About this toolkit
In July 2008 The Power of
Information Taskforce commissioned research from the user experience agency
Bunnyfoot to identify good and bad aspects of government websites. The review
found that some government websites are failing to get the basics right, for
example:
- Not helping people to navigate the site easily
- Not helping search engines like Google to find the site
- Not speaking the language of the user
The Cabinet Office asked COI to develop usability guidelines for web developers
and web content editors across government covering the basics of usability in a
way that is engaging and interactive. The aim is to raise awareness of usability
issues across government and to improve the quality of government websites.
The guidelines cover 8 broad themes:
- Layout and design
- Navigation
- Writing content
- Content elements
- Forms
- Search
- QA and standards
- Common pages (e.g. homepage)
The guidelines contain a total of 21 individual guidance modules ranging from
‘Basics of page layout’ to ‘When and how to use PDFs’. Each module has been
written to be consumed and understood in just 5-10 minutes and is illustrated
with examples of good and poor practice. In addition there are self assessment
tests, tracking of progress through the guidelines, and toolkits for
downloading.
Acknowledgements
The primary author of the guidance was Dr Jon Dodd (MD Bunyfoot Ltd.) with
contributions from the following people:
- Adam Bailin (Digital policy manager COI)
- Jon Dixon (Bunnyfoot Ltd.)
- Dipesh Mistry (Bunnyfoot Ltd.)
- Dave Roberts (Independent user-centred-design consultant)
- Nick Pattman (3Chillies Ltd.)
- Bryan Archer (3Chillies Ltd.)
Many thanks to reviewers of early drafts and participants in usability (and
comprehensibility) testing sessions. They came from the following
organisations:
- Directgov
- Business Link
- NHS Choices
- COI
- DEFRA
- BERR