Improving Government’s Web

Engagement Summary

Citizens were invited to participate in a card-sorting exercise to help understand the ways citizens group information on a government website. Card sorting is a simple way for many people show how they would organize content, thus helping inform how to organize government content to best suit citizens’ needs.

Participants were asked to individually sort 40 topic cards into themes they felt best suited for each topic.

Fifteen themes (groups) were available to participants with a total of 220 topic cards to sort.

In March, a prototype of the new site was publicly tested for usability during six sessions held in Richmond, Kamloops, Merritt, Ganges – Salt Spring Island, Victoria, and Prince George. The majority of participants described the new site as “clean,” “progressive,” and “easy to use.” Some of the feedback suggested further refinement, and having made those updates we did another series of user testing to validate the final revisions.

On June 21, 2015, the re-designed site was launched.

Timeframe:

February 2 to February 17, 2015

Input Received:

• 2,095 respondents
• 726 comments received
• 57,679 total cards sorted

Input leads to action:

• An improved navigation system to make it easier for people to find information and services.
• A creative new look and feel.
• A responsive setup for mobile screens.
• An enhanced search experience.
• The ability to add blogs, social media and news feeds to the site.
• You can find improvements at gov.bc.ca. Work continues to enhance this web site with new functionality and presentation.