Glasgow City Council Website Project

OUR NEW WEBSITE

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CONTENTS

WHY WE DID IT

2 WHY WE DID IT

PERSONAS

The website redesign project sits within the Customer First digital transformation programme. As well as making it easier for customers to use our services and find information through the website, this five year programme aims to encourage channel shift, away from telephone calls and personal visits, towards making online transactions/interactions the preferred method of accessing the majority of information and services from the Council.

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KEY FINDINGS

The Customer First Programme will:

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CONTENT FRAMEWORK

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3 HOW WE DID IT 4 RESEARCH SESSIONS

OUTCOMES 8 A BIT ABOUT SNOOK

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provide more online services and information for our customers that will reduce the amount of contact received by the council leading to lowering our costs to provide services. redesign our services with the customer in mind by involving them in the design process and/or testing changes with them. encourage citizens and business to use our services on digital channels and make them the preferred choice of contact. provide a better customer experience by offering digital channels and services that will be more convenient to our customers with more choices available – overall we want to improve our customers’ experience of dealing with us. make online services and information easier for citizens to find and use with the majority of contact being completed this way.

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HOW WE DID IT Other channels including face to face or telephone will continue to be available for those citizens who require them.

By reducing all contact by 15% and transferring 30% of remaining contact to digital channels, Glasgow City Council estimates it will have ÂŁ9.4 million gross savings by the end of Customer First programme, with a further ÂŁ4.7 million gross savings each year.

The new website will focus on Top Tasks - those customer Interactions that account for the majority of contact with the council. These tasks have been identified from a deep analysis of data held within our website traffic, our contact management system and Service Desk visits. The vast majority of local authority websites in the UK are now top task driven, with the emphasis on offering online services on a 24/7 basis, rather than the provision of static information about the council.

Few people come to the council website for a leisurely browse around. Customers expect to complete a task, such as arranging a bulky waste collection, with the minimum of fuss and clicks. Barriers to successful completion of online transactions must be removed if the new site is to be a success.

Glasgow City Council approached Snook to undertake qualitative user research related to the development of its new website, by engaging and co-designing with citizens, to test the features of the new website designs and other new digital elements of a MyGlasgow dashboard.

Participants expressed different preferences between a homepage displaying services predominantly using icons and homepage which is text-based. During the final week of research, Snook held individual sessions which focused on the click-through of set tasks using prototypes. The aim of these sessions was to further understand how people navigated through the site, with particular attention regarding the preference of icon or text-based homepage.

The participants showed a clear preference for a text-based homepage which allowed participants to see the variety of services provided by the Council.

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RESEARCH SESSIONS

The strategy for recruitment aimed to engage with a wide demographic of Glasgow citizens as specified in the project outline.

Snook employed a recruitment strategy utilising both offline and online engagement, such as contacting existing networks and posting on social media sites. The user research sessions were designed to be flexible to suit the citizens, i.e. weekend and evening sessions or running focus groups outside the centre of Glasgow, to ensure the research was accessible to a diverse range of individuals.

The research focused on two of the identified Top Tasks – Bulk Uplift and Council Tax. These tasks were chosen for testing due to the high volume of customer use of these services.

Participants involved in the research indicated a wish to be involved in further testing of the website, They expressed positive feedback on the inclusion and involvement of Glasgow citizens regarding the website development; “I’m very impressed so far.”

Another element of the research ensured that all insights and data recorded were synthesised and analysed to generate Personas reflecting various users engaged with the research. Personas are fictitious characters generated by combining elements drawn from participants involved in the project. They show a cross-section of citizens living in Glasgow and explain the different ways they contact and transact with the Council.

DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE RESEARCH PHASE The user research phase was conducted over a two month period from the end of April 2015. Snook hosted interviews, open sessions and focus groups with citizens, whilst also facilitating focus groups at venues across Glasgow.

Snook gathered insights from citizens using a number of design tools and methods. The research focused on two Top Tasks – Bulk Uplift and Council Tax – and utilised paper-based tools and activities for feedback, i.e. organisation of all 12 Top Services/Task cards in order of importance for the participant.

This allowed for the designed prototypes to be adjusted, updated and reviewed throughout the research in accordance to citizen feedback. This process led to significant changes in both the website visuals and also the content featured.

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PERSONA PERSONA NAME: Daniel Finlayson AGE: 72 LOCATION: Baillieston, G69 OCCUPATION: Retired (previously a Civil Engineer) NRS SCALE POSITION: E USE CASE SCENARIOS As a Glasgow citizen who makes a road or lighting complaint, I want to get feedback from Glasgow City Council after I have made the complaint so that I know they are acting on my information and I don’t have to phone them up to check its process.

As a Glasgow citizen, I want to be able to find out what plans the Council are undertaking locally so that I don’t have to report or contact them over something that they are already in the process of fixing.

FORMS OF INTERACTION

WHAT THEY SAID: “The information on the Glasgow City Council website is generic and is not updated, I don’t really trust it. Glasgow Life has more up-to-date information which I trust more.”

[Participant 14]

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KEY FINDINGS At the end of the research three key themes emerged: *NB – After each quote a number is shown, e.g. [06]. This reference number identifies a specific participant, allowing the anonymous examination of the participant data.

CONTENT IS APPROPRIATE AND ACCESSIBLE INSIGHTS: CONTENT FRAMEWORK Often, participants found the order and explanation of key information on the Glasgow City Council website to be confusing or disorganised.

EVIDENCE “I didn’t even see there are buttons for filling out a form, I was too busy jumping from paragraph to paragraph to find out all relevant information.” [11]

CONTENT IS APPROPRIATE AND ACCESSIBLE All content currently on the site will be reviewed and revised.

The content needs to be relevant, coherent and written in easily understandable language to ensure it can be understood by citizens of all literacy levels. There needs to be a clear and consistent structure of content throughout, to allow the user to navigate the site and complete tasks with greater ease.

INSIGHTS: CONSISTENT DESIGN During research, participants were quick to note any inconsistencies within the wireframes provided. They highlighted buttons with variations on wording which performed the same function, as well as inconsistencies in layout across pages.

INCLUDE SUPPORTIVE VISUALS There must be a balance between text and visuals (including use of colour, icons and images) to ensure ease of navigation and greater understanding of content. Glasgow is a multicultural city and visuals should be used to ensure the site is accessible to non-English speaking nationalities, and those of all literacy levels and ages.

INSIGHTS: IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE Some participants found the language used to describe the services inaccessible. When met with complex content, unfamiliar terms or convoluted sentences users are likely to abandon the search and lose trust in the website.

IMPROVE AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION Citizens will only use online services if it is convenient to them to do so and they have confidence in the medium. It is important that the Council is seen to be communicating with its citizens, especially in response to service transactions, i.e. the interaction of receiving an email after completing an online form. It is important to recognise that, whilst the majority of citizens use the internet, many will prefer to use other channels to communicate with the Council either by habit or because they have greater confidence in using traditional channels, such as telephone calls.

INSIGHTS: INFORMATION CATEGORISATION Participants often struggled with navigation of the site due to the categorisation of certain services within the Top Tasks menu. This also has an impact on what specific key words or terms they would use to search for a service using the search bar or A-Z option.

However, incorporating and streamlining a variety of digital and offline channels for communication, i.e. social media, app, mail, alongside the website will help improve the customer experience.

INSIGHT: OTHER SERVICES Participants stated that Glasgow City Council should emphasise ways that bulky items can be recycled or re-used when they are in good condition, i.e. local charities offering collection services of furniture items.

EVIDENCE “Is the ‘fill out online’ form the same as ‘arrange a bulk uplift online?’… it’s a bit confusing if it’s the same thing.” [118]

EVIDENCE “The website didn’t give me the simple information I needed.”

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EVIDENCE “Birth appointments.’ Do you make an appointment to give birth?” [127]

EVIDENCE “Some items are still in good condition, so if they had a link to some local charities who could come and pick stuff up.” [119]

INCLUDE SUPPORTIVE VISUALS

IMPROVE AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION

INSIGHT: ICONS Participants in the research stated that they would prefer using visuals (images and icons) in addition to the text in order to help navigate through the content.

INSIGHT: MEANS OF CONTACT Citizens would often have a preferred method of contact for resolving their issues with council tax (for instance, email or phone). However, if the preferred method of contact is causing stress or delays, participants stated they’ll resort to other means of contact for more immediate results, which in the majority of cases is a direct phone call.

EVIDENCE “If someone doesn’t understand the language, you want to put something visual to help them interact.” [121] INSIGHTS: UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION All citizens involved in the research stated the need for information to be up-to-date and seasonal, i.e. highlight road gritting services and school closures during winter, parks and events during the spring/ summer and student council tax in August/September.

EVIDENCE “The information on the Glasgow City Council website is generic and is not updated, I don’t really trust it.” [14] INSIGHTS: IMAGES Participants in the research highlighted a need for visuals on the Glasgow City Council website. The inclusion of images was felt to be important as it would aid communication between the Council and website users.

EVIDENCE “Sometimes people might not understand the language, having a picture will indicate what this service is.” [121]

EVIDENCE “I don’t phone because of my accent, I find people can’t understand it.” [29] INSIGHT: SEARCH BAR Generally, users of websites use search bars to provide quick access to information that they need. The research shows the majority of participants frequently access Google, due to its ease of access, refined search options and display of relevant information.

EVIDENCE “Search option is awful – it never gives me the information I search for and comes up with lots of .pdf and .doc files. I often end up going to Google instead.” [29] INSIGHTS: HOLISTIC APPROACH TO COMMUNICATION Participants communicate with the Council using a variety of channels, yet often the level of response they receive can differ across platforms.

EVIDENCE “I don’t think the Council has ever phoned me back.” [07] INSIGHT: FEEDBACK AND COMMUNICATION There were three main stages for feedback communication. Firsly, citizens wanted to be informed that their report or request had been received. Second, they wanted to be kept up-to-date with any progress regarding the action. Finally, they wanted confirmation that the action had been completed.

EVIDENCE “It can’t be that hard to automate a generic follow-up reply in terms of saying ‘The case has now been closed.’ This will be good for their records to know what the response time is.“ [16-17]

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CONTENT FRAMEWORK In the third week, Snook facilitated a workshop engaging with Web Editors to gather their support in embedding the research insights across the organisation and begin to develop new practices around developing citizen centred content. Methods involved asking Web Editors to read out their copy and (using the developed citizen Personas) ask the question, ‘Would I understand this?’. This helped them to think about what core information was needed on service pages, and emphasised the importance of tone of voice and language.

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OUTCOMES Snook have outlined a series of recommendations for the continued development of the website redesign project and for the Customer First progamme. This can be viewed in full in the report.

DELIVERABLES (August – October/November) • • •

Following on from this, the Customer First team have worked with the Web Editors to generate two default page frameworks for content, based on whether the page is to deliver information or to facilitate an action.

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ACTION PAGES • What is it?

• What do I need to do? / How do I do it?

• When do I need to do it by?

• How much does it cost?

• Do it (action).

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INFORMATION PAGES • What is it?

• What can I do there?

• Where is it? / How do I get there?

• When is it open?

• Is there a cost?

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An example of the content framework can be seen as a visual on Page 3 of this newspaper.

Build the full website with the updated designs.

Conduct a current content review of relevant pages and identify new webpage content frameworks to implement for the new launch later in the year.

Optimise the search function by prioritising service pages over PDF results.

Develop a visual imagery and iconography library to test with citizens and include in the website launch.

NEXT (October 2015 – 2016)

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The new website is scheduled to go live before the end of 2015.

Be transparent about the development so far and the future plans and allow citizens to provide feedback.

Use existing internal teams to consolidate the approach to publishing content online. Empower existing staff by providing a structure and framework, whilst also emphasising Web Editor role responsibilities.

Test and receive feedback on new frameworks from citizens.

VISION (2016 onwards) • •

Key Web Editors within business to be in control of ensuring content adheres to framework/guidelines.

Create a personalised log-in area and dashboard for citizens. This would allow citizens to identify services and/or information that is relevant to them, e.g. school holidays, traffic in their local area or their next Council Tax payment amount and date.

These recommendations not only address front-facing service design for citizens but moreover, direct and inform the back-end operational processes needing to be in place to ensure the delivery of high quality council services for citizens

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WHAT NEXT

Following the completion of the website build – estimated to be before the end of 2015 – Snook will hold further click-through testing with customers to gather further feedback and ensure the user experience of the website has been improved. Mobile testing will also take place, as a high percentage (over 50%) of customers access the website on mobile or tablet devices and this is likely to continue to grow.

A BIT ABOUT SNOOK Snook is an award winning Service Design agency based in Glasgow which specialises in designing exceptional customer experience and brands. Its services include designing innovative brands and customer experiences, building digital products (from websites to apps) and delivering fully blended social marketing campaigns utilising a range of social media platforms.

Snook have a distinct focus on social good and innovation in the public domain.

Their process is underpinned by closely co-creating solutions and concepts with the people who will use them. Snook place a strong emphasis on ethnographic research to understand user behaviour and the context in which we are designing for.

A core element of Snook’s practice is the prototyping of ideas. Its process always includes an ongoing test period of products and services designed to ensure the final solution delivered is functional and will work for the people it is designed for who will interact with it.

Snook recently completed work with Future Cities Glasgow, Open Glasgow and Glasgow City Council, designing future city services and a fully integrated service proposition for the Council that brings services into the hands of the public digitally.

For further information on this project or to learn more about Snook please go to the website www.wearesnook.com or send an email: curious@wearesnook.com