The six local authority sites, chosen for their user-orientation and their demonstrable understanding of why visitors might be using.
The organisation has also announced a revamp of its rating system used to evaluate local authority websites.
In its Better Connected local e-government ranking system, an "E" ranking will now run alongside the existing ranks of "P" for promotional, "C" for content, "C+" for content plus, and the current top "T" for transactional ranking.
To get an E ranking the site will have to be "effective, efficient and engaging", said Socitm.
Socitm said the ranking system needed extending as technology managers who had achieved the coveted T status, by developing an interactive, transactional website, needed a further goal.
Martin Greenwood, programme manager for Socitm Insight, said that the criteria by which Better Connected judges public sector websites needed updating after the 2005 e-government deadlines, because many sites had achieved the T status and new incentives were needed to recognise the drive for continuous improvement.
“We also needed a way to deal an emerging phenomenon we have called the ‘patchwork’ site, one which is great in some areas – let us say online forms – but dire in others, maybe its A to Z navigation or its accessibility,” he added. “The new system of assessment will make clear where each site is doing well and equally where it needs to do better.”
Autor: Antony Savvas
Quelle: ComputerWeekly, 04.01.2006
