’s bin lid was stolen during the snow, possibly due to people stealing
the lids to slide through the snow. Wanted to order the lid online but it
was not possible. Therefore had to call to explain that she didn’t want to
order the whole bin, but only the lid.
• Felt the website was information heavy for families but for childless
couples or single individuals, it was limited – Interesting insight to
how single or childless couples or individuals felt that the website wasn’t
particularly relevant to their needs on the website because they did not
need the schools, children and etc information. Maybe we should consider
a section where this particular group of residents services to be
highlighted.
• Desire to be digitally engaged with council – It seemed that particular
segments of users want to be digitally engage with their council but not
been clearly guided on how to do that on the website. This might mean
that the council and democracy section does appeal to them or give the
necessary tools to get involved.
• Desire to volunteer within their local area – There is also a limited or
unclear online resource to look for volunteering opportunities, which also
shows they are interested to be involved but yet again, the website does
not engage with the activities that they may be interested in.
• Online licence application – For license application (letter to oppose &
licensing list), you must make application by paper and can’t do it online.
• Unable to find information online – Customers mostly found they
would resort to calling after having an unpleasant experience with the
website. This mostly happens when they can’t find the information they
are looking for.
• Unrelated headings – Headings and subheadings for categories on
website is confusing and somewhat unrelated to the information being
searched for.

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 • Services with most problems online – Most when asked about their
general experience with the website, they refer to services such as

1. Licensing issues
2. Planning permissions – Some of the residents mentioned they couldn’t find
the planning application on the website.
3. Housing repairs and
4. Recycling – Some of the residents mentioned that they would use the
website for finding out when to put out the recycling and not for news.

• Preference of using the search box – Users found that they couldn’t find
a particular service such as building control and rather have a search box
to go directly to the information needed. This is mostly down to the
unrelated categories in their minds. They also sometimes find the A-Z not
useful either.
• Emergency services (24/7 contact details) – There was also a
complaint regarding certain services which needed 24/7 attention such
as complains about noise. We tried to search for the number and the
number supplied was only for office times only. No 24-hour number was
supplied via the website. The user had to refer to Camden magazine to get
the 24-hour contact number. This causes a lot of frustration for users
when using the website when they need it. It lessens their level of
confidence to use the website again in case of emergencies.
• Limited use of council services – Someusers indicated that if you don’t
use the housing or education services, their usage of the council website
and services is limited. For somebody who doesn’t use many of the
council services, some users found the whole process of calling, polite and
preferable but still didn’t get an answer. Therefore they feel that if a
person can’t help them, how could a website help them.
• Wanting more interaction with officers online – They want the ability
to make objections online and questions to officer about general interest.
• Events request – They also wanted to know more about events
happening on the website.

Obviously in a project of this scale, we are trying our best to ensure that our user
experience is a pleasant and satisfying one. And in order to do that we are calling out
Camden residents through various channels to get involved in our usability testings
and research. We even recently launched a development site which you can visit here.

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Here are some snapshot of the newly launched development site front page.

1. Front page – The front page reflects on the content of the website with
carousel rotating on the main content.
2. Camden Website Redesign Project Blog – This blog will talk about the
projects progress, some lessons learnt, related topics in regards to the
website redesign and the challenges we’ve faced throughout the project.
We hope to get feedback from people to ensure we are on the right track.
3. Featured interviews with experts and camden staff involved in the
project – We’re also featuring interviews with either experts or our own
staff to talk about topics that matter to this project to further inform
people on the project progress.
4. Camden’s Project Stages – This section was created as a one-stop-shop
or summary where readers can find consolidated blog posts in the form of
a PDF for easy reading.
5. We encourage Camden residents and university students to
volunteer with our project – One of our main aims is to encourage more
people to get involved in the project while we are building the website.
Usability testings will ensure that the website satisfies every user
experience. We also encourage students to get involved for their research
projects.

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 6. The project website includes links to websites and articles that we
feel can help educate people on website development – We wanted
this website to not only be about this project itself but also a place where
people can come and learn about website development.

Increasing transparency through local government web

development blogs
Ever since we launched our web development blog, there has been an increased
interest in local government web development blogs. Looking at some of the
response below (tweets about Camden’s web development blog and some of our blog
posts) that we’ve had over the past few weeks, I believe the number of local
government web development blogs will increase and more lessons can be learnt
within our growing community.

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Popular blog post

Our recent blog post about the citizens ‘wish list’ got syndicated onto the Governing
People (a popular community for advocates of smarter government that is read and
subscribed by many government staff and interested parties from around the world)
and was retweeted 30 times and read 1821 times, making it the most read and most
commented blog post of the month on Governing People.

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See other comments orretweets.

I also cross posted this blog post on my website at LGEOResearch.com and also
found a high number of retweets and views. This proved that there is still little
knowledge of what citizens really want from local government websites and how its
largely fascinating for most of us to find out what citizens really think of government
websites.

There was even an invite to post the blog post as a featured article on GovLoop’s
website (a government community of 30,000 government innovators across the
world).

Background of Camden’s Website Redesign Project

For those who are new to this blog/website, we are the webteam at Camden Council
(UK) and this website is about our website redesign project. To find out the
background of this project, I’ve interviewed the Head of Information Systems here at
London Borough of Camden to give you an overview of the project and where we are
at the moment in terms of the local government website evolution.

Link to video

Background to Camden’s Website Redesign Project from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

What does this mean for local government website innovators?

In line with what Alasdair mentioned in the video above, the need for web
development blogs are part of the way people are using and consuming the web. I
predict that we will see an increase in web development blogs as we saw the growth
of local government using other social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and etc
last year. I remember displaying my research data on local councils using social

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media last year which spurred on more useful and timely lists such as this one by
Brent Council. Having started the list on a whim for my PhD research, it created a
buzz in the government twitter and blogosphere, which later on brings us here.

From little steps in social media (using Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube), we
are moving forward and becoming more serious in taking positive steps towards
better service delivery and engagement with citizens online. By blogging about
Camden’s website redesign project, we will hopefully increase transparency and be
able to share the lessons we learnt and engage with other government counterparts as
well as citizens.

List of other web development blogs from local governments in the UK

Here are some web development blog of local governments in the UK that was kindly
pointed out to me by @pluto9 from Brent Council, who runs the eGovernment
Register. I’ve picked out my favouriteblog posts from these blogs to highlight how
useful sharing this information can be for local government website innovators and
citizens alike.

1. Aberdeenshire Council

Blog post chosen: User-testing – The results

Even though this particular blog post chosen is a bit old (published in October 2008),
I feel the information shared is still relevant to us today. It talks about how they used
the thinkaloud protocol in their user testing of their new library website.

Thee thinkaloud protocol asked users to speak through what they were clicking on,
and why.

Specifics that they wanted to look at on the new design were

• First Impressions
• New Site vs. Old
• Navigation
• On page links
• External and Related Links Box
• Colours
• Page width
• A-Z on every page

2.Bracknell Forest Council

Blog post chosen:Find local health services

This blog post talks about Bracknell Forest Council being one of the first local
authorities in the country to use data syndicated by the NHS.

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3. Brent Council

Blog post chosen – 2 blog posts were chosen

• Brent going green project – This blog posts highlight how Brent Council is
using the BRAIN community website, a Facebook site, Twitter feed
and YouTube videos to run the campaign. The project, which is funded
by the IDeA, aims to help Brent residents reduce their
energy consumption and explore the ways in which online social media
can increase awareness of climate change issues.
• NHS Choices Data – This blog post, similarly to Bracknell Forest blog post,
talks about use of NHS Choices Data and how Brent is using it on the
Brent Council website. Very interesting usage of maps, gadgets, widgets
and property pages.

4. Eden District Council

Blog post chosen: Inaccessibility of videos – is YouTube failing the public sector?

This blog post highlights a very important issue in regards to accessibility of local
council websites, especially when implementing social media applications. Eden
District Council talks about how their embedded YouTube videos was almost
certainly going to cause major access barriers for at least one group of people.

5. Lincolnshire County Council

Blog post chosen: Schools to access vital information thanks to George!

This blog post talks about how schools around the county will soon be able to access
an array of information thanks to the implementation of George into schools. George
– the County Council’s intranet system – is a vital communication tool which allows
important information to be accessed quickly and easily by staff throughout the
organisation.

6. St. Helens Council

Blog post chosen: Council website redesign – Consultation now on!

This is an interesting blog post by St. Helens Council inviting users to participate in
their consultation for the council’s website redesign. Have a look at what people said
on about their test website in the comments and what they have asked people to look
at.

7. Warwickshire County Council

Blog post chosen: There are so many interesting blog post on this website. I
recommend you read them all but maybe these ones will be of most interest.

1. Data Visualisation
2. Making Visionary Strategy a Practical Reality: The Open Data project

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 3. Warwickshire Already Using the Cloud
4. Open Data: Building the tools to help you Hack Warwickshire.
5. How the Warwickshire iPhone App will lead to open data

8. City of Lincoln Council

Blog post chosen:Bin Calendar Search, version 3

This blog post talks about how the web development team at Lincoln worked on their
bin calendar search following some feedback on the service.

9. Stratford-on-Avon Council Labs

Stratford-on-Avon Council has taken a slightly more innovative approach to their web
development site. They’ve created a lab called SDC Labs that has been created to help
share current and future website developments with the public. Once developments
have been approved, completed and implemented they will become graduates of labs.

Tips on setting up a local government web development blog/site

1. Decide who your audience is and what type of website do you want it to be. I found
that some councils took the approach of news type blog posts, informing citizens on
development of the site. Some councils like Camden, took the route of sharing
strategies and research data that we’ve collated over the duration of our website
redesign project. And then there are innovative sites like Stratford-on-Avon Council
Labs who experiment and create tools.

2. Share your experiences – I find that the only way to truly tap into the benefits of
local government web development blogs/sites is to actually share your experience.
There are so many problems and issues with local government websites that we need
to deal with and the burden can be reduced by sharing with others and learning from
them too.

3. Find out what else is out there – Yes, its great to talk about your own development
but sometimes it helps to keep a fresh mind by finding out what others are up to and
acknowledging to those parties that you are listening. Write about how you’ve learnt
from other councils and congratulate them on their efforts. Encouragement from our
growing community can boost our motivation to increase the effectiveness and
efficiencies of our own council websites.

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Local government website redesign project phases and
business requirements for Camden Council UK
We are now still in the first phase of Camden Council’s website redesign. There are 3
core phases in this project, that Alasdair explains in detail in the video below. It is
important for us to communicate that once the website is launched, this project does
not end there. There will be another 2 phases until the cycle is complete.

Link to video

Phases of Camden Website Redesign Project from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

The 3 phases of Camden Council’s (UK) website redesign project

1. Phase 1 (User research) – Getting user data, conducting usability

research and qualititative data on how people are using the site informing
the new designs going live in July.
2. Phase2 (Usability) – Usability of transactions that sit behind the designs,
particularly our navigation structure which is very much based on the
Local Government Category List (LGCL) and our e-forms.
3. Phase 3 (Innovation) - Developing widgets, iPhone apps, breaking down
information on the site into usable things that people can use and any
other types of innovations that might come about in the next 12 – 18
months.

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How do we know the improvements we’ve made after the website redesign?

Link to video

Talking about improvements after Camden Council’s website redesign from Liz
Azyan on Vimeo.

There’s a disconnect between the objectives of the website and the objectives of the
business ~ Alasdair Mangham, Head of Information Systems, London Borough of
Camden

According to Alasdair, the objectives of the website are largely driven by the local
government type targets (i.e. the number of unique visitors to your site and calculation
of the population that visits your site). This however does not determine the success
or improvement of the new website.

How we need to measure improvements in local government website redesign

projects

As Alasdair mentioned in the video above, we need to ask ourselves what the business
objectives are for the website in delivering its services online. We have a huge
amount of information sitting there on the website that does not really get consumed
by that many users. For instance 80% of our information gets consumed by only 20%
of our users, creating a vast long tail of information. Therefore not satisfying the
objective of the local authority or business objectives of a particular online
service/transactional focused website.

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Key objectives of delivering services online for Camden Council

Link to video

Key objectives of Camden Website Redesign Project from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

So its clear now that this project needs to fulfill the business objectives in order to
make it success. We need to identify what are the business objectives for delivering
services online. And once we’ve done that, only then we can start making
measurements on the websites’ improvements.

Digital Strategy – Camden Council’s Business Requirements

It is also important to identify what the business requirements are in this project to
ensure they are in sync with the web development of the redesign. Our business
requirements are divided into 10 categories. Those categories and business
requirements are listed below: -

• Strategy and policy – Defining council-wide policies and clear

management responsibilities, establishing SLA’s, ensuring web training is
documented, resources are secured and roadmap for future
developments.
• Roles, responsiblities and workflows
o Assigning ownership of content
o Service areas take greater responsibility for site
o Facility to allow manager to send content to officer for instant
update or vice versa.
• Brand – Increased promotion of website, all pages conform to a style
guide and focus on local area, not just the organisation (i.e. Love Camden
content).
• Technology

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 o Integration with service systems
o E-Form integration with customer services and other systems
o Single application / engine for all mapping services
o Platform independent – conformance with EGIF
o Top content dashboard presented to backend administrators /
content editors
o Futureproof, scalable and adaptable.
• Access, channels and engagement
o Incentivise online interactions
o Ongoing involvement and feedback from residents in
understanding their website needs
o Enhance digital engagement with users without internet access
o Incentivise return visits
o Get people to regularly use the site who at the moment rarely visit
o Consultation & Engagement Portal
o Portals defined by Audience type
o Distinctive site focused exclusively for young people
o Content, look & feel targeted to youth audience
o Ask users for opt-in to SMS when contacting customer services via
phone
o Satellite sites run by services
o Partner extranet
o Replacing paper consultations with social media or other online
engagement
• Content
o Engage users to pro-actively assist in content curation
o Increased synergy between offline and online content
o Play to the strengths of digital, and avoid simply copy/pasting
content from offline
o Democracy section needs improved audit trail facility to observe &
track governmental decision making
• Services and transactions – All services available online
• Contact, notification and feedback
o Increase use of email notification within services
o Services and contact should be responsive & provide continuous
user feedback
o Increase use of SMS notifcation within services
o E-newsletters to residents & stakeholders
o Ability to update web and call centre instantly
o Ensure web and call centre advice is consistent
o Ability for users to request online contact ONLY
o Integration of FAQs with call centre logs
o Improved collection and management of customer data
• Stats and analysis – User journey data available for analysis by council
• Social media and user generated content (UGC)
o Utilise social media tools for engagement, consultation &
communication
o Council Home Swap – residents upload photos of flat, search for
other properties

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 o Compliment, rather than duplicate, existing websites that support
the voice of Camden

Conclusion

Hopefully this has given readers a clearer idea of what this project aims to do and
what they can expect from Camden Council’s website in the future.

Please leave comments if you wish to know more or to tell us what you think of our
project. Please don’t forget to check our other blog posts too.

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Conclusion
From the user research and usability testings, these insights were discovered: -

• Digital channels can improve on the ability to resolve tasks

Email is neglected as a preferred form of communication because delays
are frequent and responses are untrustworthy or sometimes
unforthcoming entirely. Response times must be more consistent, with all
responses focused on resolution within that channel wherever
appropriate.

The website is used frequently as a conduit for the phone channel, rather
than a source of the desired information itself. Information must be made
easier to locate, read and action.

For a small but significant minority, primary contact with the council is
seen as a barrier to resolution, and prefer instead to pursue direct contact
with councillors. This perception needs to be dispelled to ensure
customer services are not consistently circumvented or undermined.

• Email is the natural successor to the letter to maintain trust & improve
immediacy
Residents preference for written correspondence stems primarily from a
lack of trust in actions being recorded and pursued accordingly via other
channels. Email could easily provide this security in a dramatically more
immediate manner than a letter, assuming tracking of queries is simple,
feedback is ongoing and any correspondence is maintained via a single
appropriate voice of authority on the issue.

• Overpopulation of ‘activists’ in the local government landscape could

distract from sincere efforts to listen and respond to broader citizen
concerns.

• Website personalisation would be best utilised to expose relevant local

services and frequently used information

Displaying frequently used and hyperlocal content are two approaches to

ensure that unique journeys through the site, and the key functions to
that individual, are suitably emphasised. Users can be easily
overwhelmed with content, much of it irrelevant to their needs. Delivery
of hyperlocal content would likely be most effective when handled
passively, rather than via user-driven customisation, ideally through use
of postcode information stored against an online resident account.

• Engagement needs to be passive, proactive and ongoing to be most effective

Current methods of engagement can seem disorganised or insincere. The

belief is that excessive surveys and other quantitative techniques feel

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 robotic or forceful, whilst tracking of progress regarding raised issues of
concern is difficult if not impossible. Likewise, ongoing or repeat
involvement is perceived as not valuable or desirable to the council.
Evidence suggests that qualitative engagement methods are more likely
to make residents feel listened to, valued and understood. Residents feel
most influential when they are passively informed of consultations they
would otherwise be unaware of, then engaged meaningfully throughout
the entire consultation process and explicitly informed of ongoing
developments and outcomes.

Passive sentiment tracking is possible through the use of social media

monitoring tools, though for the foreseeable future it is likely to
overemphasise the thoughts and feelings of a minority elite of residents.
However, the ability for Camden to seemingly 'mind read' the concerns of
it's residents is a powerful tool and likely to generate an immensely
positive reaction.
• Key improvements in website usability & visual design will significantly
assist user engagement & productivity
o Evidence suggests a preference for short, spacious pages instead of
lengthy, condensed, text-heavy pages
o Explicit association between content hierarchy and quick links
should assist navigation and orientation
o Improved visibility and functionality of search will enhance
findability of content
o Form processes can be made easier to increase conversion of self-
servicing transactions
o Phone numbers should be highly visible wherever they are
essential to reduce suspicion and frustration
o Increased use of data visualisation, video and other multimedia is
likely to enrich engagement with content and is preferred over
numerical or tabular displays of information
o Improved error messaging will help reduce confusion and site
abandonment

• Significant demand for neutrality suggests a strictly informative, and

moderately formal, tone would be the most effective form of communication
on the website
The use of prominent space on the home page to temporarily promote
key events (such as adoption and fostering open evenings) can be divisive
as it is open to interpretation of bias, favouritism or ‘preaching’. Any
home page space used to promote key messages from the council needs to
be carefully toned to be informative rather than pushy, and accommodate
multiple messages across the broader spectrum of council activities.
Residents use the website for a wide variety of purposes and neutrality of
information is vital to ensure trust and prevent content from being
obscured. Remember, ‘at your service’.

• Transparency of decision-making and conflict resolution improves

understanding and positive sentiment
Unaddressed or poorly maintained queries can cause a significant

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 negative impact on confidence and trust in the council. Residents feel
empowered, considered and more understood when they are regularly
and passively informed of ongoing concerns, even if these concerns are
not resolved to their satisfaction. Email queries should be addressed
within a reasonable timeframe, with an indication of progress whenever
resolution is not instantly possible. All outcomes, however negative,
should be explicit, and dealt with in an open and honest manner.

Follow Camden’s progress at http://www3.camden.gov.uk/camdenwebsite

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