15/12/2016

User research government information

Read the reportMeet the researchers

The text on this page was automatically translated and hence may differ from the original. No rights can be derived from this translation.

The aim of the research is to map the opinions of citizens, businesses, and government employees on searching and finding government information on the internet. The focus lies on the availability, accessibility, and to a lesser extent the comprehensibility of this information. This approach sheds light on the expectations, desires, and experiences users of government information have regarding transparency. It encompasses expectations of government information in general as well as expectations of and interaction with specific information domains such as products and services, permits, announcements, and laws and regulations. In this way, Advice Overheid.nl (and by extension the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations) is being held up a mirror. This will enable them to align their ambitions in the field of transparency more effectively with the target audiences. Based on the objective, the following research questions are distinguished:
  1. How can the search behaviour of end users be characterised?
  2. To what extent do different end users currently find government information transparent?
  3. What expectations and needs do different end users have regarding the transparency of government information?
  4. What can the government do to better align the level of transparency of government information with the experiences and expectations?
The research approach consists of two tracks. The first track is a survey on searching and finding government information on the internet among three target groups: citizens, businesses, and government employees. The second track involves a logbook study. The logbook study entails conducting a weekly search for government information on the internet over a period of four weeks. In a logbook study, respondents answer a number of questions about the process of searching for government information. Additionally, they can report on findings related to searching and finding government information. The logbook study provides more in-depth insights compared to the survey.