Usable standards: the COI usability toolkit
The Central Office of Information (COI) is the Government’s centre of excellence for marketing and communications. The remit of the COI is to work with government departments and public sector organisations to “produce information campaigns on issues that affect the lives of every citizen”.
Providing consultancy, procurement and project management in every aspect of communications, the COI focus largely on achieving best value for government.
The Digital Policy team at COI, or Digigov, aim to improve public sector through setting standards and guidelines, coordinating the convergence of government websites and building trust in the .gov.uk brand.
The growing need for guidance
In part fuelled by the current economic climate, providing a good customer experience has become a growing focus for businesses and similarly the need for both usable and accessible websites has been growing in the public sector also. In July 2008 The Power of Information Taskforce commissioned research into the user experience of government websites. The review found that many sites were failing to get the basics right; for instance not helping people to navigate easily, ineffective search engine optimisation and failing to speak the language of their users.
This supported the growing need for common standards and guidance, which has led the COI to create a set of guidelines called the ‘Usability Toolkit’. The purpose of the toolkit is to help web editors, designers and developers incorporate the basics of usability into the public sector websites they’re responsible for and to help improve levels of engagement, interaction and quality.
The COI has created a dedicated website to support the toolkit which allows you to register and record your progress, take self assessment tests throughout to help gauge your level of knowledge as you work through the guidelines, as well as the ability to download a PDF version.
Individuality vs. Generalisation
In total there are 21 individual guidance modules spread out over 8 themes ranging from the ‘basics of page layout’ to ‘when and how to use PDFs’. Each module is supported by examples of both good and bad practices. The idea is that each module can be digested and understood in around 5-10 minutes.
The guidelines effectively empower client-side stakeholders to oversee the creation of successful, user focused websites but they do not diminish the need for digital agencies. In fact throughout the toolkit you’re advised that the guidance offered is ‘basic’ and that if in doubt further research should be carried out.
The toolkit is a well considered thorough resource and does a great job of educating people on the basics of web usability. For the members of a development team, whether client-side or agency it has the potential to be a useful point of reference.
It’s worth noting, however, that as helpful as guidelines are they should only ever be considered in the way in which they were meant, in so much as they are purely guidance and not ‘rules’. Each service or product is unique and therefore has its own specific audience which needs to be designed for appropriately.
The Usability Toolkit is sympathetic to this and supports the need for user research, in a way it simply helps to start the conversation whilst setting a standard to build upon.
So what’s next?
Alongside our existing heuristic evaluations, we’re already geared up to offer clients usability reviews based on the COI set of guidelines as well as taking them into consideration during the development of government websites. Although there doesn’t seem to be a lot of discussion around the toolkit at the moment I’m interested to see where the COI take it in the future and how much both public and private sector organisations adopt it over the coming months.
Ideally I’d like to see these guidelines evolve to become an essential part of the development process in the same way that accessibility is supported by the WCAG2 guidelines for example allowing UX teams to focus more on the user journey and the overall experience than worrying about the basics.
If you’re interested in finding out more take a look at the COI Usability toolkit for yourself.
Leave a comment