Our public sector website performance needs work - Adobe
As the minister for digitising government, Judith Collins has some clear areas to prioritise when it comes to improving digital access to services in the public sector.
Software maker Adobe’s second annual Global Government Digital Performance and Inclusion Benchmark late last year gave New Zealand a middling score of 59.6 out of 100 when it came to digital equity and citizen experiences across the public sector.
That was up form 58 in 2022 with the faint improve led by a 23% uplift in digital social equity and “more marginal movement in customer experience, helped by modernisation programs undertaken by some agencies”.
Source: Adobe Global Government Digital Performance and Inclusion Benchmark
But we fall down on a fundamental measure - the performance of our government websites, which dipped in 2023, according to Adobe.
Site performance in Adobe’s benchmarking includes site speed and mobile site responsiveness tests.
“Overall, site performance declined and remains at the emerging level of maturity. Across agencies, there was a broad cross-section of performance, with sites ranging from a score of 60 to 39. On average, site speeds declined 5% year-on-year, and site authority, or the findability of sites, fell -25%. Site health showed little change,” Adobe noted.
Source: Adobe Global Government Digital Performance and Inclusion Benchmark
When it came to customer experience, websites like myGov Australia and the State of Oklahoma scored highest due to their ability to consolidate multiple services in a single portal. Those with “fragmented web experiences” ranked below average.
New Zealand’s govt.nz portal is the front door to the government online, but acts primarily as an information source, directing visitors to appropriate government agency to start a transaction. Other governments, such as the Canadian Government with Canada.ca, have integrated transactions and poersonalisation into their official government portal to a greater degree.
Adobe points out that a host of new technologies, generative AI among them, have the ability to “further transform the digital citizen experience”.
Source: Adobe Global Government Digital Performance and Inclusion Benchmark
Adobe’s methodology
Adobe’s annual Benchmark was undertaken in September 2023 by Adobe’s Digital Strategy Group. It covered the official websites for the following departments and agencies: Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, DIA, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, Ministry of Health, Maori Health Authority, Department of Conservation, Ministry of Defence, Transport Authority, Accident Compensation Committee, Te Pūkenga – New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology.
Each of the three dimensions below is assigned a score from 0-100, with the average producing the overall Index reading. • Customer experience: User testing via script with citizens aged between 18 and 65, testing mobile and desktop user experience across 10 categories. • Site performance: Using third-party tools such as Google page speed and SEM rush to measure the speed and functionality of 12 government websites across devices. • Digital social equity: Using third-party tools such as axeDevTools, Web FX and manual analysis to assess the accessibility and inclusion of 12 government websites.
