The gov.je site was redesigned to be easier to use, particularly for people accessing the site on a smartphone or tablet
Why was the project necessary?
The gov.je website has existed since July 1996 and has gone through seven redesigns reflecting changes in technology, increased demand and growing customer expectations.
The most recent redesign went live in November 2014. The main driver for the redesign was that there had been significant growth in the number of people accessing the site on a smartphone or a tablet, devices which were not taken into account in the previous, January 2010 redesign. At launch, 60% of users were using mobile devices.
The 2014 redesign was also in response to feedback that we received in user research that we carried out on the existing site the previous year which we wrote about in
this news release.
What was improved?
List of the main enhancements
Challenges we faced
This was the largest enhancement to gov.je and had to be executed to a high level of quality. The project was only possible through funding as a public sector reform exemplar project.
In order to ensure that the design was right first time, we engaged a team that included web design experts from several companies that usually compete with each other. This level of collaboration was unprecedented.
The project was delivered at the same time as, and was dependent on, a major upgrade to the SharePoint content management system.
We were keen to take the opportunity to have the old site design tested by people with disabilities and then to fix the issues that were found in the new design. We worked with a specialist social enterprise in Wales for this testing. They also provided training to the design and development team in order to ensure that accessibility was incorporated into every aspect of the team's thinking.
We wanted every aspect of the design and development to be driven by user research, rather than relying on any assumptions about how people actually use the site. This required many hours in the usability lab where the team observed some 50 Islanders accessing the site to find various types of information reflecting typical uses of the site. We also built in a new means of capturing customer feedback on an ongoing basis, to allow us to know straight away if customers were struggling with any aspect of the site and to inform future enhancements.
The development phase was our first use of an Agile approach, introducing concepts such as sprints and backlogs.
What's next?
The site continues to be enhanced based on feedback from customers and staff, with smaller improvements being made on an almost monthly basis.
We have engaged a search engine optimisation (SEO) specialist and they have made a long list of recommendations for improving the findability of gov.je content through Google, and we are working through those on an ongoing basis.
Project sponsor
Marcus Ferbrache - Head of Digital Delivery
Project team
- Paul Marshall (Prosperity 24.7) - project manager
- Geraldine Cardwell (SOJ Information Services) - Internet Manager
- Noel Mallet (Mallet Crane) - design
- Luke Szkudlarek (e-scape) - design
- Damon Eastwood (Switch Digital) - design
- Matthew Robins (Webreality) - design
- Melissa Chester (Qualia Consulting) - design
- Digital Accessibility Centre - accessibility training and testing
- C5 Alliance - software development
- Joe Mckenna (4Insight) - user research
gov.je