Additional View conducted a website quality audit and analysis of all Tasmania Council websites over a three day period in February 2009. The objective of the study was to develop a Website Quality Index™ and benchmark comparison of Tasmania Council websites based on a set of defined standards in three vital areas - Accessibility, Usability and Search Engine Optimisation.
To ensure the analysis was conducted based on a high level of objectivity a number of professional standards were chosen to effectively measure and compare each of the websites in the areas of Accessibility, Usability and Search Engine Optimisation.
Website accessibility was measured using the W3C Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to the WCAG 1.0A and WCAG 1.0AA level of accessibility compliance. This standard was chosen based on the recommendation provided by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and to comply with recommendations for website communications detailed in the Australian Disability Discrimination Act.
The usability guidelines from which an heuristic review was conducted were based on those set of detailed criteria generated by Usability.gov and W3C standards. The usability.gov guidelines provide one of the worlds most robust and comprehensive set of usability and user behaviour standards. These usability standards were developed from usability research and have undergone thorough analysis by usability experts and industry panels. Usability guidelines are constantly reviewed and updated based on the latest published research and user experience knowledge. The study considered the W3C best practice for constructing usable websites and the readability of websites based on content and structure.
Search engine optimisation guidelines used during this study are based on a number of published standards produced by each of the major search engines and authoritative organisations. These include:
To provide a standard level of page and file analysis across all websites Additional View examined all page content three links deep from the home page. The website analysis included an examination of the page content and structure, information architecture and navigation, images, and the use of files such as PDF documents to display information.
The following chart shows the examination of the Accessibility WCAG (1.0) issues for each website. The displayed results are based on the number of Accessibility issues identified as a percentage (%) of total website pages. The Councils are listed in alphabetical order.
In total there were over 4000 pages discovered with accessibility issues with an average of 5 issues on each of those pages, or on average 22% of a typical council website which did not meet the basic WCAG (1.0)A and WCAG (1.0)AA Accessibility standard.
The following chart displays the results for the Tasmania council websites based on a set of usability guidelines and standardised defined by Usability.org. The chart shows each of the council websites in alphabetical order and displays the percentage (%) of pages with usability issues.
In total there were over 4400 pages with usability issues with an average of 4 issues on each of those pages, or an average 24% of a typical council website which did not meet usability standards.
Find out more about usability and user experience research.
The following chart displays the results of a search engine optimisation analysis of the Tasmania Council websites. The chart is organised in alphabetical order and shows the percentage (% ) of website pages which do not meet Search Engine Optimisation Guidelines. Search engine optimisation is an important and often neglected part of Tasmania Council websites. It is a good indicator of the search engine visibility of public information and communications contained within those websites.
In total there were over 3700 websites pages with search engine optimisation issues with an average of 2.5 issues for each of those pages, or an average of 20% of a typical Tasmanian council website not meeting basic Search Engine Optimisation Standards.
Find out more about Search Engine Optimisation.
Overall council websites did not perform well in the three areas examined. There were a few stand-out websites which achieved better than average results, but there is a lot of room for improvement. The poor performance of some websites was due to factors such as the over use of PDF documents to provide information, improper use of headings and poor readability of website copy. Many issues can be easily rectified, but would require a holistic and centred approach to the website communication strategy.
With the acceptance of an updated Accessibility Standard WCAG 2.0 Tasmania Council websites need to focus on website Accessibility as a priority. Accessibility, Usability and Search Engine Optimisation are closely related and by focusing on Accessibility a Council would go part way in improving Usability and Search Engine Optimisation.
To find out how Additional View can help your organisation with Accessibility, Usability and Search Engine Optimisation contact us.
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