posted on 2005-11-17, 17:02authored byLeela Damodaran, Wendy Olphert
The UK Government is pursuing ambitious targets for the delivery of e-government at the local level. As
part of the implementation of local e-government, all local authorities in the UK now have a website.
Annual surveys, such as those carried out by the Society of Information Technology Managers (Socitm)
show significant advances in the delivery of services but the level of usage of e-government services by
citizens in the UK is low compared to other countries. One possible reason for low uptake is that the
information contained in e-government websites is not organised in a way that meets citizens’ information
needs. Using real life scenario-based queries an evaluation was undertaken of the ‘top 20’ local authority
websites as rated by the Socitm 2005 survey. The findings suggest that even websites that perform highly
in terms of accessibility, transactional capability and ease of use will not necessarily meet citizens’
information needs.