CHAPTER 9: COMPARISONS WITH OTHER GOVERNMENTAL WEBSITES

Transport Scotland strives to have a website at least as good as those of other governmental agencies and transport organisations. As part of the qualitative work, participants were asked for their impressions of three other websites: the Scottish Government; the Highways Agency and the Department for Transport.
Users held mixed views of the Scottish Government website, with regular users being more positive towards it. Regular users felt the homepage provided access to a lot of the content and the transport pages themselves were liked as they were considered better-designed, easier to use and more comprehensive than the Transport Scotland website. Less frequent visitors to the Scottish Government were overwhelmed by the information on the homepage and the sheer number of links made available.
The Highways Agency website was positively perceived. Users liked the colour scheme employed and felt this made the website look enticing, in contrast to the Transport Scotland website. Users also pointed out that the provision of the current date and the rolling traffic information on the homepage gave the perception that the website was up to date. Users also liked the interactive mapping tool, allowing a regional search for road projects. However, many users commented that the homepage was very busy with lots of things competing for attention, which made it unclear where the most important links were.
The Department for Transport website was the most positively received. Users felt the colour scheme was welcoming and that the four main links into the content were very clear. Transport professionals also praised the cross-referencing in the ‘Reports’ section of the website, where related internal and external links are made available.

9.1 Transport Scotland strives to have a website at least as good as those of other governmental agencies and in particular of other transport agencies. To this end, as part of the usability sessions and depth interviews with key stakeholders, participants were asked for their impressions of other governmental websites. The websites chosen were those of: the Scottish Government (www.scotland.gov.uk), the Highways Agency (www.highways.gov.uk) and the Department for Transport (www.dft.gov.uk), providing a mix of public sector and other transport related bodies.

9.2 It is important to bear in mind that participants were only asked to spend a short period of time reviewing and discussing other governmental websites, and were not asked to undertake any tasks on them. Consequently this section primarily comprises top of mind findings on design, style and homepage content. However, some transport professionals and key stakeholders had used these websites previously and therefore were able to comment on more specific issues.

Scottish Government website

9.3 Users were divided when asked about their perceptions of the Scottish Government website (Figure 9.1), with regular users of the website having more positive views. Regular users felt that the homepage was better designed than that of the Transport Scotland website, as it provided access to a lot of content. The transport pages of the Scottish Government website were also liked by transport professionals and key stakeholders, as they felt these were better-designed, easier to use and more comprehensive. However, these stakeholders also acknowledged that their positive perceptions might be influenced by their familiarity with the website.

"Navigation-wise the Scottish Government website is better but that might be because I know it better"
Scottish Government employee

"For transport you can immediately find publications"
Transport / Engineering Consultant

Figure 9.1: Scottish Government homepage

9.4 On the other hand, less frequent users were overwhelmed by the amount of information available on the website and the number of links available from the homepage. Users felt that there were too many areas competing for their attention, because each link on the homepage is given equal prominence. As a result they were unsure where to click in order to locate the information they are looking for.

"It is difficult to find information on here [Scottish Government website]. I tend to be looking for very specific transport information on parliamentary bills etc but it is not easy to find"
Transport / Engineering Consultant

Highways Agency website

9.5 Overall, users who were shown the Highways Agency website (Figure 9.2) had positive perceptions of it. These users liked the colour scheme used and noted that it made the website look enticing.

"This is more eye-catching. Still blue and white, but a bit more colour"
Member of the general public, non-user of the website

9.6 They also felt that the website was up-to-date as the current date is provided at the top right hand corner of each webpage. The latest traffic information provided on the homepage also fostered the perception that the website was up to date.

"You see today’s date on the website and you get the impression it is up to date. Same with the rolling traffic information"
Transport / Engineering Consultant

Figure 9.2: Highways Agency homepage

9.7 Furthermore, users praised the map tool that allows visitors to the site to search road projects by region.

9.8 Negative comments users made related to the large amount of links available on the homepage which meant the page appeared to be very busy and users were unclear where the most important links were and the use of transport industry jargon in the roads projects pages.

"Located in Area 7. That means nothing to me. Nor does Scheme Type – Other."
Transport / Engineering Consultant

Department for Transport website

9.9 Of all the websites users were asked about, the Department of Transport website (Figure 9.3) received the most favourable comments. Again, users mentioned that the colour scheme was enticing. They also liked the four main links - ‘Air’, ‘Rail’, ‘Road’ and ‘Sea’ - into the website content from the homepage. Each link has a picture representing the transport mode and they are larger than the rest of the links on the page thus drawing visitors’ attention to them. Other features that users praised were the ‘What’s new’ and ‘Press releases’ links that are placed on navigation menu on the right of the homepage.

Figure 9.3: Department for Transport homepage

9.10 Transport professionals also praised the cross referencing in the ‘Reports’ section: the navigation menu on the right providing relevant links, external and internal, for the report a user is viewing. Users considered the website to be both comprehensive and easy to use.

"This website is pretty good. It is up to date and very comprehensive. It has got a good archive and it is easy to find some obscure documents."
Transport Scotland employee

9.11 Negative comments made about this site were the lack of contact details for individuals within the organisations and the lack of a navigation menu on the left, which confused several stakeholders.