Design secrets of

the worlds best

e-government web sites

Joshua Chambers, Editor, FutureGov Digital

Introduction

What makes something

well designed?

n the case of cars, the elegant Jaguar E-Type could be

considered a good design - unless you need to transport
ten pigs to market.

It is reminiscent of impact made in architecture by the

design of the world-renowned Pompidou Centre in Paris.
Here the architects challenged assumptions about how
buildings should look by putting the service ducts, lifts and
pipes on the outside, and this was done to enable the building
to be completely rearranged to suit changing requirements.
Interior partitions can be moved, service lines can be clipped on
to other parts of the building - everything is flexible.

Looks alone arent enough: a well-designed object must

serve its users purpose. And this task becomes especially
complicated in the case of government web sites. These sites
have a multiplicity of purposes: presenting government news,
allowing citizens to find the information they need, hosting
transactions and publishing datasets, amongst other tasks.

The architects wrote that the design expresses the belief

that building should be able to change to allow people
the freedom to adjust their environment as they need.
Above everything else, the building is intended to be a true
expression of its purpose.

Yet while a site has many purposes, one core principle

stands out above all others: a well-designed government
web site must make it as easy as possible for citizens to find
the information and services that they need.
This is simpler to say than to do. There are a great many
ugly, clunky government web sites with poor usability. But
increasingly, there are a number of good sites across the
world that show how government portals can be simple,
usable and accessible.

Government web sites must follow this example - farmers

needs tractors, not E-Types.
Good designs exist to serve their users, and this guide has
chosen web sites that embody that principle. It has looked
across the world for the best designed government portals,
analysing their designs, highlighting innovative features and
explaining the techniques used to develop them. It should
prove an essential primer for anyone considering the design
of a government web portal.

These web sites arent always conventionally attractive.

In their quest for functionality and flexibility, many are
challenging assumptions about what a government web
site should look like.

Introduction

The sites included in this guide are user-friendly and simple

to navigate. They have all been highly ranked in the 2014
United Nations E-Government Survey, and some have also
been highlighted by other equivalent e-government reports
and nominated for international awards.

chosen will provide an overview of good design, and have

common features that can be emulated elsewhere.
This guide has also considered how sites can be accessible
on mobile devices, and discussed the benefits of agile
project management - a software development technique
thats making a big difference.

This guide assesses the main citizen portals run by national

governments of the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong,
New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Norway and the
United States.

Some of these portals work better in their own countries

than they would in other places. Citizens of one nation
may expect a web site to look a little different to people in
another part of the world. The important feature is that all
of them have used detailed research to serve their citizens
needs, and met their requirements as efficiently and
effectively as possible.

There are many other good e-government portals that

are not listed in this guide, and the criteria used has also
eliminated many strong agency and policy-specific sites,
such as the Philippines open data portal. But the sites

Contents

05 World map
06 The United Kingdom
08 Australia
09 Hong Kong
10 New Zealand
12 Singapore
13 Norway
14 South Korea
15 The United States
17 Conclusion: Common functions and features
4

World Map

United Kingdom
http://www.gov.uk
Managed by: Government Digital
Service, Cabinet Office
Launched: 2012

Norway
http://www.norge.no/en/
Managed by: Agency for Public
Management and E-Government
Launched: 2009

South Korea:
http://www.korea.go.kr/main.do
Managed by: Ministry of Security
and Public Administration
Launched: 2013

Hong Kong
http://www.gov.hk
Managed by: Office of the GCIO
Launched: 2007

United States of America

http://www.usa.gov
Managed by: Federal Citizen
Information Centre, US General
Services Administrations Office
of Citizen Services and Innovative
Technologies
Launched: 2000

Singapore
http://www.ecitizen.gov.sg/
Managed by: Infocomm
Development Authority of Singapore
Launched: 1999, rebuilt in 2012

Australia
http://www.australia.gov.au
Managed by: Ministry of Finance
Launched: Being rebuilt in 2014

New Zealand
http://www.nz.govt
Managed by: Department of
Internal Affairs
Launched: July 2014

United Kingdom

reat Britains Gov.UK represents

a huge leap forward for the
countrys e-government efforts.
An award-winning web site
launched in 2012, it brought together all
government information into one place,
and coincided with the mandated closure
of all individual agency homepages.
The site was developed by a dedicated
team, the Government Digital Service,
which was created to work outside
of traditional bureaucratic processes.
Instead, it models itself on a Silicon Valley
startup, failing fast, iterating often and
using cutting edge techniques to develop
its online services.
The results are already clear. The web site
won the prestigious Design of the Year
award from the countrys Design Museum,
and has a host of other trophies to its
name - including some just for the quality
of its content.

When FutureGov checked, not everything does - errant press

officers occasionally publish unreadable articles - but the
aim is laudable, and the principles behind the guide are
worth mimicking elsewhere.

Equally, it has saved millions by migrating other web sites on a

single open source content management system, and started to
run complex transactional services such as voter registration.

The web site should have a welcoming and reassuring tone and
aims to be a trusted and familiar resource, the guide notes.

The home page is deceptively simple, mostly thanks to the

many common features it shares with the sites profiled
before (especially its imitators in Australia and New
Zealand). So instead, this part of the guide will examine
some of the things that still set Gov.UK apart.

It contains grammatical advice to help officials write clearly,

and has a list of banned words that officials must avoid.
These include leverage (unless in the financial sense);
utilise; deploy; collaborate; liaise; streamline; ring
fencing and transforming (what are you actually doing to
change it?).

The importance of a style guide

Everything published on Gov.UK, by any agency or
department, is supposed to follow the Gov.UK style guide.

It also advises that writers use the

active tense, address the user as
you - for example, You can contact
HMRC by phone and email and avoid
duplicating content that already
appears on the website elsewhere.

Google is the homepage

The Government Digital Service does
not believe that all of its users come
to articles through the homepage;
instead, they design individual pages to
appear prominently on search engines.
Content is vital for this; writers are
encouraged to use SEMrush.com and
Google Trends to find out which are
the most popular words for a certain
topic. For example, people in the UK
are more likely to search for holiday
entitlement than annual leave,
although both are more popular than
the alternatives.

United Kingdom
The writers of these pages
ensured that both keywords
appeared in the introduction,
subheads, chapters and
metadata descriptions. And
because holiday entitlement
is the most popular term, they
used that as the headline.
They also try to avoid using too
many capital letters, because they
are said to be between 13-18 per
cent harder for people to read.
Only the most necessary
information. tells users how
long it will take. all through the
process, explains how many
pages left (11 in total). Each asks
one question and is intuitive.

Fonts
Gov.UK has developed its own
custom font, New Transport.
The intention was to use a
very simple font that also was
distinctly British.

> Transactional services - simplicity is key

The design team revised the Transport font which was
launched in the 1960s for British road signs. This is designed
to be very clear, and also is familiar to the majority of the
British population. However, some elements of the font
were too bold for the internet, so the typography was
slimmed down.

There was a concentration on fonts because, as the designer

of Gov.UK blogs, by far the largest design element of GOV.
UK is typography. Many pages are just text information.
Pictures are rare. Type is important to any design but even
more so in our case.

> Published under the Open Government Licence for public sector information

Australia

ustralia was ranked 2nd in world for e-government

and 10th for online services delivery by the 2014
UN E-Government Rankings. Over three million
people visited Australias e-government portal in
May this year - with traffic increasing by more than 20 per
cent over the past twelve months.

The press releases have been relegated in favour of parts of

the website that serve ordinary citizens.
Welcome text - A large, legible font greets users and
explains the purpose of the site.
No tabs on the new site - all information is immediately
visible. This makes it more accessible on mobile devices (and
the site is responsive to it adapts to any devices screen size,
however large or small).

However, the federal government is not content to rest on its

laurels, and is comprehensively rebuilding its main web site australia.gov.au - a development that gives pointers on how
to go about designing or rebuilding an e-government portal.

There isnt any content on the right hand side of the page
following user research

The project team has conducted comprehensive user

research and testing, and has published an alpha site to
garner more feedback as a result. It is notable that the alpha
site has markedly evolved from the current website.

In Focus has been removed. The text didnt explain what

the content was, or why it was there. Instead, there is an
option for web managers to choose which campaign they
display, and allow it to speak for itself.

In particular, there are four lessons from user testing that

Sharyn Clarkson, the projects lead, has shared:

Popular content has been listed. This will likely be adapted

according to user research, and depending on the time of
year (ie. when the clocks change, or around public holidays).

1 The home page should offer a broad range of topics, but

not overwhelm with mass hyperlinks

Broader lessons

2 Keywords under topic headings increase user confidence

about which path to take

The project is very much a work in progress in its early

stages of development. But it is useful to see how a country
which already has a successful e-government portal goes
about improving it.

3 Design is about more than just appearance, content also

matters. The team has found that it is vital to write in
plain English (or rather, write clearly in language that
citizens use on a day to day basis)

The team are developing the site using agile project

management. This means that they constantly make small
developments to the site rather than setting everything out at
the beginning of the project (waterfall project management).
There will be a full guide to this technique later on in the guide,
because most of the countries profiled have used this technique.

4 Information placed on the right-hand side of a web page

is often ignored.
Other lessons can be drawn by comparing the old web site
with the new one:
The information buttons have been simplified on the new
site, and written in language that citizens will understand

Some backend developments are also notable. John

Sheridan, the federal governments Chief Technology
Officer, recently told FutureGov that his team is launching
a new content management system (CMS) that
will be used by australia.gov.au, and also can be
used by other sites across the Australian public
sector. It is an open source system, Drupal,
and the government is also negotiating shared
hosting arrangements.

There is now a prominent option for users to send feedback

to the designers

Sheridan believes that creating a whole of

government CMS has clear advantages: in short,
it will enable agencies to share code, modules and
applications, reducing development costs. It will also
allow for development skills to be more freely shared
across agencies, and create delivery cost savings
because multiple agencies will use a common and
scalable cloud-based platform for hosting.

> Both have prominent search options, but the new site has
made the search bar much larger

The UNs E-Government Rankings now take into

account whether a countrys departments and
agencies work together to deliver digital public
services. This work by Sheridans team is instructive
of how design is about more than considering
appearance: its about creating the conditions
in government to enable departments to work
together and create simple services for citizens.

Hong Kong

ov.HK was launched in 2007, receives on average

around 61,000 visits every day - increasingly on
mobile devices - and has won a clutch of awards particularly for its accessibility.

and sports, education and training, employment, transport

and motoring) or those in a particular age group (eg. residents,
business and trade, non-residents and social groups). Citizens
can intuitively and conveniently locate the information
and services required, and do not need to have in-depth
understanding of how the government is organised.

The groundwork for the web site started in 2005, making it

one of the oldest web sites profiled in this guide. It still looks
modern and copes well with new technologies, despite the
iPhone launching a smartphone revolution in 2007.

Meanwhile, the I Want To section features effective

shortcuts for commonly sought information and services on
GovHK to help the majority of users achieve their goals with
fewer mouse clicks. The selection is based on web statistics
and the GovHK joint management Teams understanding of
citizens needs.

Visitors to the site will immediately be surprised by its vibrancy:

it feels exciting, and not at all like a staid government web site.
Part of this is achieved through informal language - check it
out! - being a prominent example. The web site has clearly
been designed with Hong Kong residents in mind. As the
team explains, the objective of the GovHK programme is to
transform the government-centric model of service delivery,
where Bureaux and Departments (B/Ds) operated within
individual silos, to a citizen-centric approach.

The web site incorporates web accessibility features that

conform to the World Wide Web Consortiums (W3C)
internationally recognised Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines 2.0 to the level AA (Double-A conformance),
setting a role model for other agencies to follow suit.
{draw line to MyGovHK} - This is the personalised interface
where users can receive the latest information and reminders
from different government departments, and enjoy one-stop
access to multiple government online services.

That means there has been a lot of work done behind the
scenes to bring departments together and ensure that content
and services are developed with users in mind. As they put it:
The ultimate goal is to improve the quality of public services
to citizens, enhance operational efficiency of government B/Ds
and increase the overall use of e-government services.

The weather is unpredictable in Hong Kong, so the weather

forecast function is particularly handy.

This citizen-first approach has led to the creation of two

boxes on the web site that are particularly noteworthy: the
I Want To and Im Looking For sections. GovHKs user
satisfaction surveys have given strong positive responses for
these boxes on the web site.

It is possible to personalise the site by changing its colour - an

unusual feature. Also citizens can send an e-card. These are
two features that make the site more fun and lively. They
probably wouldnt work so well in other parts of the world,
but its a fun theme in keeping with other regional websites.

The team says that related government information and

services are organised around the needs of the customers
under the section of Im Looking For... instead of being
presented according to the organisational structure of the
government. Each service cluster seeks to serve citizens with
needs and interests in a particular subject (eg. culture, leisure

The site allows users to read it in a vast number of different

languages. The UN Rankings check to ensure accessibility
of an e-government portal in more than one language, but
such a wide array is very rare. It is accessible in Cantonese,
Mandarin, English, Indian, Bahasa Indonesian, Nepalese,
Tagalog, Pakistani, Thai and Vietnamese.

> http://www.gov.hk/

New Zealand

ew Zealands new e-government portal launches

just as this guide goes to press, and it doesnt look
much like a government web site at all.

Ultimately: We want the site to be easy to use, read and

navigate, and the content should be the thing thats the star
feature. Were not trying to entertain users, were not trying
to be cutting edge and use the latest whizzbang thing that a
website can do. One of of users said: The web sites plain, but
hey, Im not here to enjoy myself - I just want the information,
and that resonated very strongly with the team.

Its very simple, with a large font and no official

insignia. Indeed, it looks a little unfinished: theres barely

anything on it. Just text, a few flashes of colour, and some
small pictures up the top of the page.

User testing

Many of the users we spoke to right throughout this

project have reflected back to us that, most of the time, the

User testing and feedback has been fundamental to the

redesign efforts. We included users in the very beginning
of this project - before the product existed, even before we
started work on the alpha version of the site, Wall explains.

government sites theyve been using are too busy, too text
heavy, the fonts are too small, its hard to find things and
get a clear understanding of where you are in a process,
explains Nathan Wall, the product owner of the web site.

To start, the team conducted focus groups, discussing

the content of the site and conducting tree testing,
where participants were set tasks to find certain pieces of
information that are further and further up the tree of
a sites design. They also asked users to draw their ideal
home page, and list the information and features it would
have. And they looked through the emails they had received

His teams user testing found that peoples body language

changed on some other web sites, with them leaning
forwards as they struggling to locate the information that
they were looking for. That said to us that we need to keep
things simple with a plain layout, slightly larger font than
you would perhaps expect to find, he says.

> https://www.govt.nz/

10

New Zealand
on the old site from people struggling to find certain
information or services.

that theres duplicated content in a number of places around

With this information they started designing the site, which

is heavily based on the UK governments new e-government
platform, including some of the code.

of a particular service will be delivered by one agency and bits

Researchers then monitored the body language of users

when they used the alpha site, and compared it to their
reaction to other governments. They wanted to make users
feel more relaxed, while on other government web sites
they would sometimes lean forwards uncomfortably when
looking for information, or seem confused.

which provides some content to links and helps users explain

User testing continued throughout this process, and indeed

continues after the launch of the site.

web site. One of the things that users said to us very early on

various government web sites - fragmented content where bits

of another service might be delivered by another agency.
The team responded by created signpost content, he says,
what theyll find on another government site before they visit it.

The directory
The team are particularly proud of the directory feature on the
was that they were often frustrating dealing with government
websites when trying to find contact details, Wall says.

Content design

The directory shows both English and Maori names

for departments, and lists organisations by theme and

One of the key findings from user testing was that content
needs to be presented in simple, plain English, Wall explains.
We dont necessarily use the language that people are familiar
with in all cases, and maybe one of the problems weve had is

alphabetically. Each individual page describes the role of a

department, gives contact details, and provides the names
of ministers responsible.

> https://www.govt.nz/organisations/department-of-internal-affairs/

11

Singapore

users prefer to search, but a significant minority preferred

simple tabs to help them find information.

ingapores eCitizen website was launched in 1999, and is

the first-stop gateway portal for Singapore Governments
information and services. It was one of the first crossagency, citizen centric websites in the world.

The site also has a prominent feedback option, and an ideas tab
to encourage Singaporeans to engage with their government.
We believe that we can understand our users better by listening
to them, which in turn, will render better products and services
for our users. Hence, we placed a prominent feedback button on
the portal to make sure that a user who wants to get in touch
with the team is able to do so easily. In fact, we will be launching
a crowd-sourcing campaign soon to encourage the public to codesign the next eCitizen portal.

The site bears a strong resemblance to a search engine,

with its simple layout and large search box. The Infocomm
Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), which was
responsible for building the site, explains that our research
revealed that the search function is the main mode of
finding information. Hence, we have made searching for
content easy and fast on eCitizen.
They also tinkered with the engine underneath the
bodywork. We used predictive and intelligent search
technology so that users are presented with the most
relevant search results as they type in the keywords using
our search function. We are constantly trying different ways
to improve the search experience by understanding users
info-gathering behaviour, the IDA says. Its latest research
shows that 95 per cent of users have been able to find the
information they require using the search function.

The popular searches option is a thoughtful touch, placed

centrally and automatically updated according to user
interactions.

As well as the prominent search option, there are a few tabs

to help users browse information. The IDA explains that
the need for this arose during user testing - the majority of

Singapore is a strongly patriotic place, so it feels appropriate for

the site to display a large and changing picture of the city. This
probably would not be so important in Western Europe.

The text I am looking for is friendly and displays the function

of the search bar for people less familiar with web sites.
The web team have shown restraint in choosing other
government web sites to list on their homepage, choosing
just three which have been listed at the bottom of the page.

> http://www.ecitizen.gov.sg/Pages/default.aspx

12

Norway

orway was an early adopter of e-government, and

has set itself a target of being at the forefront of
delivering digital public services.

those profiled in this guide, channeling the simplicity that

characterises Scandinavian design. It has key topics on the
left hand side, a friendly greeting and promise of SMS text

The OECD, a grouping of mostly rich countries,

notes that Norway has a very high level of internet
penetration, and a flourishing information society.
Successive governments have therefore been keen to
digitise public services, and provide as much information as
possible online.

message in the middle, and a prominent search bar that also

The e-citizen portal is probably the most basic looking of all

text size.

allows users to narrow down services by municipality.

Its feedback option is particularly appealing: managing to be
prominent without being distracting.
The site also has an excellent method of increasing the

> lines to the left hand side of the page, the feedback button and the text size option

13

South Korea

outh Korea has been the world-leader in

e-government since 2010, and this year it retained
the top spot in the United Nations E-Government
Rankings.

on large images or carousels. This is very much in keeping

with the Korean Waves approach to all things online, even if
it is in stark contrast to Norways more austere Scandinavian
e-government portal.

The countrys web site meets the highest accessibility

This highlights an important truth: while there may be

standards, resizes to fit on mobile devices and has a

common principles for functionality and usability, the

prominent search option. But the most striking thing about

aesthetic language of cultures obviously varies greatly. As

it is, well, how Korean it looks.

a result it is important to root your web site design in the

Icons and cartoons litter the page, even as it avoids reliance

visual and design language of your users.

> http://www.korea.go.kr/main.do

14

United States of America

SA.Gov is the original e-government web site, and it

is still an excellent example of a citizen-facing portal.

Yet while there is a great deal of information on the web

site, it is notable how little clutter there is on the homepage.
It is deceptively simple.

The site looks similar to many other sites already

profiled, so this guide will focus on some of the

The site does not have as many language options as some

others, such as Hong Kong, but its Spanish language site is
impressive. A red button links through to a similar site, but
with slightly different information displayed according to
user preferences.

recent changes that have been made to it, and examine the
addition features that make it a great service for citizens.
One important thing about the site is that its not seen as an
end in its own right: the team behind USA.Gov stress that we
believe in delivering information and services in ways that are

Adapting according to analytics

convenient for you, so the site syncs up with social networks

The USA.Gov team recently redesigned its home page

according to user analytics. In 2013, 30 per cent of all
sessions on the web site included the home page - 8.67
million in total - while 79 per cent of users of the Spanish
web site GobiernoUSA.gov visited the homepage.

and other sites to share information. It also has a prominent

button to encourage people to sign up to email alerts, rather
than expecting citizens to come to the site to find information.
Notably, it has a comprehensive directory of government
agencies, with convenient telephone numbers provided

The team believed that their site promoted content that

the government found important, rather than content that
people were looking for. They tested this hypothesis and
subsequently made amendments.

when citizens are struggling to find information online.

Content matters on web sites, and many sites have stressed
their commitment to writing plainly. USA.Gov takes this
a step forward, with a large number of YouTube videos to

One of the key changes was ditching the sites carousel,

which promoted some items but took up a great deal of space
and didnt satisfy users. Instead, the team believe that email
alerts are a better way to promote key articles or campaigns.

engage citizens in the work of the federal government. And

content is themed by both type and agency, with useful
icons to make it easier to identify when in a hurry.

> http://www.usa.gov

15

United States of America

different font sizes, colours, and placement on the page.
Usually, items at the top are perceived as most important.

Now there is a box explaining the purpose of the site, which

is useful for new users and a box that contains anchor links
to the other sections of the page. The web site is responsive
and resizes to fit smartphone and tablet screens, so this
feature is often frequently used by people on those devices.

>> Balance creates the perception that there is equal

distribution. This does not always imply that there is
symmetry.

Source: Using Analytic to Create Change: USA.gov Usabilty

Case Study, 1 July 2014

>> Contrast focuses on making items stand out by

emphasising differences in size, colour, direction, and
other characteristics.

Creating standards that can be applied

elsewhere

>> Scale identifies a range of sizes; it creates interest and

depth by demonstrating how each item relates to each
other based on size.

The United States has a federal structure which limits

the power of any one agency or part of government. This
means that government cannot mandate how all of its
e-government portals will look, and leads to a great deal
of variation. However, the federal government has set out
advice for states to use when creating web sites.

>> Dominance focuses on having one element as the focal

point and others being subordinate. This is often done
through scaling and contrasting based on size, colour,
position, shape, etc.
>> Similarity refers to creating continuity throughout a
design without direct duplication. Similarity is used to
make pieces work together over an interface and help
users learn the interface quicker.

Its principles for creating a visual design state that:

When trying to figure out how to use the basic elements
consider:

Source: http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/visualdesign.html

>> Unity has to do with all elements on a page visually or

conceptually appearing to belong together. Visual design
must strike a balance between unity and variety to avoid
a dull or overwhelming design.

It also notes that, for there to be a meaningful and valuable

user experience, information must be:
>> Useful: Your content should be original and fulfill a need

>> Gestalt, in visual design, helps users perceive the overall

design as opposed to individual elements. If the design
elements are arranged properly, the Gestalt of the overall
design will be very clear.

>> Usable: Site must be easy to use

>> Desirable: Image, identity, brand, and other design
elements are used to evoke emotion and appreciation
>> Findable: Content needs to be navigable and locatable
onsite and offsite

>> Space is defined when something is placed in it,

according to Alex White in his book, The Elements of
Graphic Design. Incorporating space into a design helps
reduce noise, increase readability, and/or create illusion.
White space is an important part of your layout strategy.

>> Accessible: Content needs to be accessible to people with

disabilities
>> Credible: Users must trust and believe what you tell them

>> Hierarchy shows the difference in significance between

items. Designers often create hierarchies through

Source: http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/userexperience.html

16

Conclusion: Six Building Blocks of E-Government Success

he worlds best
e-government web sites
have a number of common
design features. All are
sprinting to serve their citizens
better, so a great deal of imitation
is going to be likely, and should be
applauded. It is the same in most
areas of practical design: take
cycling, even the very best racing
bikes share more similarities than
differences, and adjustments are
simply made to accommodate the
riders individual preferences.
Here the most important
commonalities of all well-designed
e-government web sites:
1 Search - large, prominent
search bars are a crucial part
of any users interaction with
e-government web sites. User
testing in the UK, Singapore, US
and elsewhere has all shown the importance of allowing
users to search for information. No matter how well
designed a homepage, there will always be something
that a designer does not anticipate or cannot incorporate.

3 Themes - Content itself matters, not just the appearance of

a web site. The best web sites theme their content according
to user desires, rather than by departmental structures.
4 Icons, not images - most web sites are removing their
images. This makes it quicker for them to load on

2 Simplicity - there is a notable trend towards reducing the

number of links on a homepage, removing carousels, and
only linking to the most popular topics.

mobile devices, and makes it easier for users to find

the information that theyre looking for. No-one comes
to an e-government web site to be entertained, they
just need information. Icons can help users spot useful
information, though, and in some cases add character to
the web site to make it more in keeping with other sites
that users are likely to view (ie. South Korea).
5 Responsive design - good e-government web sites need
to be accessible on mobile devices. Not all of the sites
listed above currently are, but Singapore and Hong Kong
are looking to improve this. There is a trend towards
building one web site, which adapts to fit a number of
screen sizes, rather than putting resources into updating
a web site for desktop users, and a mobile app and tablet
app for people on the move.
6 Multiple languages - the UN E-Government rankings judge
web portals on whether theyre available in more than one
language. All of the web sites above are, and Hong Kong
leads the pack, with its site available in ten languages.
Ultimately, these web sites are the best in the world
because they are designed to be practical, simple, quick and
adaptable. Not all government web sites are; comparisons
of some other government web sites with the above
portals is a bit like comparing a Penny Farthing with a
modern racing bike. But through imitation and iteration,
governments around the world can create web sites that
are incredibly easy to use. You might say theyll be as easy as
riding a bike.

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