How to Research Website Usability and User Experience in Public Administration Websites?

Abstract

The users (citizens) need well designed, easy-to-use and usable websites, but in most countries they have difficulties orienting and using public administration websites. This paper tries to unfold the possible basics of the problem. Some available and tried testing methods are presented, which are useful for testing the websites. Case studies are also shown from the field of public administration, which are based on the author’s academic research conducted in Bologna, Italy (2010) and in Hungary (continuously since 2009); these were tested with different testing methods. The examples presented in this study show that the websites of the government and the city governments do not work without systematic user testing, particularly the investigation of the mental models. This paper is based on the author’s presentation at NKE-WUD 2015 conference in Budapest.