Plain english
Jargon and acronyms should be kept to the absolute minimum, or if they must exist, they should be metatagged with common english counterparts eg. Penalty Charge Notice should be crossindexed with parking fine and parking ticket.
Browse Popular Ideas
-
This idea is active.Information provision »5 comments for Idea: Plain english
-
This idea is active.Feedback »
Have people that respond to users' suggestions
Add your comment for Idea: Have people that respond to users' suggestionsUse http://getsatisfaction.com to collect problems and suggestions in one place.
Then have people employed to answer them, and engage in a conversation about the most interesting ones.
-
This idea is active.Usability »
Design the information architecture to suit your users, not your org chart!
2 comments for Idea: Design the information architecture to suit your users, not your org chart!Think about your users - organize information in ways that make sense to them, not in ways that match your organizational structure!
-
This idea is active.Navigation »
A home page that gets you to where you want to go quickly
2 comments for Idea: A home page that gets you to where you want to go quicklyThe home page should have a list of links that cover the main user tasks, as well as allowing the user to search by keyword, subject area, and offer predictive results as they type.
-
This idea is active.Usability »
Test the site before launch
1 comment for Idea: Test the site before launchThis should be a no-brainer, but sadly it appears not to be. Yes there will always be problems no matter how much testing is done, but NEVER launch a site without ensuring that the majority of links work and that most of the pages contain content.
-
This idea is active.Data sharing »
Publish usable data
2 comments for Idea: Publish usable dataA council's website should publish data in open formats which can be resused by external bodies or individuals.
-
This idea is active.Navigation »
Search should work
2 comments for Idea: Search should workThe search engine on the site should be prominent and *work* - ie not produce lists of thousands of PDFs or word documents.
-
This idea is active.Interactivity »
Enable participation and involvement from the community it serves
Add your comment for Idea: Enable participation and involvement from the community it servesA council website should support users needing grassroots 'community' information and could engage more effectively if it had a companion portal (or even better - as part of its main site) for communities, business and residents to participate with; much like the model at - http://www.citysoup.ca
-
This idea is active.Accessibility »
Reach out to the community for testers
2 comments for Idea: Reach out to the community for testersAsk for testers from the community that will/do use the site. Go out and seek people with different technological and physical capabilites and needs and build up a strong and diverse user testing base for invaluable, direct, practical feedback.
-
This idea is active.Usability »
PDFs signposted
1 comment for Idea: PDFs signpostedTell people when a link is going to a PDF and include the size in KB/MB
-
This idea is active.Information provision »
Services not portals
1 comment for Idea: Services not portalsServices that poke you when something of interest happens and help you sort something out when you are annoyed. Council websites should not be destinations/portals.
-
This idea is active.Navigation »
Provide information via map, not just by ward
Add your comment for Idea: Provide information via map, not just by wardPeople who live on ward boundaries will want information on things outside of that area. Geocode everything physical or that relatest to specific physical areas, and then allow for browsing via map and other locative means.
-
This idea is active.Technology »
Keep the cost low to keep it flexible
1 comment for Idea: Keep the cost low to keep it flexibleIt needs to be low cost so the council is happy to change things quickly. Big investments lead to sticking with solutions that are possibly outdated or inappropriate, simply because of the money sunk.
-
This idea is active.Feedback »
Make use of analytics and customer feedback
Add your comment for Idea: Make use of analytics and customer feedbackLearn from where your site works well; find out where it doesn't work well and improve it. Make good use of customer feedback and site analytics to identify problems, and customer-focused solutions.
-
This idea is active.Data sharing »
Live & Podcast important meetings
1 comment for Idea: Live & Podcast important meetingsI know most meetings are considered important by the people in them but rather than just providing PDFs of a meeting it'd be great to be able to listen to the cut and thrust of a meeting as it happened.
-
This idea is active.Data sharing »
Linked Data
Add your comment for Idea: Linked DataRaw data of council meetings, statistics, records all available as Linked Data
-
This idea is active.Usability »
Easy error reporting
1 comment for Idea: Easy error reportingWhen a user encounters an error page they should be able to click a link that automatically sends the necessary information to the webmaster. They should not have to read a page of instructions on where to find the information and expect them to put it all into an email.
-
This idea is active.Navigation »
Guessable URLs
Add your comment for Idea: Guessable URLsIncomprehensible URLs that mean nothing on sight are not useful, but http://mycouncil.gov.uk/wards/edgbaston/councillors is self-explanatory, and good for google.
-
This idea is active.Feedback »
Feedback on all content/pages
3 comments for Idea: Feedback on all content/pagesAll pages on the website should make it easy for the user to vote as to whether it was useful or not, so poor content can easily be identified by the web team.
-
This idea is active.Design »
Keep it cheap!
2 comments for Idea: Keep it cheap!Don't spend £2.8mil on your website - use third party applications and services where possible (Google etc) to add value to your site without the need for scoping new features into your already bloated CMS.
-
This idea is active.Design »
Don't break the user experience
Add your comment for Idea: Don't break the user experienceThere is nothing worse than being pushed to a service that's not technically part of the website and being met with an alien gui. If you're bringing another, developed service in (for example, The Meeting Factory on Lincoln's site - http://tmf.lincoln.gov.uk), skin it up to look like the rest of your site.
-
This idea is active.Interactivity »
Meaningful consultations
Add your comment for Idea: Meaningful consultationsEncourage interactive interesting discussions about particular elements of a proposal - say, a new Local Plan - rather than shoving a large indigestible document out there and allowing the usual suspects to fire back a single (usually predictable) "response".
-
This idea is active.Usability »
A user centred design approach
Although the user has been championed elsehwere, I think taking a holistic, iterative user centred approach is key to making a good website (as per the ISO standard 13407). This includes: 1. Defining the audiences and context of use. 2. Researching/defining user needs (using analytics, customer feedback, interviews, surveys, user testing on current site). 3. Designing the user experience based on user needs. 4. ...more »
1 comment for Idea: A user centred design approachAlthough the user has been championed elsehwere, I think taking a holistic, iterative user centred approach is key to making a good website (as per the ISO standard 13407). This includes:
1. Defining the audiences and context of use.
2. Researching/defining user needs (using analytics, customer feedback, interviews, surveys, user testing on current site).
3. Designing the user experience based on user needs.
4. Testing the designs/site with users and making improvements.
« less full details »
-
This idea is active.Interactivity »
On-line petitions
Add your comment for Idea: On-line petitionsAllow local residents to initiate petitions to council on the website.
-
This idea is active.Interactivity »
Embracing and integrating FixMyStreet on website
Add your comment for Idea: Embracing and integrating FixMyStreet on websiteAnd RSS. But maybe I'll post that elsewhere.
Social Web