Consumers’ experiences are akin to the frustrating experience of going through a series of numbered options on a telephone helpline until eventually you’re put through to the person you need to speak to. The result is a disjointed and awkward journey. Different websites have a completely different look and feel, and are of varying quality, making it difficult for the consumer to know what to expect. This compares unfavourably with commercial websites like Amazon³⁶ which, although offering totally different services and products, sticks to a common framework and look even though products are sold by different sellers. On the occasions that the Directgov ‘superstore’ does have everything stocked, items may well be in rather unexpected places.    Some of the links from Directgov do not even point to the relevant page on another website, simply linking to a home page. For example the ‘Make a complaint about unfair trading’³⁷ links to Consumer Direct’s home page rather than to the pertinent page with a downloadable template for a complaint letter. Similarly, following the links into local authority services can either take you to a council home page or to relevant content. This is problematic because consumers are getting different levels of efficiency depending on what they are looking for.

For example, registering for a state pension ‘eforecast’ involve up to 12 steps, and then a wait up to seven days to receive an activation code, before even starting to input financial information relating to their pension.

The do-it-online section does not live up to its claims of being a place where consumers can actually see through public service transactions to completion in any great number.

The do-it-online section could be improved by clarifying what it is on offer, and providing a more consistent delivery of online services through to completion. These should be informed by what consumers expect to see on a Government website, and what they most value.

We also recommend a new approach to personalising services around consumers, based on their preferences. The do-it-online section would also benefit from providing more obvious ways for the public to give feedback on the content and process of using online services so that the provider could build their insight into revisions.

35. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
36. Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk [Accessed 9 September 2009].
37. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DG_4018045

Directgov describes itself as a ‘superstore’³² and a whole section of the website is branded ‘do-it-online’³³. As such, consumers could reasonably expect to complete a range of relevant transactions on the website. In fact, very few experiences begin and end in ‘the superstore’. Directgov, instead, mostly points users to information that will lead them to transactions, rather than actually enabling transactions to happen. The website says consumers can ‘download forms, make applications online and get expert advice’³⁴ but, in reality, there is a lot of form
downloading, and not a great deal of opportunities to make online applications. The transactions described in the ‘do-it-online’ pages fall into six categories:

1. Receive advice, for example, what to do if you think your child is on drugs
2. Research tailored information, for example, find a school
3. Complaining about a service, for example, make a complaint about a pension provider
4. Report something from a community, for example, a suspected benefit cheat
5. Apply and register for help, for example, maternity costs
6. Make a payment, for example, pay a court fine

The first two of the above categories do deliver comprehensive online services. They are relatively straightforward in that they simply provide information. However, a closer look at the remaining four types of transactions reveals they only partially provide a comprehensive online service in that they require a form to be downloaded, printed, filled in and sent off by post, or they require a password to come by post before the service can be accessed.

The table below is a short analysis of what is available in these four categories:

Most of these things listed in the ‘money, tax and benefits’ section are forms that need to be printed off and sent away with only a handful referring to the Department for Work and Pension’s e-service where benefits and allowances can be applied and claimed for online. For some of the motoring forms, the transaction provided is limited to just searching for a form.

The list below shows the things that a consumer is able to fully complete online via the Directgov service:

Services that require a Government Gateway password present obstacles, as each transaction requires a different password. So, if a consumer registers to apply for a care grant, a separate password is needed to apply for attendance allowance. The passwords are sent by post once registration is completed, which further slows down the process.

This list of fully online services does not come across as a coherent set built around consumers’ real priorities. For instance, it’s possible to buy a personalised car number plate but not to track a school application. Instead, this list comprises functions that the Government is able to provide easily and consumers’ requirements have not been accounted for. It suggests the pressure of delivering Directgov’s target of amalgamating websites has compromised an assessment of what consumers would reasonably expect to be able to do on a public service website.

Even this brief probe into this part of the website illustrates how difficult it is to determine what is actually available to do in full online. Consumers must be disappointed to find that at the ‘superstore’ promised in Directgov’s online advertisement, you can only take a few items to the checkout.

32. Visit these pages for the online advert: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/SiteInformation/DG_4004497
33. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/index.htm
34. See online advert above