Brief Overview
Gone are the days when you had to struggle in queues just to find information about government services. Technology has made the availability of information abundance. Even the conventional model of the government has room for websites. And why not? A single government website can serve many purposes for the citizens. Timely information, avoiding rumors around the government services and whatnot. But the birth of the best government web design revolves around a lot of factors. Wanna know them all? Then, stay tuned to get a wholesome insight on the same!
What’s in there?
What is a government website?
What is the purpose of a government website?
- Ease of obtaining government services:
- Having mobile access to the website:
- Serves as huge source of information:
- Provides live help and chat bubbles:
- Provides notification services
- Provides geographical information
Attributes of an ideal government website:
- Must have a sitemap
- Must be mobile and desktop responsive
- Must have useful and information-rich content
- Must comply with the federal laws
- Must have language-change options
- Must have a robust community-building system
- Must cater to all demographic groups
What is a government website?
A government website makes the government services and notices easily available for the citizens. Hence, a government web design makes the experience smooth for all demographic groups. It serves many valuable purposes and helps avoid the flying rumors around the government notices.
What is the purpose of a government website?
What is a government website? A great alternative is long queues, waiting for a dusty file to open up in the dark rooms! Here are the purposes served by a government website.
- Ease of obtaining government services:
Calling government officials can take a long time. Government websites have made the process convenient for the citizens. All they need to do is pay their bill, build a permit and generate a service request or register a complaint. An ideal government website serves many purposes, the most important one being the ease of obtaining government services.
- Having mobile access to the website:
Almost everyone has a smartphone today. The conventional models of the website had all the information at the top of the page. But the modern approach focuses on website designs that are responsive on smartphones. Hence, the government web design allows citizens to obtain government services by reaching out to government websites through smartphones.
- Serves as huge source of information:
More than information, misinformation about government services is abundant around us. The message from the government does not reach as it is to the citizens. Government websites work as an authentic source of information for the citizens. User-friendly designs, search boxes, and many such elements ensure a better user experience with government websites.
- Provides live help and chat bubbles:
One of the most popular purposes served by government websites is to replace phone calls. A situation of emergency remains unattended because of the call-hold. Hence, the live chat structure of the modern government website design helps people exercise the services rightfully, without having to wait for long online. Citizens get a quick answer to all their queries with chat bubbles and live help systems.
- Provides notification services
The local government and the state government have found it convenient to allow the citizens to subscribe to the email to receive reminders and alerts. Notifications from the government regarding a serious weather emergency, evacuation, traffic condition, or any sort of emergency reach the citizens at the earliest possible.
- Provides geographical information
The gift of technology has ended up streamlining the government’s approach towards various tasks. These days, technology allows us to detect geographical locations. The government website also allows the citizens to discover all the geographical highlights of a particular area. The government website pulls up the location information and guides citizens towards their geographical destination.
Attributes of an ideal government website
The best government web design can claim a surreal user experience. Here are few attributes of an ideal government website-
Must have a sitemap
A government website must have both HTML and XML sitemap. XML sitemaps help the bots to crawl through various web pages. On the other hand, HTML sitemaps guide the visitors to reach out to the required page of the website. It creates organizations on the website. Both bots and humans find their ways to navigate the website through the sitemaps.
Tips to have a sitemap on the website:
- Link your sitemap to the homepage
- Restrict the number of web pages on the sitemap
- Avoid 404 errors and link the web pages carefully to provide better direction
- Describe each page link on the sitemap
- Give importance to the aesthetics of the sitemap design
2. Must be mobile and desktop responsive
User satisfaction is the ultimate deciding factor of how good a website is. Mobile and desktop responsive website changes their size to fit in the device and provide a smooth user experience. A good website fits in a full-screen desktop monitor, a smartphone, a tablet, and a small laptop.
Tips to make a website responsive:
- Reject the fixed pixels and adopt the liquid grids that can resize itself
- Use the media queries to optimize the layout
- Use a viewport to ace the page scaling part
- Make the website touch-responsive
- Do not miss out on the typography responsiveness
3. Must have useful and information-rich content
Content is the cornerstone of a government website. It should have regular updates with the latest notices from the government.
Tips on content optimization of government websites:
- Using user’s language while framing the content
- Organizing the content o add value
- Less is more in a government website to avoid confusion
4. Must comply with the federal laws
Since it is a government website, it should abide by government laws. Wondering how to comply with the federal laws? Check out the tips below
Tips to comply with the federal laws:
- Public access should be allowed to the information available on the website
- Avoid Low data protection of the public as it can be offensive and punishable by laws
5. Must have language-change options
The website must cater to the needs of the citizen. If citizens speak in multiple languages, then the government website must have the option to change the language:
Tips to have a language-change option on the website:
- The language switches option should be eye-candy on the website
- Visitors should be allowed to use their preferred language
- Auto-detecting language feature should be there on the website
- Focus on the web font compatibility while one uses the language switching feature
6. Must have a robust community-building system
An online community has the potential to establish trust in the government and improve loyalty towards the country.
Tips to build a community-building system
- Relevant community-harmony content implementation
- Creating a government website design to nurture crowd-sourced ideas for various national issues
- Integrate the online platform soundly to collect essential data of the community members
7. Must cater to all demographic groups
Government websites should cater to all the demographic groups of the country.
Tips to make a website catering to all the demographic groups:
- Keep the design of the website quite simple for a non-tech-savvy to navigate through it
- Keep the contempt language skimmable and easy to understand
Conclusion
The conventional slow-loading website is what we think regarding a government web design. But in the wake of metamorphosing the outdated website and streamlining the approach, the government websites have found their grounds now. Do you think the government websites are close to the ideal ones? Let us know in the comment section below!
