Navigation irritation
Having lots of information and services in one place does not have to be a problem for consumers. After all, the internet already offers massive amounts of content, which millions of people manage to successfully navigate every day. But such a large volume requires a straightforward structure, and excellent search/retrieval functions for easy navigation and use.
This is difficult to achieve within the current Directgov architecture. It relies heavily on signposting users through its homepage. At present, there are over a 100 sections and headings that link from the home page. The home page is overcrowded with multiple topics vying for attention. Compare this with websites offering a similar number of products and services via the web, for example, Ocado has 75 links, John Lewis has 59 and Tesco has 52. Directgov would benefit from adhering to some basic design principles; research shows that people faced with too many choices on a website page will switch off completely19.
The website is currently structured into two areas: a browse-able part with themes such as ‘parents’, ‘employment’, ‘young people’ and ‘health and well-being’ for making a tailored information search; and the ‘do-it-online’ area where where a visitor to the site is directed towards an opportunity for a transaction or a further tailored information search.
The interest-based themes can make it difficult to determine the right category since not all people will identify specific topics under the same theme. For example, if you are a young parent do you look in the parenting section or in young people? Are passports exclusively about travel, or do they relate to citizenship and nationality? Directgov is continuing to research the best way to present these categories. However, we would suggest allowing users to tailor content around their own interests and identity is a better approach. Redbridge Council does this with its Redbridge-i service which automatically responds to users’ needs and preferences20.
- See work by Jakob Nielson for examples of this
- Redbridge-I. Available at: http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/ [Accessed 9 September 2009].
Here’s a good example: Download The Report: Consumer Focus – Does Directgov Deliver?
PDF, 1MB
It is broken.
Thanks for pointing this out. I’ve updated the page and fixed the link in question.
For me it seems like there is a fundamental misunderstanding of how people use the web in the design of directgov.
It is trying to be a destination site – Directgov has to be your starting point – when everyone is using search engines to find information.
Well formed web pages with good domain names and urls that let people discover them via google has to be better than cramming everything under a single domain with all the navigational compromises that brings.