The tension between user-centred design and e-government services

Abstract

The absence of user involvement in the design and development of e-government is often cited as a reason for the lag in e-government uptake. Drawing on our involvement with PortNL, an integrated e-government service for expatriates in the Netherlands, we explain this absence as a result of an inevitable tension between usercentred design -the most common way to involve users -and e-government. User-centred design is a structured approach to produce interactive systems by involving users or potential users and addressing their needs at every stage of the design process. Governments, while concerned with their users' needs, have their own considerable needs to address. We outline four manifestations of the tension between user-centred design and e-government: users' and governments' contradictory visions of the tasks to be accomplished; governments' mandate to design for exceptions, as well as for the mainstream, governments' and users' differing commitments to the law and governments' and users' contradicting desires about the nature of their relationship. We conclude with observations about the design and development of e-government services to improve their quality and, thus, increase their uptake.

Emerging forms of inter-organizational and cross-sector collaborations in e-government initiatives

“…In addition, e-government research have pointed out the lack of access to, motivation and time to participate of the civil citizen end-users (e.g. Kotamraju and van der Geest, 2013;Jaeger and Bertot, 2010;Jansen, 2006); while other studies, as a contrast, argue that the willingness to participate often is high (Holgersson and Karlsson, 2014). The Co-use and Enhanced Neighbors projects confirm the findings of Holgersson and Karlsson in that motivation and engagement among end-users was generally substantial; especially in the latter project, in which it was possible to work with a continuous group of volunteers for over a year.…”

“…Public e-services have thus far mainly been developed with a government perspective in mind and other stakeholders' considerations have been given less attention (Holgersson, 2014). Several studies conclude that user involvement in egovernment service design and research as to date has been insufficient, and that IS development research in general appears to have had little influence on the e-government field (Kotamraju and van der Geest, 2013;Karlsson et al, 2012).…”

“…Holgersson and Karlsson (2014) investigated civil citizens' willingness to actively participate in e-government development projects and concluded that it is generally high, especially in PD and UCD Design contexts; however their ability to do so is limited. This can be explained by various factors and inherent difficulties including (Holgersson and Karlsson, 2014;Kotamraju and van der Geest, 2013;Jaeger and Bertot, 2010;Jansen, 2006):…”

The Trade-off between Usability and Security in the Context of eGovernment: A Mapping Study

“…Among the studies analysed, three do not clearly specify which usability attributes are addressed. These studies (Kotamraju et al, 2012;Olalere and Lazar, 2011;Kokini et al, 2012) concentrate on content analysis without stating any usability attributes. From Table 4 it can be seen that usability attributes are considered by most of the studies selected, in regard to RQ1.…”

Co-design for Government Service Stakeholders

“…User views and ideas are incorporated into the software development process, resulting in greater system or service utilization [32]. UCD proved to be most useful in the design and development of consumer products [33]. In contrast, service design is composed of …"visual communication design, information design and interaction design, [integrated together].…”