Ready access
Ready access
The Internet will be the dominant means of enabling ready access to government.
- 2004 target
Ready access means it is easier for people to obtain government information and services at their convenience. Overall, the website assessments show that there is ready access to agencies' information and services on the Internet. People can find a wide variety of information, and carry out some services online.
All agencies use websites to provide information about their purpose, opportunities to participate in their activities, accessing their services and how to contact them. Where applicable, they provide reports and forms that can be downloaded.
Some agencies use a number of websites to provide information to specific audiences or for particular services. Some agency websites are advanced, offering online transactional services, while others are information-only websites.
The Internet reduces the need for people to physically visit agencies for information or to access services. Instead the Internet allows people to access agency information anytime, anywhere.
While agencies provide ready access, the level of access varies across agencies. Factors such as the accessibility and usability of the websites vary with some websites easier to use than others. The assessments rated the standard of websites on a scale using high, good, average or room for improvement. Thirty-six percent of agencies' websites were rated high and 31% were rated good.
I to I Solutions Ltd assessed 113 Public and non-Public Service agencies websites. Thirty-nine agencies' main websites were assessed [The Parliamentary Service and Office of the Clerk websites were not assessed due to redevelopments at the time of review] . Not every subsidiary website was assessed due to time and resource restrictions.
Top performers overall
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Best practice examples of agency websites: |
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Inland Revenue |
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Statistics New Zealand |
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Archives New Zealand |
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Best practice examples of individual websites were: |
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The Growth and Innovation Framework |
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The Ministry of Tourism |
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Climate Change |
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Dog Safety |
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Reduce Rubbish |
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The Employment Relations Service |
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StudyLink |
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The Ministry of Consumer Affairs |
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Results for website assessment criteria
The website assessments looked at agencies' e-government capability. Criteria included:
- information and services delivery (based on the information and two-way services each agency provides)
- usability (based on best practice to ensure ease of use of websites)
- required government content (drawn from the Government Web Guidelines)
- accessibility (drawn from the Government Web Guidelines).
The following table describes the five criteria that were assessed and their development. More detailed information about the assessment criteria can be found in the appendix.
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Assessment criteria |
Number of criteria |
Source of criteria |
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Required government content |
59 criteria |
Government Web Guidelines, version 2.1 |
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Accessibility |
112 criteria, plus 32 Web Accessibility Initiative criteria [The Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities: www.w3c.org/TR/WCAG10/#toc] |
Government Web Guidelines, version 2.1, plus additions |
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Usability |
36 criteria |
e-Gov Watch selection from best practices in web usability |
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Information delivery |
13 criteria for each Information item (an average of 7.8 information items per website) |
e-Gov Watch selection from best practice, information items from agency Estimates of Appropriations 2003/04, plus website content |
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e-Services delivery |
16 criteria for each |
e-Gov Watch selection from best practice, Service Items from agency Estimates of Appropriations 2003/04, plus website content |
Required government content
Overall, most agencies could improve peoples' ability to access certain content on their websites by ensuring they feature the mandatory aspects of the Government Web Guidelines [All websites were tested for compliance with the Guidelines; however some aspects of the Guidelines are more applicable to corporate websites than subsidiary websites. Where agencies believe they should be exempt from aspects of the Guidelines, this should be discussed with the EGU Web Standards Manager] .
Common content missing from websites are:
- a statement of the website's purpose on its home-page
- required email addresses
- information about the responsibilities, aims and objectives of agency business units
- privacy and security statements [The Wired for Well-Being study reported that people would like government websites to indicate whether and how they protect the information people provide] .
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Best practice: Required government content |
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Ministry for the Environment Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry |
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Accessibility
Overall, websites had a reasonably high level of accessibility.
As a significant proportion of New Zealanders have a disability that affects their Internet access, agencies need to ensure websites have accessibility features for these users [Channel Surfing: How New Zealanders Access Government]. Without these accessibility features some people may:
- have difficulty navigating web-pages
- have difficulty using online forms
- be unable to increase font size [The Government Web Guidelines recommends using style sheets for websites so that people can change the font size to suit their needs] .
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Best Practice: Accessibility |
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Ministry of Economic Development: The Growth and Innovation Framework Ministry for the Environment |
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Agencies should ensure that information is provided primarily in HTML, except content for a specialist audience. PDFs can be time consuming to load for people with slow connection speeds, and sight-impaired people are unable to use the screen readers needed to view PDF files (as they can with HTML).
Participants with disabilities in the Wired for Well-Being study made the following suggestions to improve access:
- provide clear directions about how to navigate the website
- use plain language
- present information in a straight-forward manner
- provide shortcuts to information
- avoid using a small font size.
The website assessment found that a number of agencies should:
- Review all web-page styles against the accessibility requirements. This only needs to be done once and can apply across the entire website.
- Ensure the images and colours used are suitable for all browsers and screen types.
- Ensure developers of stand-alone online applications (eg. online forms) are familiar with the general Web Accessibility Initiative standards.
- Test websites for accessibility after each major redevelopment of the website's HTML structure.
Usability
Most agencies need to improve the usability of their websites. In general, agencies can make their websites easier for people to use by:
- including information that shows when the website was last updated
- maintaining links
- identifying which information is required and which is optional on forms
- providing an easy means of communicating with the author or to provide feedback
- ensuring content is up-to-date
- providing easy navigation and access.
Improving website usability makes it easier for people to find the information or services they want, especially for those who are new to the website or with time constraints.
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Best practice: Usability |
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Archives New Zealand The Department of Internal Affairs: Dog safety |
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Participants in the Wired for Well-Being study commented on the difficulty in accessing or using government websites, finding them difficult to navigate and getting lost easily as a result. Participants reported great variation among agencies' websites in supplying information in a way that the public can easily find.
The assessment found that agencies can consider the following to improve website usability:
- Providing navigation paths or themes by subjects, current issues, most frequently asked topics, or roles rather than organisational structure. People in the Wired for Well-Being study had clear preferences for better navigation aids.
- Clearly indicating to people where they are within a website, and providing easy access back to higher-level topics and the home-page.
- Providing direct access to a search tool, ideally from every page or alternatively through a link to the search function.
- Engaging small groups of users to test websites' usability as an effective and inexpensive way of making sure websites are easy to use.
Information delivery
Overall, agencies have a very high level of information delivery on their websites. The information agencies provide is the main strength of their websites, and an important factor in achieving the Strategy's target for 2004.
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Best practice: Information delivery |
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Ministry for the Environment: Reduce your rubbish Ministry of Economic Development: Ministry of Tourism Statistics New Zealand |
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E-services delivery
While the quality of e-services varies between agencies, e-services are typically delivered well. Some agencies' e-services are mature, such as the Ministry of Social Development's StudyLink website www.studylink.govt.nz. Other agencies are just beginning to offer
e-services.
For both information delivery and e-services delivery, some agencies could add value by providing related links, help, effective search tools and contacts specific to the service.
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Best practice: E-Services delivery |
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New Zealand Customs Service |
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Common issues on agency websites
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Issue |
Solutions |
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Usability and website navigation could be improved for easier use of the website. |
Usability and navigation can be improved by:
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There is no search function, or the search does not produce relevant results, preventing people from finding information easily. |
All websites should have a search function that is maintained and produces useful results. |
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Missing accessibility features such as navigation skipping, access keys and style sheet problems may impede some people's access. |
Websites should provide invisible links (navigation skipping) so that people who use text-only browsers can avoid the standard navigation items in a web-page and go straight to the content. Websites should also provide access keys for people who have difficulty using a mouse. Access keys give keystroke access to common content areas (such as the Contact Us page). Agencies can use style sheets to ensure people can increase font size. |
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Required email addresses are missing or were not answered during the assessment. |
The Government Web Guidelines require the following email addresses: info, postmaster, webmaster/website manager, abuse, privacy and complaints. These all take the form of info@agencyname.govt.nz. |
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Contact details could be more specific to enable responsive handling of enquiries. |
Agencies should offer specific contact details for different services or information areas to ensure high-quality, timely responses. |
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Some broken links prevent people from accessing certain content. |
Agencies need to check links regularly to ensure they are maintained. |
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More links to other related content would be useful. |
Agencies should link similar information on websites. |
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Many documents are in PDF only, excluding people who are unable or unwilling to read this format. |
The Government Web Guidelines require web content to be provided primarily in HTML 4.01, except where it is intended for specialist audiences. |
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Missing website policies mean people are unsure about feedback, privacy, copyright and complaints. |
The Government Web Guidelines require information created by Crown departments to be subject to Crown copyright. However, where wide dissemination is available, the Crown should permit use of its copyrights subject to acknowledgement of source. Agencies need to make it clear which information is Crown copyright, which is not, and provide copyright statements. Homepages for single-agency or business unit websites must link to a complaints procedure, privacy and security statements, and enable people to provide feedback - both positive and negative. |
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The home-page does not present a clear face, missing opportunities to offer relevant content. |
Agencies home-pages should include the following:
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The addition of consultation documents would make it easier to offer feedback on proposed changes to policy or procedures. |
The Government Web Guidelines require single agency websites to provide consultation documents when consulting the public. |
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