Improving Web-based Civic Information Access:
A Case Study of the 50 US States
Irina Ceaparu and Ben Shneiderman
Department of Computer Science &
Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory
University of Maryland
Main features
Analyze home pages of 50 U. S. states
(www.state.md.us)
Size (source code, gifs, total bytes)
Navigation (incoming & outgoing links, style of navigation)
Graphics (governor’s picture, state seal, statehouse picture,
scenery picture, map, use of tables and frames )
Services (privacy policy, universal usability statement, contact
information, online help, search box )
Design goals: Improve E-government
Requirements:
better delivery of government services to citizens
improved interactions with business and industry
citizen empowerment through access to information
more efficient government management
Solution - set of guidelines & metrics:
solve architectural and design problems
lay out requirements for content
improve the users’ experience with the web site
minimize time & effort to access information on similarly web sites
Size metrics: Reduce Download Time
Methodology: byte count
source of the home pages
images on the home pages
largest image on the home pages
Results:
smallest total byte count - Vermont (42k)
largest total byte count - Washington (274k)
largest image - Nevada (84k)
Navigation metrics: incoming & outgoing links
Methodology: number of
outgoing links for the home page
incoming links for the whole web site of each state
Results:
outgoing links
• Delaware & Nevada (10)  Vermont (115)
incoming links
• Washington (627)  Tennessee (72138)
O u t g o i n g v s. I n co m i n g L i n k s
VT
100
80
MA
AZ
FL
WA
CA
60
IA
AK
MO ND
MI
AL NM
SC RI
NC
WI OK
MN
40
LA
KS
MD
NE HI
20
TN
WV
ID
GA AR
ME
TX
UT SD
VA
NH
IL
CT
KY
OR NY
PA
CO
NJ
OH
IN
DE NV
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
InLinks
50000
60000
70000
Navigation style: Consistency & Rapid Access
Methodology: navigate web site
Results:
9 states use a navigation bar throughout the entire
web site
26 states do not use a navigation bar at all
some states have a navigation bar just on the first
two-three levels of navigation
Graphic features
Methodology: record image categories
Results:
more than half display governor’s picture
more than half display state seal or statehouse
half show their map
over 70% display a scenery image
all states’ websites use tables
4 states’ websites use frames
NC
MI
MT
IN
MO
Service features
Methodology: record service features
Results:
80% provide privacy policy
38% provide universal usability statement
48% offer contact by email, 36 offer full contact info
and 16% do not offer any contact info
29 states offer online help
40 states offer search features
Recommendations
Keep number and size of images small (image bytes < 50K)
Use a broad and shallow menu tree (30-80 links on the home
page)
Use a navigation bar consistently
Avoid frames to support universal usability
Feature most popular categories:
Government (40) Tourism(40)
Business(33) Education(27)
Employment(26) Legislature(17) Online Services(11)
Health(11)
Citizens(11)
Living (9)
Tax (5)
Recommendations (cont’d)
Achieve consistency in naming links
MD:www.gov.state.md.us
OH:www.state.oh.us/gov
TX:www.governor.state.tx.us
AR: www.state.ar.us/governor
Present on home page
privacy policy
universal usability statement
contact information for public officials
search box/button
online help & phone help
Conclusions: For NASCIO
Promote best practices
Broad trees, privacy policies, universal usability
Encourage consistent design
Similar structure, common terms
Support search
Voluntary agreement on tags
Work towards shared web site construction tool
Simplify, speed construction
Facilitate maintenance