Join the debate
Consumer Focus would like to discuss these recommendations in collaboration with digital services experts and developers, public service designers, providers and consumers. You may have your own ideas for digital services, or feel that these recommendations need to be much more radical.
We will ensure the consumer perspective is included right from the start, so that we understand how people use the internet and digital services in their daily lives, what their expectations of digital public services are, and how willing they are to engage in developing new services.
Consumer Focus will provide a space in which the leading innovators of and commentators on digital services can come together with consumers to discuss the future context for delivering digital public services.
A series of workshops early in the New Year will aim to identify ways to engage people in digital public service development. Feedback on this site will also inform these workshops. Please sign up here if you’d like to participate, or just keep in touch with the campaign.
You can also send comments and ideas directly to liz.coll@consumerfocus.org.uk
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Socitm will be keen to be involved in your workshops. As some 80% of public services are delivered by local authorities, their websites are where a significant proportion of Directgov users (should) end up. So a good DIrectgov experience will in many cases depends on a good local authority website at the end of the journey. Through our annual Better connected survey of all local authority websites, and our Website Takeup service that tests usage and customer satisfaction with council sites, we are busy identifying and disseminating best practice in council website design, content and citizen engagement. We know from the Website Takeup service that for a variety of reasons, between 10% and 40% of visits to council websites fail completely – frustrating for users and costly for councils because of the large numbers of avoidable contacts being created to their other access channels. So there’s lots to do and lots to learn. We look forward to getting involved.
I think my co-ops might be keen to be involved in your workshops. Is there opportunity for holding one at an annual conference or other meeting?