eGovernment benchmarking is an important policy tool for digital government, comparing how governments deliver digital public services across Europe. Usability indicators are a recent addition to benchmarking to ensure that it stays modern and relevant. The Lisbon Council and Public.Digital carried out a study to update and refine usability indicators.
The study involved collecting a wide range of indicators and narrowing them down based on criteria of compliance with usability theory, alignment with policy priorities, and technical feasibility. The remaining indicators were grouped into 4 categories:
- Clear language
- Consistency and ease of use
- Speed and performance
- Help and support
After being tested in select Member States, consortium members validated the date through cross-examination and analysis. Overall performance in the chosen Member States came to 54% — far from the EU average score in current benchmarking of 91%. While speed and performance were the most advanced areas by group, help and support, and consistency and ease of use were more problematic.
Overall, the indicators proved effective for benchmarking. It now seems feasible to introduce them to measure usability consistently and robustly. The report itself includes final recommendations on future work to deploy new indicators.
Documents
Executive Summary -- EN (.pdf)
Executive Summary -- FR (.pdf)
Assessment framework results mystery shoppers raw data (.xlsx)