Creating a single, consistent experience across the Queensland Government website
Presented by David Beal & Andrew Ramsden, Queensland Government
The Queensland Government is a diverse and complicated organisation, spanning over 13 different departments, covering everything in the state from running the treasury to issuing fishing licenses. As more and more services have been provided online the Government's web presence has also grown to reflect this diversity and complexity, which can make it hard for the public to realise the full benefits of the available services. Through their hard work researching, designing and implementing a common, single website experience, the Queensland Government Online team is in the process of changing this to make Queensland a world leader in the online space. In this case study, David and Andrew will share the highs, lows and challenges they have faced along their journey.
7. Source – The elements of user experience – Jesse Garret Where to start Design Customer
8. User Centred Design Delivering easy-to-access, customer-centric services Improving government service delivery More government interactions are online. Migration and retention to more cost effective channels Customer research and it’s application Reduced service delivery costs
A bit about me and my experince. Been involved in digital communciation for over 15 years I,ve lecture in areas such as imersive environments, at QUT in the cerative industires Exeprinced in user centered design and research
People need the services government offers. Sometimes it not a choice. In terms of competition government has very little. They have the service that is needed no one else can deliver it. We see that the competition is within the way the service is delivered, the channel that is used and hence then the cost to deliver that service. If we don’t get the online channel correct then migration to the other expensive channels will occur. Outdated channel perceptions lead companies to assume that a phone call is from a customer who chose to call, rather than a customer who failed online. This is reverse migration and effects uptake and retention. Sharing the experience with others Desire to try online again Retention is also about keeping the customer in the channel and ‘on selling’ them to another service. We see this approach within the phone channel. Is there anything else I can help you with today ? The way services are grouped Through out this presentation these topics will be brought out and discussed. There are many aspects to these areas and it is import to keep these things at the back of our minds.
Unlike other channels we do not hear our customers frustrations directly, occasionaly we may receive an email of complaint. I am sure that at some point all of us have had an experience with a website, software form or operating system that has casued us grief. There is still an expection in this space that things are not going to go right that it is all to hard and difficult. So what has this to do with e-Government ? As a government can implement all the e-Government programs, policies and initatives we want but if there is no uptake one has to ask where is the value. What we are going to look at for the rest of this discussion is what we are doing to make sure we get this right.
Moving beyond a website and into a service delivery channel. A website mentality is typically static and is often supported by infractsurture that inhibats backend intergration and data sharing, not only within a department but more importantly across departments. Websites origianlly used to ‘push’ information. As technology changes and peoples use of it changes a more ‘pull’ approach is developing. I will be refering to the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ of services and the differences and how they differ in terms of interaction latter. This covers policies, governance and ICT capability. Understanding that we are not building a website is important as it effects the way in which we approach the development and implementation, it also allows us to consider mesaurments commonly used in other channels such as average handeling time and grade of service. The online space as a dedicated channel has not been deeply considered, certainly not in the same depth as the phone or counter channels.
We talk about self help within the context of online. Nothing could be further from the truth. Often I see interaction principles of the phone being attempted to be used in an online environment. There is a great deal of science behind developing an interaction that only involves one person. HCI is a specialist field. It is employed in compainies such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and eBay. If eBay failed to get the human compter interaction correct in its service offering it would not be as successful as it is today. The field of Human computer interaction must be employed if a successful online channel is to be developed. The interface, navigation and overall experience needs to facilitate the successful delivery of any e-governemnt activites. We cannot hear our customers frustrations online like we can through other channels.
In this next section we will explore how we have gone about defining the online channel and the outcomes of the research.
There are many different layers to the online experience. Each one of these things builds on each other. The customer enters and engages with an organisation from the top down. From an orgainsations perspective the channel needs to be designed from the ground up. Looking first at the more nebulas elements refining them up to the final visual layer. Looking at the first layer objectives and needs lay the foundation on which the entire experince is built. It also gives us some coer things to measure against. Channel management and measurement. We will discuss this a little later.
As mentioned a number of times now customer centricity plays a vital role in what we are doing. User centered design or human or universal design as it some times refered to plays a key role in our strategy. This translates to customer resaerch and the application of the customer research. A we discussed earlier there are direct links to channel retention, and migration and reverse migration
This is a critical point. I know I have gone on about it a few times but it really does change everything when designing the online channel. It impacts and challenges everything we know and do in this space. Lets look at this visually
Many companies would rightly so being with the home/index page to their online offering. Take eBay as a classic example. World wide it is know as ebay.com, No need to Google for it, no searching before hand just straight to ebay.com and then begin iteracting. Thgis is not hte case with governemt. People do not walk up on a weekend and browse qld.gov.au looking for something to do. It is a different paradigm.
We need to flip the model upside down and begin designing for the content layer downwards. Which is what we have done. This changes traditional approaches to a ‘portal’ approach. It also presents challenges for information architecture, cross selling and other channel retention areas.
Trust plays a huge role in establishing online interactions. Research shows that many customers make a phone call to validate what they reading. This is an interesting area that some see as convergence. I think it eludes to reverse migration. If trust is established quickly then the customer is likely to trust the content and the service. This plays a role in retention also. Consider an online form that is being filled out. Its a complex service and the user has made an error and receives an error notification. If trust is not established the user is more likely to begin losing trust that they will complete their task. They are after all here to do something.
This is an interesting area. Would you also like to... Other customers also... Look at apple, ebay, amazon. How phone scripts are grouped and the ICC trains their call center staff.
Utility The product must serve a useful function. If the product does not meet customer needs, the customer will be ultimately disappointed. This will negatively affect satisfaction, channel retention and brand confidence. Usability In this context, usability relates to: the ease of finding the desired information or service how easy the information is to understand, or how easy the service is to interact with.
This apporach has allowed us to make modification to the presentation layer and test the impacts in a measurable manner. Often a visual design while appealing may actually impact on the clarity of the content/service.