Why should I be interested?

Millions of Web sites offer users information, goods, services, and entertainment. But many of these sites are difficult to use, don't work properly, and ultimately don't attract or keep users. By following a usability engineering process, users' abilities to find information and satisfaction with Web sites improve significantly.

To see real-life examples of government Web sites that have improved users' abilities to find information and increased user satisfaction, please read our Usability Lessons Learned.

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Is there data to support usability?

Government Web sites are being used more frequently and by more citizens than ever before:

• The use of government Web sites to obtain information increased 50 percent from 2002 to 2003, according to a recent Pew Internet and American Life Report on e-government.
• In fact, according to the Pew Report, one of the top online activities in 2004 was using government Web sites. In 2004, approximately 97 million people used government Web sites.

Users struggle to find the information they need on Web sites:

• Of these 97 million Americans, 46 percent said they encountered problems on government Web sites. These Americans say their top problem is not being able to find the right information, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
• Research by User Interface Engineering, Inc., shows that people cannot find the information they seek on Web sites about 60 percent of the time. This can lead to wasted time, reduced productivity, increased frustration, and loss of repeat visits and money.

Users are impatient:

• According to Jakob Nielsen, "Studies of user behavior on the Web find a low tolerance for difficult designs or slow sites. People don't want to wait. And they don't want to learn how to use a home page. There's no such thing as a training class or a manual for a Web site. People have to be able to grasp the functioning of the site immediately after scanning the home page—for a few seconds at most."

For more on why usability is important, visit Making the Case for Usability in Government.

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