Let's Talk Government Website Design - Guardrails For A Holistic User Experience

by Manage Teamz Live Tracking App for Sales Team | Service Busines

Connecting with your community and meeting the needs of citizens begins with your organization's website. The internet has been available to the general public for only about 30 years, but it has already changed the world. Online services continue to shape the landscape of how people communicate and share information. The Internet has become one of the most popular ways for people to access news, check their bank accounts, communicate, and do other things.

However, the purpose of a government website differs from that of most other websites. There are nearly 2 billion websites online today, with thousands belonging to various government agencies and organizations. Local governments that have been slow to adapt and update their websites may not make a good first impression on citizens who visit them.

This is just one of the many reasons why an effective government website is essential. In fact, your organization's website is one of the most important tools for meeting citizens' needs and connecting with your community. These are arguably the primary functions of a government website, and effective websites excel at both.

Furthermore, if you are a new agency, you will want to have an effective website and make a good first impression on the community when they visit.

Here are some things to think about when reviewing or developing a new website strategy:

Make it simple to find information

Government websites are significant not only for the information and services they provide to citizens. They're also important because most citizens would rather search for information online than pick up the phone or go somewhere to get it. In the minds of citizens, finding information is even said to be the purpose of a government website. This necessitates not only having a wealth of information available online but also making it easily accessible.

Service obtainability

Almost every industry had to offer services digitally because of COVID-19's health measures. Regardless of the pandemic, citizens would prefer to pay their utility bill, apply for a permit, or renew a license online rather than calling and waiting on hold, or having to visit a physical office. As a result, a government website should enable citizens to complete tasks quickly and easily access the services they require.

Create with mobile in mind

Mobile devices are expected to account for 54.4% of all website traffic in 2021, so it's safe to assume that more than half of citizens will access your agency's website via a smartphone. The purpose of a government website remains the same whether accessed via smartphone or computer, so it's critical to ensure that the services and information on your website are just as easily accessible to mobile users as they are to desktop users.

Live assistance

Even if you make every effort to make information easily accessible, some people may not find what they're looking for quickly enough and become frustrated. Adding a chat bubble to your organization's website can help save them from having to wait on the phone for an answer to a simple question. One of your employees can monitor the chat during normal business hours so that citizens can get quick and simple answers to their questions.

Inform citizens

Allow citizens to sign up for text or email alerts in the event of severe weather, traffic accidents, hazardous road conditions, evacuations, or other emergency events. Additionally, it will enable more people to reach safety faster in an emergency by keeping citizens up-to-date on the latest information.

Include a feedback-collecting tool

Government websites serve the needs of their citizens, so your agency's website strategy should include a method to provide citizens with feedback so that they feel heard and know they can voice their concerns.

A guide to best practices in government website design

The private sector is setting the bar for best practices in government web design, but how can the government meet these same expectations?

Here are some of the main three pain points to improve the government website design:

1. Create a cool look and good feel for users

One of the best steps to developing and optimizing the government's online design is visual coherence. Your website's style and design should be consistent across all pages. It makes visitors wary of the content they find on an outdated and low-quality website's homepage, which links to an out-of-date and visually appealing inside page. As a result, people are much less inclined to use the information and services you provide.

Your website's subpages should follow a consistent style standard. Stylish but modest patterns should be used for these popular themes since not all computers are capable of handling JavaScript and autoplay movies. Individuals find it difficult to enter sensitive information into application forms or payment portals if they don't stay up-to-date.

For example, fonts, logos, graphics, and banners should be consistent throughout all pages. Web pages that offer comparable content should have a similar layout. In addition, your online apps, web forms, and payment gateways should adhere to the stylistic guidelines established by your style guide.

2. Design for mobile apps

On regular use, if you use your mobile phone to browse websites, you’ve probably come across some awful responsive designs.

The majority of government websites are not intended to be responsive to all browsers and devices. That's more than half of the people trying to pinch, zoom, and shift your website into something they can read and interact with.

If you do not want a major number of your visitors to abandon your website owing to its complexity of use, you must create a website that is user-friendly.

3. Accessibility

An accessible design has become a critical priority for government websites in recent years. Federal entities must now make their websites accessible to people with disabilities. Municipal websites and online services should be designed to be user-friendly. A government website should also integrate with assistive technologies, allowing people who have problems seeing to interact with the site.

Government websites do not have to be difficult to navigate. Constituents anticipate identical experiences throughout their public sector trips as private enterprises set the norm for uniform, responsive, and accessible design.

Conclusion

The key to developing a good government website is to balance external simplicity with internal complexity. The ideal government website should be simple to understand and navigate, while also adhering to all necessary policies and including all of the features that define it as a government website.

The adoption of governmental website regulations represents governments' digital transformation and a golden opportunity to improve digital citizen engagement. A human-centric strategy for your website will help drive improved digital government services today and in the future. Read our comprehensive guide ( Top Rules to Consider When Creating an Empowering Government Website ) on the subject to gain more direction on building intuitive websites with superior user experiences.

There are many companies that have achieved success with web design and development. As a startup, web development companies in Dubai should be your first priority rather than spending all your resources and money on building a full-fledged website development.