The New Web Experience
The ServiceOntario website is a part of the Government Ontario website that provides access to government services. It is a critical tool for millions of Ontario residents to attain essential documents ranging from one-time events to day-to-day life.
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Define
Problem Statement
Presentation of information on the current website overloads the average user’s visual abilities and cognitive limits. Placemaking is difficult as the organization of external and internal links are indistinguishable and users are unable to trace their navigation history. Having two search systems within one website is a source of confusion and frustration for the user.
A more user-friendly approach in its organization of information, navigation system, and search functions will have positive impact on the experience of millions of users.
Research
Context
ServiceOntario has a mandate “to provide centralized service delivery to individuals and businesses for a number of programs involving vital events, such as birth, marriage and death certificates; business services, including company registrations; personal property security registration and services; and land registration services” (2015 Annual Report of the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario). The program is dedicated to responding to customer needs and to serve them as quickly as possible in person and online, guiding through the processes
and providing accurate and up-to-date information, and to provide considerate, fair, and respectful services with real value to customers (2015 Annual Report of the Office of the
Auditor General of Ontario).
ServiceOntario manages over 47 million customer interactions
annually and delivers approximately 80 services through one identifiable brand across multiple channels (online, contact centre, in-person, mail) (Government of Ontario, 2015).
Content Analysis
In terms of structural metadata, most pieces of content come from different sources, as the operation and information system of ServiceOntario is a part of the Government of Ontario. When searching for information, users will encounter textual information on the website as well as be taken out to an external link. The content is scattered across all the existent architecture categories except for publications, forms, and locations.
There is a healthy mix of online and offline contents. As demonstrated by the variation in its content formats, there are numerous forms for communicating and displaying information, which is appropriate for an agency like ServiceOntario.
User Research
We conducted a semi-structured interview with users who have previously interacted with the ServiceOntario website as well as who have not. Wewe gave the participant a series of tasks to complete and asked him to think aloud as we recorded his behaviours and actions.
We organize our findings into four headings:
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most valuable content and tasks
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user frustration with current information architecture
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ideas for improvement
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user satisfaction.
Card Sorting Exercise
We picked 40 items from all the service subjects available on ServiceOntario’s website in order to acquire insight on how our participants think the services items should be grouped. Currently, there are eight main service categories in place and a total of 55 service items. We aimed to select limited items from each of the categories to produce 40 cards which were representative of the current content load of each category. While all of the items names in light-content categories were included separately, this strategy required renaming of some of the current service items from heavy-content service categories. Based on our evaluation, the re-naming of the categories were executed to make sure all the item titles being selected were represented.
Design
The arrangement of pages helps to avoid cluttering the homepage, while directing the user towards the most relevant broad category.
Only one search tool that is specific to ServiceOntario is adopted in the redesign instead of having two.
The arrangement of pages helps to avoid cluttering the homepage, while directing the user towards the most relevant broad category.
HomePage Design
Before
After
Using a hierarchical organization structure, users are able to easily and quickly understand information environments. This aligns with a user’s mental model of the environment’s structure and their placemaking to identify what they wish to find out as well as how to complete their interaction.
In the redesign, we reduced the amount of information users need to process on the home page to avoid information overload and visual clutter due to the abundance of information.
Co-designed with: Saad Benameur, April Cheng, Jing Lu, Akshay Mittal & Swaroop Swami
Takeaways
What have I learned from this project?
1
Evaluating a website according to the four pillars of information architecutre.
2
How to conduct the card sorting exercise.
3
Using Balsamiq to create mid-fidelity clickable prototypes.
What would I have done differently?
1
Diversify those recruited for user interview and card sorting exercise to reflect real users.
2
Removing the icon completely may have not been ideal for non-English speaking users.
3
In the next step, consider the look at feel of the current brand in the choice of font and icons.