State portals have never looked, or acted, like this. The state of Utah launched a new Utah.gov on Monday afternoon.After at least eleven months of development, with some elements in the works for as long as two years, Utah.gov has turned hard core on Flash. The portal developers had long wanted to exploit Flash functionality, an industry standard program for creating interactive features for websites, but didn't want to leave anybody out. They were surprised, pleasantly so, to learn from statewide surveys that fully 97 percent of their audience used Flash.
Utah.gov backstops the landing page with proxy detection that makes the version of the portal served invisible to users -- Flash for those with the player installed, a simpler version for those who do not, and a mobile version for those coming to the portal on a smart phone.
Flash graphics grab your attention on first visit, coupled with a carousel of icons (with a distinctive Mac-like look and feel) that add a dynamic feel to navigation. User feedback and usability studies had told them that real users thought conventional portal wisdom was wrong.
Search is central to navigation, and is now central to the front page of the portal. It is what the users said they wanted. A prominent news section, which lists recent agency press releases, has always been a big deal for agencies but less so for users. It is still there on the landing page, now organized thematically with horizontal tabs, but has been bumped lower by the prominent search function and a local information window.
"Local meetings and resources" as the section is labeled does a couple of important and useful things.
First, it uses noninvasive Geo-IP technology to identify the area of Utah from which the user is coming so it can serve up a calendar of events, information and services that would matter to a person from that community. (Visitors from outside the state default to Salt Lake City although that outsider view was still serving up surprises during final testing last week.) Mapping the IP address of the visitor to location-relevant information and services finally delivers on the promise that people should not have to take a civics lesson to learn how to get the services they need.
Second, Geo-IP mapping also screens out the clutter. Even in a reasonably well ordered state such as Utah, there are still more than 50,000 government forms, 1,163 online services and terabytes of public information with which to deal. What you don't have to see matters.
The carousel of icons take users to any number of dedicated portals on everything from tourism and traffic to data and sustainability. The multimedia portal brings together the posts from 27 formerly discreet state blogs, tweets from over a hundred state Twitter feeds and even serves up state-posted YouTube videos in an environment free of Google's persistent cookies.
The carousel of goodies also includes a link to an initial pair of iPhone apps built by Utah.gov - the first for search (there's that user priority again) and another to look up the status of any licensed professional in the state.
This newest Utah.gov is the product of, in no small measure, heavy lifting by its portal partners at the NIC subsidiary Utah Interactive. In an interview days before the re-launch, Operations Manager Sara Watts said that so much was new in terms of form and function of the portal that it took six times the resources of an average development effort.
What was the hardest part in getting to consensus on the new portal? "The icons. [The fights over them] have been going on for two years," she chuckled, "but that's why we made them easy to swap out."
Very nice. What about data? I suggest working with us to create an instance of http://ogdisdk.cloudapp.net for UT, but thats my own personal bias. :)
Apologies if I'm just not seeing it there....
Wow, the front-and-center icon on that very-annoying flash is... Green Choices?? I'm sure this is the number-one "crisis" facing Utah today.
The icons flashing across the homepage were very distracting ... and they never stop! It is a good example of why I usually have flash uninstalled on my computer at home and just reinstall it when needed.
I noted in your review that search was key to the site. So that was the first thing I tried. I started typing in the search box:
research
As I typed, the online services list below it changed to match what I typed. Now THAT is cool. However, it is not useful because after typing research (and NOT hitting enter nor clicking the GO arrow) I looked at the screen and saw a small screen shot of an error page. I clicked the top item on the list of online services (Periodicals Database) and nothing happened. I clicked the second item on the list... but it ends up that it was just part of the first line and had wrapped (but it really did look like the new entry). I clicked on the real second item in the list (Research Expertise Directory) and the "error screenshot image" went away and was replaced with an error message: Bad org search default query... (in a very very tiny font - maybe 4point).
At this point I stopped using the site as nothing I had tried had worked yet and the flying icons were bothering me.
This is not the portal I have been waiting for. Sorry.
You're kidding, right? There is no way this would pass usability testing. The continuously moving photograph behind the spinning icons (that don't give a clear idea of what they are for until you mouse over them) is visual chaos. They've succeeded in making it tricky for the site visitor to figure out where to begin looking for anything. And when the visitor finally gives up, they will have to contend with the stomach ache they get from the constant motion. And don't get me started on the secondary pages where everything moves down in order to display the contents for a section.
It is hard to see the good in this site, and there is some good -- but many will never know because they will give up before they can find it. This is a government website that should be providing information in a consistent manner that is usable by all of its residents.
NIC and Utah really missed the boat on this one.
Very pretty, but like angelina jolie,
In reality ,
what are you going to do with that mess?
I commend Utah for using Flash in their Web design. Flash has many advantages (as well as drawbacks [see my comments below])as both Lynne and Len have pointed out.
There may/most likely will be usability issues.
The animated photograph behind the icons is very distracting and takes up too much valuable real estate. Fade the photo back and make it smaller so it is not so prominent.
It is tricky for the site visitor to figure out where to begin looking for anything. The main navigation does not stand out. What does stand out beyond the animated photo and the icons is the 'local meetings and resources' section. You want to design your page so that you direct the eye of the user through the main navigation and then on to secondary navigation elements. And since the photo is taking up so much space I actually missed the 'what's new' section on the bottom of the page until I scrolled to the bottom myself. Typically one tries to keep all the info on the home pg so the user does not have to scroll until they hit secondary pages.
It is hard to see the good in this site, and there is some good -- but many will never know because they will give up before they can find it. This is a government website that should be providing information in a consistent manner that is usable by all of its residents.
The search at first is very cool due to the services list below it changed to match what is typed. However, it is not useful because after the search comes up with items that it found, none of the text based links work. You have to click the image to the right of the text links. Not very user friendly IMHO.
As with utilizing any tool, it takes time and practice to use them well and efficiently. I believe that is the case with Flash. We will continue to see more of it and our use of it will become better over time.
what are you going to do with the mess
As with any major change, the new Utah.gov website has supporters and detractors. Our new site introduces many new concepts as a state government portal. We are confident that overall, the site introduces designs and constructs that will lead to improvements for state governments in general. I have made a few more comments on my blog at http://davidfletcher.blogspot.com/2009/06/absorbing-comments-on-new-utahgov.html
Good design does not preclude accessibility. Similarly, poor or unimaginative design, does not ensure accessibility or usability. Utah.gov has been designed to be accessible and usable by a large audience of users. From a WCAG 2.0 AA testing perspective the University of Toronto ATRC Web accessibility tool shows that the site has no known problems. That being said there are still possible and potential problems to evaluate, which we do on an ongoing basis. Web accessibility testing tools produce widely varied results so a great deal of judgment is required, and we use multiple tools.
Complex visual sites that use flash like utah.gov also have text equivalents behind every flash menu and graphic. If graphic movement in the header is bothersome to some it can be controlled by the user. The new search functionality provides four different types of searches from a single search box, and respects requests from our user base. About 20% of all searches are for forms so we simplified that process. With over 1160 online services we provide a search for services, for agencies and a comprehensive utah.gov domain search.
Utah is committed to accessibility and usability and we have a published accessibility policy on the site at http://www.utah.gov/accessibility.html. Such policies and the commitment to support them are not common on state government sites. Ultimately the acceptance of the site by Utah citizens is a matter of factual data that is easily measured and evaluated. Current data suggests high levels of use and acceptance.
The new Utah.gov is definitely a flash point for discussion!
Paul writes in the blog post: "User feedback and usability studies had told them [the developers of Utah.gov] that real users thought conventional portal wisdom was wrong."
What kind of usability studies did Utah.gov perform? How many customers from which segments? Were real users involved or proxies?
I like some of the bold aspects of the site but overall, it feels as if the technology-lovers won out in the design. I'd be surprised (but that happens all the time) if the Utah team conducted usability studies with real customers.
To David Fletcher: I think the reality is that Utah has reverted to "technology driving the business" and designed the site for high end users and not the general public.
To Bob Woolley: Did Utah do usability testing on a cross section of real users? It would be interesting to know the results, particularly if senior citizens participated. Care to share?
My reaction to Utah.gov? Finally, a gov't site that effectively utilizes social media tools in a collective, organized way. While I often don't like flash, I love the use of it here. For people who say the icons make them "dizzy," etc...that says more about their generation and/or lack of exposure to what are increasingly common platforms in laptops, netbooks or hand-held devices. I imagine someone once said the same thing about cars when they were first invented. That person probably insisted on continuing to ride his horse to the store. And that's fine. For him, it was still a comfortable/familiar means of completing the task at-hand.
Utah.gov may have kinks in it, but I suspect any such issues will be promptly addressed and correct.
Congratulations, Utah. Love what you're doing!
-Mark in Washington State