I have lately completed a seven month interim role at Sheffield City Council overseeing the advocacy and day to day management of the council's transition to 'digital by default' customer service delivery. Creating a new website information architecture based on evidence of customer demand and usage of council services, introducing new governance arrangements and the launch of a customer access channel via Twitter, and acting as mentor to existing web manager. This presentation summarised for the council's executive management team the outputs at the end of my engagement.

1. www.socitm.net/insight
Be#er
by
Digital:
Website
Improvement
Project
Update
John
Fox,
Interim
Digital
Channels
Strategy
Manager
&
Socitm
Consultant
29
October
2013

3. Please
choose
and
score
the
TOP
FIVE
tasks
that
are
most
important
to
you
in
dealing
with
your
local
council.
Tasks
1 Bins (rubbish, waste, bulky, garden waste, compost)
2
3
4
5
6
Parks (gardens, open spaces, country parks,
woodlands)
Libraries
Jobs (careers, teaching, training, volunteers, work
permits)
Roads and highways faults
Schools and Colleges (admissions, finance, closures,
terms)
7 Roadworks (traffic management, signals, improvements)
Total Vote
% of Total
Vote 6645
Cumulative
Vote
Cumulative
Tasks
382
5.7%
5.7%
1.2%
314
267
4.7%
4.0%
10.5%
14.5%
2.4%
3.5%
258
250
3.9%
3.8%
18.4%
4.7%
22.1%
5.9%
242
3.6%
25.8%
7.1%
230
3.5%
29.2%
8.2%
222
215
215
209
204
3.3%
3.2%
3.2%
3.1%
3.1%
32.6%
35.8%
39.1%
42.2%
45.3%
9.4%
10.6%
11.8%
12.9%
14.1%
192
172
169
153
135
132
110
109
2.9%
2.6%
2.5%
2.3%
2.0%
2.0%
1.7%
1.6%
48.2%
50.7%
53.3%
55.6%
15.3%
16.5%
17.6%
18.8%
57.6%
20.0%
59.6%
61.3%
62.9%
21.2%
22.4%
23.5%
Top 25%
26-50%
Leisure (cycle, walk, sport, swim, clubs, tourism,
8 allotments)
9 Crime and disorder
10 Hospitals (health authorities)
11 Recycling (household, tips, bottle banks)
12 Council tax (billing, discounts, payments, moving)
13 Planning (advice, applications, green belt, conservation)
14 Contact Council
15 Public transport (tickets, timetables, journey planner)
16 Street cleaning
17 Culture (heritage, museums, theatres)
18 Schools and Colleges (OFSTED)
19 Parking (blue badge, fines, permits, car parks)
20 Transport plans and policy (local transport plan)
51-75%

4. Please
choose
and
score
the
TOP
FIVE
tasks
that
are
most
important
to
you
in
dealing
with
your
local
council.
8.0%
7.0%
Percent
of
vote
6.0%
5.0%
4.0%
%
Vote
Average
3.0%
2.0%
1.0%
0.0%
1 3 5 7 9 11131517192123252729313335373941434547495153555759616365676971737577798183
Tasks

5. VoMng
spread
Negative votes
15%
Up-to-date
Accurate
Complete
Language
Contact
Participation
Open
Recommendations
Search
Menus and Links
Layout
Visual appeal
Speed
10%
Positive votes
5%
0%
5%
10%

6. Customer
Centric
Index
Factor
Up-to-date
Accurate
Complete
Language
Contact
Participation
Open
Recommendations
Search
Menus and Links
Layout
Visual appeal
Speed
Customer Centric Index
Positive Negative
4.8%
4.3%
5.8%
1.5%
1.5%
3.4%
5.0%
1.2%
1.8%
6.4%
1.8%
2.4%
4.3%
1.2%
0.1%
1.3%
4.0%
9.6%
3.7%
11.8%
6.6%
4.7%
2.3%
4.7%
1.2%
4.8%
43%
57%
Take
Action
7%
1%
6%
1%
12%
4%
1%
3%
18%
22%
7%
9%
9%
100%

19. Sheffield
–
pay
your
council
tax
Sheffield’s
pay
council
tax
page
promotes
mulMple
ways
of
paying
your
council
tax,
encouraging
customers
to
set
up
a
direct
debit.
Whilst
the
white
panel
Is
relaMvely
uncluRered,
the
customer
sMll
has
to
read
all
the
text
to
be
sure
they
know
all
the
possible
permutaMons!

20. East
Riding
of
Yorkshire
East
Riding’s
council
tax
payment
page
incorporates
a
clear
call
to
acMon
to
pay
my
council
tax
online,
but
the
page
is
cluRered
up
with
lots
of
extraneous
informaMon
that
isn’t
really
relevant
in
the
context
of
the
task
I
have
come
to
the
website
to
perform.
As
such,
this
informaMon
may
act,
inadvertently,
as
a
barrier
to
my
compleMon
of
the
task.

21. Liverpool
–
pay
your
council
tax
Liverpool’s
equivalent
page
has
removed
all
extraneous
informaMon
to
focus
enMrely
on
the
customer
compleMng
their
task.
This
council
is
keen
to
promote
paying
online
whereas
other
councils
prefer
to
promote
direct
debit
as
the
primary
payment
method.
If
we
were
to
scroll
down
this
page
we
would
find
a
link
to
other
payment
methods
available.

22. Sheffield
–
pay
your
council
tax
On
our
new
website
we
will
deploy
strategically
placed
‘Call
to
acMon’
(CTA)
buRons
to
encourage
site
users
to
take
the
acMon
that
we
would
like
them
to
takee.
The
arresMng
colour
of
the
magenta
buRon
makes
it
really
difficult
for
the
user
to
miss
seeing
the
pay
it
online
prompt,
but
we’ve
also
deployed
a
secondary,
‘Sheffield
steel’,
CTA
for
an
alternaMve
payment
method.
Finally
there
is
a
‘related
pages’
link
to
another
page
that
would
list
alternaMve
payment
methods
available.

23. High
level
landing
page
for
Housing

24. Subject-­‐specific
service
landing
page

30. InformaMon
architecture

33. Sheffield

34. Salford

35. Home
>
Health
and
Social
Care
>
Help
at
Home
>
Adult
Social
Care
>
Support
Available
>
Support
at
Home

36. Home
>
Health
and
Social
Care
>
Adults
and
Older
People
>
Apply
to
receive
care
at
home

37. Sheffield
2018
Help
Yourself
Don
Valley
Stadium
MarkeMng
Sheff
Kids
Sheffield
Homes
Sheffield
First
Partnership

38. Review
of
session
•
•
•
•
Customer
opinions
(task
idenMficaMon)
InformaMon
architecture
Website
design
Strategic
governance
– RaMonalisaMon
of
web
estate
– Strategic
management
and
channel
shia
– OperaMonal
management
(future
operaMng
model)

39. www.socitm.net/insight
Be#er
by
Digital:
Website
Improvement
Project
Update
John
Fox,
Interim
Digital
Channels
Strategy
Manager
&
Socitm
Consultant
john.fox@socitm.net
29
October
2013