E-Government: what about the user?

The White House has just released its “Expanding E-Government”  report and its very rosy and happy and focused on shared platforms, security and IT competency.  Only one small section called, “Improve E-Gov Initiatives’ Performance Measures” explicitly mentions “Customer Satisfaction.”  

I’m glad they are building a shared platform, improving security and IT competency but they could do a lot more to improve the useability of the Federal Government websites and I’d like the next initiative to focus on: consistency of Federal Government websites’ look and feel, findability, transparency, and taking a page out of the great Seattle municipal website, teachability; how well do they inform the user about how to utilize the government services in their own lives as they navigate through the website.

Hat tip to docuticker.com

Tags: E-Government, Federal Government, government websites, Linkedin