What makes a Web site work?

With the Web, our expectations of government service have changed. We go online because we want answers.

For example, I do not spend afternoons in my comfy chair saying, “I love to read about government grants so I’ll go online and enjoy lots of words.” Instead I say, “I want a grant. What do I need to do? How can I accomplish what I want to accomplish? And how can government content support me?”

Similarly, citizens don’t want “welcome to our Web site” content. They want content that tells a story, inspires action or supports them in meeting their performance goals.

Web content is about performance – directing people to content they want so they can accomplish what they want to accomplish. I strongly believe the best government Web sites help citizens (and government workers) get their jobs done.

Researcher Jacob Nielson (www.useit.com) explains that people think of the Web experience as a “hot potato” – they want to go into a site, get what they need, and leave. Clear content advocate Gerry McGovern (www.gerrymcgovern.com) refers to the “long neck” – his research graphically shows how all sites have primary tasks people want to accomplish.

For sites to work, they must include a navigational structure -- organization and labeling -- that supports how people think. Categories must make sense and the text must be presented following principles of plain language – audience focused, concise, clear and personal.

E-government initiatives are guided by three principles: be citizen-centered, results-oriented and market-based. Similarly, the best Web sites are about performance – directing people to content so they can accomplish what they want to accomplish.

Some estimate there are 24,000 U.S. government sites. I’ve not been to all of them, nor do I know anyone who has. But here are a few I believe meets a “best criteria” of structure based on audience, purpose and context. A couple of my choices, www.usa.gov and www.cancer.gov, are not listed below because they are already highlighted in this issue.

• www.loc.gov/topics/africanamericans/ exemplifies content pages developed by the Library of Congress around themes. The page serves as an example of how content from different locations across the Library site is brought together to support more contextual understanding.
• www.plainlanguage.gov shows how usable content and structure can be developed with little budget. This site was planned and built by the volunteer members of the federal government plain-language network, my information architecture students and other volunteers.
• employees.faa.gov shows an example of an agency with approximately 17,000 employees who want to get their jobs done. The site succeeds because the agency built a structure based on what people wanted to do.
• www.webcontent.gov provides an example of good web practice. The structure and content is focused on supporting the community using the site.
• www.usability.gov provides guidance for developing sites people can use.
• www.usaservices.gov presents categorized information to support Government customer service. The categories are well defined and easy to interpret. I would like to see this site go deeper into content though.
• www.childwelfare.gov/ provides an example of information clustered into topic groupings to support different constituent needs.
• www.nichcy.org serves as a clearinghouse for Government information on disabilities. It’s organized to support different audiences and has an intuitive structure and clear content that helps people gather information and interact with the clearinghouse.