usability and visibility evaluation of...
TRANSCRIPT
USABILITY AND VISIBILITY EVALUATION OF
ZHEJIANG AND JIANGSU GOVERNMENT WEBSITES
A study submitted in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Science in Information Systems
at
THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
by
TIANHEMEI WANG
Registration No: 090125683
Word count: 18,396
September 2010
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Abstract
Background. Recently, governments at all levels have been attempting to utilise the
Internet and the World-Wide-Web to deliver information and citizen-centred services
to the public. The main way for citizens to access information from e-government is
through government web sites. Therefore, how robust and sound a government web
site is reflects whether the delivery of government information or services is
effective.
Aims. The aims of this dissertation are threefold. First, generate criteria and marking
methods for web site usability evaluation in terms of navigability and online service
perspectives. Second, evaluate and compare the navigability and online services of
Jiangsu and Zhejiang government web sites based on the criteria generated. Third,
test and compare the two web sites‟ visibility to the seven major search engines used
in China.
Methods. Several previous studies are reviewed to provide theoretical frameworks,
the criteria are adapted, and a marking method is generated for this research. Based
on my individual observation of the Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites, and
the search engine visibility tests, research results are recorded and the corresponding
marks are given to relevant dimensions.
Results. The research shows that the Jiangsu government web site has higher
navigability than the Zhejiang government web site, while the Zhejiang government
web site developed further in online services than the Jiangsu government web site.
In terms of search engine visibility, both web sites enjoy high visibility when
searching in Chinese.
Conclusions. Both the Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites need to improve
their navigability to a different extent. For Zhejiang province, the development of the
e-government project is between stages two and three. For Jiangsu province, the
development of the e-government project has achieved stage one, and is in the
intermediate phase of stage two. Although the Jiangsu government web site sets up a
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good example for government web sites, compared with the Beijing government web
site, there is still a long way to go.
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Acknowledgements
With deepest appreciation, I want to thank the following for their support throughout
this dissertation.
First, I would like to thank Mr. Alastair Allan, for his patience, suggestions and
encouraging reviews. His help as mentor and supervisor has been priceless.
Besides, I would like to thank Professor Nigel Ford, for his priceless suggestions,
encouragement and warm wishes. His kindness gives me motivation to finish this
research.
Finally, I would like to thank my family, for their understanding and unconditional
support. Without their encouragement, I will never be able to finish this dissertation.
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Table of contents
1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1
2. Literature Review ..................................................................................................... 6
2.1 Background of e-government ............................................................................. 6
2.2 E-government development in China ................................................................ 8
2.2.1 Preparatory stage (1993 - 1999) .................................................................. 8
2.2.2 Basic construction stage (1999 - 2003) ....................................................... 8
2.2.3 Further exploration and application stage (since 2003) .............................. 9
2.3 Current situation of government web sites in China ........................................ 10
2.4 Web site usability and evaluation framework .................................................. 11
2.5 Search engine working principles and visibility .............................................. 13
2.6 Major search engines in China ......................................................................... 14
2.6.1 Baidu (http://www.baidu.com) ................................................................. 15
2.6.2 Soso (http://www.soso.com) ..................................................................... 15
2.6.3 Sogou (http://www.sogou.com) ................................................................ 15
2.6.4 Bing.com.cn (http://www.bing.com.cn) .................................................... 15
2.6.5 Google.com.hk (http://www.google.com.hk) ........................................... 15
2.6.6 Youdao.com (http://www.youdao.com) .................................................... 16
2.6.7 Yahoo.com.cn (http://www.yahoo.com.cn) .............................................. 16
3. Methodology .......................................................................................................... 17
3.1 Web site usability evaluation ........................................................................... 17
3.1.1 Navigation evaluation criteria ................................................................... 17
3.1.2 Online services evaluation criteria ............................................................ 18
3.2 Web site visibility to search engines ................................................................ 20
4. Research and Observation ...................................................................................... 21
4.1 Research on Zhejiang government web site..................................................... 21
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4.1.1 Navigability of Zhejiang government web site ......................................... 21
4.1.2 Online services of Zhejiang government web site .................................... 38
4.2 Research on Jiangsu government web site ....................................................... 46
4.2.1 Navigability of Jiangsu government web site ........................................... 46
4.2.2 Online services of Jiangsu government web site ...................................... 60
4.3 Research on search engine visibility ................................................................ 67
4.3.1 Research on the visibility of Zhejiang government web site .................... 67
4.3.2 Research on the visibility of Jiangsu government web site ...................... 68
5. Findings .................................................................................................................. 69
5.1 Navigability of Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites........................... 69
5.1.1 Top level navigation menus ...................................................................... 70
5.1.2 Subsidiary navigation menus .................................................................... 70
5.1.3 Feedback to users‟ operation ..................................................................... 71
5.1.4 List of contents on long pages ................................................................... 71
5.1.5 “Back to homepage” options ..................................................................... 72
5.1.6 Whether a new browser window will be opened ...................................... 72
5.2 Online services of Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites ...................... 73
5.2.1 Stage one – Web emerging ....................................................................... 74
5.2.2 Stage two – Interaction ............................................................................. 75
5.2.3 Stage three – Transaction .......................................................................... 76
5.2.4 Stage four – Integration ............................................................................. 77
5.3 Search engine visibility of Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites ......... 77
6. Conclusions & Implications ................................................................................... 80
6.1 Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 80
6.2 Limitations & Suggestions for further study .................................................... 82
Appendix A ................................................................................................................ 85
Appendix B ................................................................................................................ 86
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Appendix C ................................................................................................................ 87
Appendix D ................................................................................................................ 88
Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 89
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1. Introduction
Nowadays, the Internet is becoming more and more indispensable to support daily
human activities. The decreasing cost of hardware and the ease of getting access to
the Internet have encouraged the use of the web in most industries. In the same vein,
government has been attempting to create a comfortable, transparent working
atmosphere by utilising the Internet.
“There is no single widely agreed upon definition of „electronic government‟, which
is due, at least in part, to the dynamic nature of e-government in practice” (Halchin,
2004, p. 407). Nonetheless, in this dissertation the term of “e-government” will refer
to the definition given by United Nations and American Society for Public
Administration, that e-government is defined as “utilizing the Internet and the
World-Wide-Web for delivering government information and services to citizens”
(UN DPEPA & ASPA, 2002, p. 1).
Heeks (2006) analysed the nature of e-government and categorised e-government
into four major components: eSociety, eCitizens, eAdministration and eServices. “By
far the main use of e-services by citizens is to access information from government
Web sites...” (ibid., p. 7). Therefore, how soundly a government web site is designed
determines whether the delivery of government services is effective. In other words,
how well users can use a web site to achieve their goals and how satisfied they are
with the process is vital in measuring a government web site. In general, web
usability takes the „usefulness‟ of a web site into primary consideration. In the work
by Nielsen and Loranger (2006), they explained usability in an explicit yet simple
way that:
Usability is a quality attribute relating to how easy something is to use. More
specifically, it refers to how quickly people can learn to use something, how
efficient they are while using it, how memorable it is, how error-prone it is,
and how much users like using it. If people can‟t or won‟t use a feature, it
might as well not exist (ibid., p. xvi).
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Researchers have proposed different dimensions regarding web site usability. Baker
(2004) suggested in his paper that e-government web site usability evaluation could
be divided into six dimensions which include navigation and online services as two
separate dimensions. Considering the methodology adopted in this dissertation,
conceptual definitions given in his paper are stated as below:
Navigation features relate to aids specifically designed to allow the user to
steer through websites readily (ibid., p. 94).
Online services refer to providing something needed or desired from a
governmental entity to citizens, businesses, or other governmental entities by
contacting an e-government website online (ibid., p. 93).
Various resources have confirmed the statement that the main way Internet users
explore web sites is using search engines and directories (Thurow, 2003). Even if a
web site fulfils all demands of usability it may still be hardly ever discovered if the
search engine visibility is inadequate. That is, if the web pages in one web site could
not be fetched and then delivered to users by a search engine, this web site may not
be browsed. In the work by Thurow (2003), the principle of how search engines
work is explained, five basic web design rules such as easy to read, easy to navigate
are given. And more specifically, how to build better web pages so as to improve
search engine visibility are presented as well.
By the year 2000, most countries around the world had launched their e-government
programs (Jaeger, 2003; Davison, Wagner & Ma, 2005). In the year of 2001, the
General Office of the State Council of China formulated a five-year-plan regarding
the construction of a national information framework and e-government
administration (Ma, Chung & Thorson, 2004). According to the report from
Xinhuanet, by the end of 2007, approximately 86% of the Chinese governments at all
levels had official web sites. And it is predicted that by the end of 2010, the basic
construction of e-government in China should be completed.
Even though some achievements have been made in the last decade, the e-
government development in China is relatively slow compared with the top twenty
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countries in the United Nations E-Government Survey 2010 (United Nations, 2010).
In that survey, the ranking of member states in e-government development is
presented in the form of E-government Development Index (EGDI). EGDI measures
the values of three indexes (online service index, telecommunication index and
human capital index) separately, and the value of each index constitutes one third of
the EGDI. In terms of the ranking in 2010, the top five countries are the Republic of
Korea, the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom and Northern
Ireland and the Netherlands, with the EGDI of 0.8785, 0.8510, 0.8448, 0.8147 and
0.8097 respectively. In contrast, China ranks 72 in 2010, with the EGDI of 0.4700,
which fell slightly compared with the ranking of 65 in 2008 (ibid.).
The construction of government web sites in China started in 1999 (Xiang & Su,
2002). Fan (2009) summarised the progress made in government web site
construction in the last decade and presented the current problems. She referred to
four major problems that impede the healthy and fast development of government
web sites. Firstly, a misunderstanding of government web sites exists. Some
governmental officials oversimplified the complexity of web site construction. Major
attention has been given to financial investment, rather than the adjustment of
organisational structure or work flow. Secondly, the security issue is not seriously
considered. Numerous materials and basic equipment that are needed for web site
construction are imported, the core techniques and manufacturing are dominated by
developed countries. It is urgent for China to learn and master the core techniques.
Thirdly, the development of government web site construction is extremely uneven
among regions. In some towns and counties in southern China, government web sites
are well constructed. But in some major cities in western China, there is no
government web site. And finally, the maintenance of government web sites is
irregular. This is because of the low utilisation of equipment and insufficient
development in web resources.
This dissertation begins by reviewing the literature which is considered most
pertinent to the topic, and then the criteria for evaluating government web sites in
terms of navigation and online service perspectives will be generated. Thereafter,
Jiangsu provincial government web site (http://www.jiangsu.gov.cn) and Zhejiang
provincial government web site (http://www.zj.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/index.html) will be
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assessed and compared based on the criteria. Furthermore, these two web sites‟
visibility to various search engines considering different languages entries will also
be tested and reported. This dissertation ends with a discussion that emerged from
this research, its limitations and recommended further research.
The selection of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provincial web sites is based on the following
similarities existing between Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Firstly, the areas of
Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are very similar, with approximately 102,760 and
101,800 square kilometres respectively. Secondly, these two provinces are both
located in the southeast part of China which has been developing at a dramatic speed
since the Open and Reform Policy was carried out in the 1980s. In addition, these
two provinces share a geographic border, and there may be some similar features
regarding the provincial governments‟ web site design. And finally, it is shown in the
work of Liu and Tang (2009) that the efficiency values of Jiangsu and Zhejiang e-
government services rank the highest among twenty selected regions in China.
The aims of this dissertation are threefold:
To generate criteria and marking methods on web site usability evaluation in
terms of navigation and online services perspectives.
To evaluate and compare the navigability and online services depth and width of
Jiangsu and Zhejiang government web sites based on the criteria generated, and
to draw a conclusion on which stages are the development of Jiangsu and
Zhejiang government web sites in.
To test and compare two web sites‟ visibility to some major search engines used
extensively in China, for instance Baidu (http://www.baidu.com) and Sogou
(http://www.sogou.com) by using both Chinese and English as keyword entry
languages.
It is noteworthy that, in terms of usability evaluation, this dissertation will only focus
on navigation and online service perspectives. Other areas regarding e-government
will be discussed and reviewed briefly in order to provide an overview of the
importance of government web site design. Hopefully, this dissertation will provide
some valuable information to web site designers who are dedicating themselves to
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the optimisation of Chinese government web sites in terms of web site usability and
search engine visibility.
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2. Literature Review
Given the aims of this dissertation and the research questions stated in the
introduction chapter, this chapter reviews the current literature in this topic area and
identifies the most relevant sources. In general, the literature review will be
organised in six main perspectives: background about e-government, e-government
development in China, current situation of government web sites in China, web site
usability and evaluation framework, search engine working principles and several
major search engines in China.
2.1 Background of e-government
With the development of the web, governments have been investing considerable
effort into the transition process from the traditional government to the electronic
government that provides services in a more efficient and powerful way. Heeks
(2006) analysed the nature of e-government and categorised e-government into four
major components: eSociety, eCitizens, eServices and eAdministration. The
eCitizens component refers to the interaction between government and internet
connected citizens (G2C); the eServices component focuses on the improved service
delivery to both businesses and citizens (G2B & G2C); the eSociety component
implies external interactions between e-government and communities or other
agencies (G2N); while eAdministration interacts with all the other three components
mentioned above, and the connections among governments (G2G) are included as
well. This study is important and pertinent to my dissertation topic because it
provides an e-government framework.
A fully functional e-government developing model is suggested in the work of Layne
and Lee (2001). Four stages of the e-government development are mentioned in their
study: cataloguing, transaction, vertical integration and horizontal integration. In the
stage of cataloguing, a government web site is created mainly as the response to
social pressure coming from the media or demanding citizens. The e-government at
this stage is in its initial phase with limited functions, for example only basic
information about the government is posted on the web pages. The second stage is
transaction, and in this stage e-government begins to focus on the way that citizens
interact with the government. The purpose of this stage is to create a more
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convenient and efficient way for citizens to access the government services, which
enables the citizens to interact with the government in an active way. The third stage
upgrades online services and integrates all services provided by the government,
which enables users to obtain services regardless of different local portals. The last
stage is horizontal integration, and the goal of this stage is to create one-stop
government services by integrating all government services. The significance of this
study is that it provides four-stage e-government development which is widely
recognised, and some of the detailed examples of each stage will be used as criteria
for evaluating the development stage of Jiangsu and Zhejiang government web sites.
It is widely acknowledged that the United States has been the pioneer and leader in
the e-government field (Akman, Yazici, Mishra & Arifoglu, 2005). By the year 2000,
most countries around the world had launched their e-government programs (Jaeger,
2003; Davison et al., 2005). The United Nations has been paying attention to the
global e-government development, and has published five reports regarding this area
since 2003. Although some outstanding studies in terms of global e-government
development have been made in the last decade (Akman et al., 2005; Jaeger &
Thompson, 2003; Lee, Tan & Trimi, 2005; Moon, 2002; West, 2007), the situation
mentioned in these studies may not be adequate to use when referring to the current
global e-government situation and trends for the reason that these studies are not up-
to-date compared with the UN reports. Also, the UN report 2010 has a broader and
deeper insight into the global e-government development than the studies mentioned
above. In the UN e-government survey 2010, it is concluded that “high-income
countries enjoy the top ranking in the e-government development index in 2010…”
According to the figures presented in the survey, the Republic of Korea, the United
States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands rank as the top five, with
the EGDIs more than 0.8000 in general. Most countries have made remarkable
progress with their e-government development program, however “… the world
average of the e-government development index registered a slight decline compared
to previous years” (United Nations, 2010, p. 4).
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2.2 E-government development in China
Strictly speaking, the e-government construction in China started in the year of 1999,
under the surveillance of the Advisory Committee for the State Information
Framework Construction (ASCI). The Chinese government invests considerable
effort to accelerate the development of e-government in China. Generally, the
process of e-government development could be divided into three main stages:
preparatory stage, basic construction stage, and further exploration and application
stage (Wang, 2009).
2.2.1 Preparatory stage (1993 - 1999)
In March 1993, the State Council launched the “Three Gold Project”, which consists
of “Gold Customs”, “Gold Bridge” and the “Gold Card” sub-projects. The “Three
Gold Project” can be seen as the predecessor of the Chinese e-government project. In
April 1997, the State Council held a conference regarding the Nine Five-Year E-
government Construction Plan and outlook in 2010. The guidance plan for e-
government development was discussed and finalised in this conference as well. One
year later, the first Chinese government web site, Qingdao government affairs online
(http://www.qingdao.gov.cn) was launched, symbolising the e-government in China
had entered the new era.
In the first stage, the definition of e-government was not formally proposed, and
…the application of e-government in China was intended, in part, to
accelerate the government‟s pace of implementing and using information and
communications technologies (ICTs) to improve administrative efficiency
and effectiveness and, through this administrative reform, to promote
economic development and the administrative capacity of the central
government in China. (Ma et al., 2004, p. 24)
2.2.2 Basic construction stage (1999 - 2003)
Some remarkable achievements were accomplished in this stage. In the year of 1999,
the ACSI was established, taking charge of the e-government development in China.
In the same year, as the starting point of e-government development, the Government
Online Project (GOP) was launched with the active cooperation and assistance of
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more than eighty departments, including the National Congress of Communist Party
of China (NCCPC) and National Committee of the Chinese People‟s Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC). In August 2001, the State Council reorganised
the ACSI working group and made ACSI a general office under the direct leadership
of the State Council. Zhu Rongji, the then Premier of the State Council, was assigned
as the leader of ACSI. In July 2002, the State Council released document No.17
offering the guidelines of e-government development, detailed tasks to be carried out
during e-government construction were presented as well.
In this stage, e-government construction started focusing on how to provide online
services to the public and promote the efficient working of government.
2.2.3 Further exploration and application stage (since 2003)
In August 2004, the first law regarding information framework construction – the
Electronic Signature Law of the People‟s Republic of China was enacted in the 11th
meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People‟s Congress. In November
2005, the 5th
session of the National Information Framework Construction
Conference was convened in Beijing. The strategy for national information
framework construction was discussed and passed. In October 2007, the 17th
National Congress of CPC was convened in Beijing. President Hu Jintao delivered
his speech on the significance of e-government development to the construction of
citizen-centred government. In May 2008, the Rule of Government Information
Publicity came into force.
In this stage, the infrastructure of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT) has been improving rapidly, and the focus was moved to e-government
application. In addition, soft environment for e-government development has been
developing, and the relevant laws and rules were enacted.
By the end of 2006, more than 90% of the ministries and commissions, provinces,
prefectures and cities have established their government web sites, and more than 80%
of the county governments have web sites.
In 2007, with the launch of the Tibet Autonomous Region government web site, all
twenty three provinces in China have their own government web sites (Sun, 2010).
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Even though some achievements have been made during the last decade, the
construction of e-government in China still has a long way to go.
2.3 Current situation of government web sites in China
The construction of government web sites in China started in 1999 (Xiang & Su,
2002). By the end of 2009, according to the statistics provided by China Internet
Network Information Centre (CNNIC), 49,730 government web sites were
established in mainland China (China Internet Network Information Centre, 2009).
Even though remarkable progress has been made, some major problems exist in the
government web site construction. Firstly, a misunderstanding of government web
sites exists. Some governmental officials oversimplified the complexity of web site
construction. Major attention has been given to financial investment, not the
adjustment of organisational structure or work flow. Secondly, the security issue is
not seriously considered. Some astonishing statistical figures are provided in one
report published in Youth Journalist (2010) that in the second week of January 2010,
178 government web sites in mainland China were falsified, a surge of 409%
compared with the figure in first week. Thirdly, “… the economic development
standard differs for different provinces and their extent of attention given to the
construction of governmental websites also differs…” (Liu & Tang, 2009, p. 5),
therefore the development of government web site construction is extremely uneven
among regions. In some towns and counties in southern China, government web sites
are well constructed. But in some major cities in western China, there is no
government web site. And finally, the maintenance of government web sites is
irregular (Fan, 2009). These studies explicitly explained the problems existing in
Chinese government web sites, and reflected the importance of government web site
construction through the negative examples.
According to the statistics provided by Alexa.com (http://www.alexa.com),
mofcom.gov.cn (http://www.mofcom.gov.cn), the gateway for China commerce, is
the most visited Chinese government web site. In the period from May to July 2010,
0.04270% of global internet users have visited the web site. For direct.gov.uk
(http://www.direct.gov.uk) which enjoys the highest traffic of all UK government
web sites, 0.07760% of global internet users have visited this site. However,
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considering the population disparity between China and UK, it can be considered that
services provided by Chinese government web sites are not prevalent or mature
compared with government web sites in the UK, and much still remains to be done.
2.4 Web site usability and evaluation framework
Heeks (2006) mentioned in his study that the main way for citizens to get e-services
is to access a government web site. Therefore, how soundly a government web site is
constructed, to a large extent, could reflect how well the e-government project
developed. In this dissertation, the usability concept proposed by Nielsen and
Loranger (2006) was adopted. Generally, this concept takes effectiveness, efficiency
and user satisfaction into consideration.
In terms of web site usability evaluation, many researchers proposed a framework or
criteria on how to evaluate web site usability. In the handbook of usability testing,
Rubin (1994) explicitly introduced the whole process of usability testing of any
systems, and discussed the strategies and tactics for expanding usability. In short, the
usability test contains six stages: develop the test plan, select participants, prepare
test materials, conduct test, debrief the participants and develop recommendations.
The procedure suggested is extremely practical, especially for those researchers who
have limited resources or facilities to conduct a usability test. However, the
participant is an indispensable component of this test; that is, the procedure could not
be adopted if participants are not involved in the test. Given the time limit for this
dissertation and the lack of participants‟ involvement, this procedure is not adopted.
Nonetheless, this book provides valuable information on usability evaluation.
Baker (2004) took a quantitative approach to evaluate the usability of thirty most
populous counties‟ government web sites. Thirty seven common variables and
relevant six dimensions influencing web site usability are identified. The six
dimensions are online services, user-help, navigation, information architecture,
legitimacy and accessibility accommodation. Each of the six dimensions weight 16.7%
of the total score. This study is highly important to this dissertation because it not
only provided detailed criteria for web site usability evaluation, but also a
quantitative approach for marking web site usability. Besides this, conceptual
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definitions about navigation and online services are explained explicitly in his paper,
and are adopted in this dissertation.
Smith (2001) proposed a similar web site usability evaluation framework. Sixty six
detailed criteria were grouped into two subcategories: information content criteria
and ease-of-use criteria. Specifically, three criteria regarding online services are
listed in the first group, and seven criteria in terms of navigability are suggested in
group two. This research is valuable in designing the methodology applied in this
dissertation.
Henriksson, Yi, Frost & Middleton (2007) suggested an evaluation instrument for e-
government web sites. By utilising this instrument, government web sites could be
assessed in the following six aspects: security/privacy, usability, content, services,
citizen participation and features. Although the six perspectives were introduced
briefly and no detailed information on criteria was given, this paper discussed the
potential problems and limitations of its method which gave me an insight into
adapting criteria for web site usability more critically.
In the research of Garcia, Maciel & Pinto (2005), a quality inspection method was
introduced to evaluate e-government sites. Ten usability heuristics from Nielsen and
Loranger (2006) were adopted in this study. Besides this, six heuristics are extended
to co-evaluate government web sites. Marking of web sites depends on how relevant
the web site is to these sixteen statements. Although criteria for navigation and
online services are not presented as two separate dimensions, this research presented
comprehensive evaluating framework for government web sites which inspired me to
consider the limitations in my research and possible improvements for further study.
Usability.gov presented guidelines for web design and usability evaluation, which I
think are well structured and every guideline is exemplified with screen shots which
enable better understanding. Specifically, guidelines for designing web sites with
high navigability were listed in one separate chapter, some of which were adopted as
the criteria for navigation evaluation in this dissertation.
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In the paper by Panopoulou, Tambouris & Tarabanis (2008), several previous
evaluation criteria were summarised. What makes this paper crucial is that it listed
evaluation criteria used in five previous research papers written by Garcia et al.
(2005), Smith (2001), Henriksson et al. (2007) and West (2007), which facilitated
me to find relevant literature regarding navigation and online services perspectives.
Other than this, this research presented a practical methodology for evaluating
government web sites more comprehensively, which could be adopted for further
study.
2.5 Search engine working principles and visibility
In the work by Thurow (2003), the working principle of search engines is reviewed,
giving us a theoretical framework which helps to understand how to promote
visibility to search engines. Search engines consist of three distinct parts: spiders,
indexer and query processor.
Spiders crawl the whole internet to read new or updated web pages, usually from the
main page of one web site, and then follow the new links found in the current page
and repeat this progress until no more new pages are found. When a spider fetches a
web page, all links appearing on that page are moved into a queue for the following
fetch. As the spider reads another page in the queue, links found on that page are also
added to the queue.
After the spider has read a webpage, the page will then be kept in the indexer which
stores the full text of that page. The indexer contains two components: the words list
and the corresponding list of locations where each word appears. Some words like
“as”, “or”, and “if”, which provide little or no benefit in narrowing a search, are
culled out. By indexing the full text of web pages, search engines could not only
search a single word, but also chunks of words, which narrows the scope of
searching and consequently decreases the time cost.
Processor can be divided into two separate parts: processing and output (also the
interface). The responsibility of processing is to retrieve documents from the indexer,
evaluate the relevance between user‟s request and result, sort all possible outcomes,
and give accurate information. The function of output includes accepting the user‟s
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input, presenting the searching result, and providing personal searching options.
Different search engines may have distinct outcomes and interfaces, depending on
the algorithms being applied. If the algorithms are different, the results are usually
different. And that is why one web page could be the first result given by one search
engine, but the twentieth result by another search engine.
Although various sources have confirmed the statement that the main way internet
users get information on the web is using search engines and directories (Thurow,
2003), it cannot be assured that search engines could always find what you want.
First, spiders cannot gain all the information, and even if they could, comparatively
old pages in the indexer will have to be discarded before being read if new pages are
added. Second, search engines could not discriminate the information that spiders
acquired. In other words, search engines could not distinguish whether the
information is accurate, authorised, or current.
Technically, search engine visibility is also one part of web site usability. Even if a
web site fulfils all the other demands regarding usability, it may still be rarely
discovered if the search engine visibility is inadequate. For web site designers,
efforts in the following three aspects can be made to optimise search engine visibility:
writing and coding (in HTML), programming, and scripting the web site. Besides
this, to get the best search engine visibility, text component, link component and
popularity component must be presented on web pages (ibid.). In terms of how to
present these three components on web pages, I have suppressed any further
explanation given the consideration that search engine optimisation strategies and
how to promote search engine visibility are not the main purposes of this dissertation;
however, search engine optimisation strategies will be helpful for extended research.
2.6 Major search engines in China
In this section, seven search engines will be briefly introduced. Information about
each search engine will include: the date on which the web site was registered, the
percentage of global internet users who have visited this site in the last three months
(from May 2010 to July 2010), and the traffic ranking in China. In order to conduct
an unbiased research and acquire timely updated statistics, Alexa.com
(http://www.alexa.com) was utilised.
15
2.6.1 Baidu (http://www.baidu.com)
Baidu.com, the leading Chinese search engine and is the most used in China, enables
a simple yet reliable information search. This site was first registered on 11th
October
1999. In the last three months, approximately 9.79% of global internet users have
visited this site, and it is estimated that roughly 95% of these visitors are in China.
Baidu.com enjoys the top traffic ranking among all web sites in China.
2.6.2 Soso (http://www.soso.com)
Soso.com is based in China, and it was first registered on 9th
February 1998. In the
last three months, approximately 2.21% of global internet users have visited this site,
and it attained the traffic rank of 7 in China.
2.6.3 Sogou (http://www.sogou.com)
Sogou.com was first registered on 19th
December 2001, and it is the first search
engine that has fetched more than ten billion web pages in the world. Sogou.com was
ranked 11 in China, and approximately 1.39% of global internet users have visited
this site in the last three months. It is estimated that among the visitors, 95% are from
China.
2.6.4 Bing.com.cn (http://www.bing.com.cn)
Bing.com.cn is different from the search engines mentioned above, it is based in the
US. It was first registered on 29th
January 1996. According to the statistics provided
by Alexa, in the last three months, 3.72% of global internet users have visited this
site, and the traffic ranking in China is 79.
2.6.5 Google.com.hk (http://www.google.com.hk)
Google.com.hk has become the official Google web site in China since April 2010. It
was first registered on 14th
July 2001. In March 2010, Google announced it would
quit the China market, and users visiting Google.cn will now be redirected to
Google.com.hk. In the last three months, 4.01% of global internet users have visited
this site, and it is estimated that 94% of these visitors are in China. Google.com.hk
enjoyed the traffic ranking of 5 in the last three months.
16
2.6.6 Youdao.com (http://www.youdao.com)
Youdao.com is a brand new Chinese search engine developed by Netease which is
the internet company operating 163.com in China. It is not known when this site was
first registered online. In the last three months, 0.49% of global internet users have
visited this site, and almost all visitors are from China. It has attained the traffic rank
of 38 in the last three months in China.
2.6.7 Yahoo.com.cn (http://www.yahoo.com.cn)
Yahoo.com.cn has been online since 4th
June 1998. The percentage of global internet
users who have visited this site in the last three months was 0.09%, and the traffic
ranking in China was 245.
All the search engines introduced above provide services on seeking for news, web
pages, images and music. However, advanced search is only supported by Baidu.com,
Sogou.com and Google.com.hk.
17
3. Methodology
Generally, this dissertation takes a deductive and quantitative approach to achieve its
research goals. As mentioned in the introduction chapter, this research mainly aims
to evaluate two dimensions regarding government web site usability, namely
navigation and online services dimensions, and web site visibility to search engines.
Therefore, the detailed methodology in terms of each component is described
respectively as follows:
3.1 Web site usability evaluation
In this section, data are collected through online visits to Jiangsu and Zhejiang
government web sites. A series of designed scales are employed to quantitatively
measure navigation and online services dimensions. Observation and analysis are
made through descriptive and comparative statistics to achieve the first two aims of
this dissertation.
3.1.1 Navigation evaluation criteria
As reviewed in the literature review chapter, a great many studies provided valuable
information on the criteria of quantitatively evaluating government web sites.
Basically, the criteria applied in this part of the research are derived and adapted
from several previous studies (Garcia et al., 2005; Hassan & Li, 2001; Henriksson et
al., 2007; Panopoulou et al., 2008; Smith, 2001) and Research-based Web Design &
Usability Guidelines provided by Usability.gov (http://www.usability.gov). The
detailed criteria and marking scale are listed and explained as below:
1. Top level navigation elements are differentiated and grouped according to
different topic areas. Besides, these elements should be placed across the top
area of all web pages. By the use of descriptive tabs or labels, the contents of
this web site are well organised which facilitates users to locate the contents they
want.
2. Subsidiary navigation menus are grouped and shown on the left panel of a web
page once the user clicks a tab or label in the top level navigation menu. It is a
18
web site design convention to place the subsidiary navigation menus in the left
part of a web page.
3. Feedback is provided so that users know where they are and where they have
been. Web sites should use breadcrumbs navigation to provide hierarchical
information telling users where they are. And the colour of links should be
different if the links have been clicked previously.
4. A list of contents is given at the beginning of the page, if the page is too long.
The list with clickable links shows how the contents of that page are organised
and helps users to find the right contents quickly.
5. “Back to homepage” options are properly set and available on all web pages.
This could be completed by users clicking the logo of one web site and they will
be directed to the homepage, or an obvious “Back to homepage” link is located
on all web pages.
6. Users will not be directed to new browser windows. Users may feel frustrated
when they are directed to a new browser window because usually the “Back”
button is disabled and they cannot return to the previous page by using the
“Back” button.
The full mark for this subcategory is 60, and the mark of each variable in the criteria
constitutes 10 marks of the total mark. Jiangsu and Zhejiang web sites will be
assessed in the above six variables, and the total score of this subcategory will be
generated by summing up the six independent marks. In terms of marking each
variable, a ten-point scale is applied: the web site scores 10 if it fully meets the
criterion and 0 if it meets none of the criterion. A marking sheet which facilitates
better understanding for navigation dimension is given in appendix A.
3.1.2 Online services evaluation criteria
In the work by Layne and Lee (2001), four stages regarding e-government
development have been proposed and exemplified. It is suggested by Mofleh and
Wanous (2009) that the variety of online services, as well as the highest level of
online service one government web site provides, could be examined to estimate the
development of this particular e-government project. Therefore, the online service
criteria are composed of seven typical services which are derived and adapted from
previous studies (Smith, 2001; OECD & Dubai School of Government, 2006; United
19
Nations, 2010), representing four e-government development stages. The detailed
criteria include:
Criteria for stage one – web emerging:
1. If the web site provides a brief description of the government and its
subsidiary departments.
2. If the web site provides links to ministries, departments and other
governments providing services.
Criteria for stage two – interaction:
3. If the web site provides basic contact information, for instance, phone number,
postal address and email.
4. If the web site provides comprehensive downloadable forms for services or
applications, and these forms are categorised by subjects or function and can
be mailed back to the government.
Criteria for stage three – transaction:
5. If users can fill forms and then submit online, for instance to complete an
application.
6. If users can pay bills online and receive receipts electronically.
Criterion for stage four – integration:
7. If the information about one citizen stored in different databases can be
integrated and shared to create a one-stop service experience for citizens. A
scenario was designed to test this aspect. A, who was a citizen in city CA,
wants to apply for a driver‟s licence after s/he moved to city CB. If the
information about A, which is stored in the local databases of city CA, could
be propagated to the relevant service agencies in city CB so that A does not
have to fill out personal forms for each service agencies, it could be inferred
that databases in city CA and CB are integrated.
The full mark of this subcategory is 70, and the mark of each variable in the criteria
constitutes 10 marks of the total mark. Jiangsu and Zhejiang web sites will be
assessed in the above seven variables, and the total score of this subcategory will be
generated by summing up six independent marks. In terms of marking each variable,
a ten-point scale is applied: the web site scores 10 if it fully meets the criterion and 0
20
if it meets none of the criterion. A marking sheet which facilitates better
understanding for online service evaluation dimension is given in appendix B.
3.2 Web site visibility to search engines
Mofleh and Wanous (2009) summarised a practical and simple way to measure the
web site visibility to search engines, and their method is adopted in this dissertation.
Furthermore, in order to conduct a non-biased and comprehensive visibility test,
seven search engines which support searches in both Chinese and English are utilised
to test search engine visibility: Baidu (http://www.baidu.com), Soso
(http://www.soso.com), Sogou (http://www.sogou.com), Bing
(http://www.bing.com.cn), Google Hongkong (http://www.google.com.hk), Youdao
(http://www.youdao.com), and Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.cn).
Basically in this research, keywords directly relating to Jiangsu and Zhejiang
governments, for instance “Jiangsu government” or “Zhejiang government”, will be
entered first and then the results given by various search engines will be recorded.
For one specific search engine and one certain language, the web site scores 10 if the
web site appears the first of all results given by that search engine; 9 if the web site
appears the second and so on so forth. If the web site does not appear in the first ten
results, it scores 0.
For one web site, the full mark on search engine visibility will be 140 (7*2*10), and
the final mark will be generated by summing up the fourteen independent marks
(seven search engines multiplied by two languages).
21
4. Research and Observation
4.1 Research on Zhejiang government web site
As mentioned in the methodology chapter, the navigability evaluation follows the
procedure of observing, analysing and quantitative evaluating. Therefore, the current
situation of Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites concerning each criterion
will be observed and analysed in this chapter, and the corresponding marks will be
given in the marking sheet in the findings chapter.
4.1.1 Navigability of Zhejiang government web site
4.1.1.1 Observation of the top level navigation menu consistency
In the homepage of the Zhejiang provincial web site, the top level navigation menu is
located on the top area of that page, as shown in screenshot 4.1. A brief description
about each navigation label is presented in table 4.1.
Screenshot 4.1
Homepage
22
Table 4.1
Navigation labels Function description
Homepage
(首页) This provides the link to the homepage.
General of Zhejiang
(了解浙江)
This provides basic information about Zhejiang province to
the public.
Government affairs
(政务公开) This introduces relevant regulations and laws.
Interaction
(互动交流)
This enables citizens to communicate with the government
online.
Online service hall
(办事大厅)
This serves as a platform on which citizens can make
transactions with the government.
Personal settings
(个性定制)
This allows users to register as a member of the government
forum, and to set preferences when browsing the web site.
Online enquiry centre
(浙江政务通)
This provides FAQs when users contacting the government
and online staff from each department who helps citizens
with detailed inquiries.
Web sites monitoring
(网站群监测)
This provides statistical figures of all departmental web
sites in Zhejiang province.
News in videos
(浙江政视) This broadcasts video news about Zhejiang province.
In general, the navigation labels are differentiated and grouped according to different
topic areas. They are also descriptive of their functions and no obscure abbreviation
is used to confuse users. Once a user clicks a label, contents regarding that topic will
appear on the web page.
In order to make sure that the top level navigation menu is placed consistently across
the Zhejiang government web site, 33 web pages from all categories were randomly
chosen and tested. The research results are given in table 4.2.
23
Table 4.2
Categories
Number of web pages …
tested in this category on which the top level navigation
menu is consistently placed
General of Zhejiang 5 5
Government affairs 5 5
Interaction 5 2
Online service hall 5 0
Personal settings 5 5
* Online enquiry centre 2 2
** Web sites monitoring 1 1
News in videos 5 0
Total 33 20
(* There are few web pages in the “Online enquiry centre” category, thus only two web pages were
checked. ** In terms of the “Web sites monitoring” category, only one link leads users to the web
page in the Zhejiang government web site, other links lead users to the homepages of other
government web sites. Therefore only one web page was checked.)
Among the 33 tested web pages, 20 web pages placed the top level navigation menu
on the top area. In terms of other web pages which failed to place the top level
navigation menu, there are two situations. 3 web pages in the “Interaction” category
failed to place the top level navigation menu; and the 10 web pages in the “Online
service hall” and “News in videos” categories placed their sub-navigation menus in
the top area of web pages, as shown in screenshot 4.2 and 4.3.
Screenshot 4.2
Homepage → News in videos
Screenshot 4.3
Homepage → Online service hall
24
4.1.1.2 Observation of subsidiary navigation menus
It is a web site design convention that the corresponding secondary and tertiary
navigation menus should be organised and presented on the left panel of a web page
if users click on a label from the top level navigation menu. In this part of the
research, the structure of contents in the Zhejiang government web site was observed
first, and then the current situation of subsidiary menus was recorded.
Observation of contents’ structure
The contents of each category were observed and presented in table 4.3.
Table 4.3
Categories Level 1 contents Level 2 contents
General of Zhejiang
Nature geography
Geography overview
Climate
Natural resources
History
The origin of history
Cultural heritage
Historic cities
Historic streets & villages
Heritage units
Population
Administrative division
Population
Religions
Culture & Art
General introduction
Operas
Folk arts
Films
Literature
Dances
Music
Fine arts
Major attractions
Scenic spots
Natural resources
Tourist resorts
Forest parks
Heritage units
Historic streets & villages
Geoparks
25
General of Jiangsu
Historical figures
Political & Military celebrities
Great thinkers
Writers
Scientists
Entrepreneurs
Famous-brand products Featured products
Famous brands
Economic development
General strength
District economy
Special markets
Private economy
Notable enterprises
Health & Well being
Income & Consumption
Eco environment
Sci-tech & Education
Health care
Sports culture
Publishing industry
International
communication
International trade
Cultural communication
International sister cities
Videos about Zhejiang
Keep pace with the times
Developing Zhejiang
New Zhejiang
Major cities
Hangzhou
Ningbo
Wenzhou
Huzhou
Jiaxing
Shaoxing
Jinhua
Zhoushan
Taizhou
Quzhou
Lishui
Events & Exhibitions (Detailed contents)
Future plan (Detailed contents)
“The most” & “The first” (Detailed contents)
E-map of Zhejiang (Detailed contents)
26
(* The “News in videos” category is categorised as a sub-category of “Government affairs” as well,
which is considered as a fault.)
Government affairs
Governors Provincial governors
Mayors
Government structure
General office
Provincial departments
Special institutions under
direct leadership of Zhejiang
government
Institutions under direct
leadership of Zhejiang
government
Administrative organisations
Regulations & Documents
Local laws & regulations
Government regulations
Government publications
Department documents
Government gazette
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Public announcements (Detailed contents)
Government news
Department news
Government construction
Macro-economy
Policies
Local news
Appointment & Removal
Special topics (Detailed contents)
* (News in videos) (Detailed contents)
Interaction
Email to governors (Detailed contents)
Online enquiry (Detailed contents)
Supervision &
Complaints (Detailed contents)
Online survey (Detailed contents)
Government forum (Detailed contents)
27
Based on the observation of the structure of contents in the Zhejiang government
web site, it is suggested that except for “Online enquiry centre”, all the other seven
categories should at least have secondary navigation menus which should be
consistent with the contents in the column “Level 1 contents”.
Online service hall
Guide
For individuals
For legal persons
For government departments
Download forms
For individuals
For legal persons
For government departments
Online application
For individuals
For legal persons
For government departments
Online enquiry (Detailed contents)
Online complaints (Detailed contents)
Help
Site introduction
Online registration
Guide
Online enquiry
How to apply
My application
Complaints
Personal settings
Personal information (Detailed contents)
Login settings (Detailed contents)
Interaction (Detailed contents)
Customisation (Detailed contents)
Subscription (Detailed contents)
Online enquiry centre (Detailed contents)
Web sites monitoring
Measurement indicators (Detailed contents)
Daily ranking of
government web site (Detailed contents)
Mostly-watched
provincial government
news
(Detailed contents)
Mostly-watched city-level
government news (Detailed contents)
Most popular online
application (Detailed contents)
News in Videos
Online interview (Detailed contents)
News release (Detailed contents)
Events (Detailed contents)
News broadcast (Detailed contents)
Documentaries (Detailed contents)
28
Observation of the current situation of subsidiary menus
The current situation of subsidiary menus of the Zhejiang government web site was
observed and is summarised in table 4.4.
Table 4.4
Categories
Secondary menus are … Tertiary menus are …
organised placed on the left
panel of web page organised
placed on the left
panel of web page
General of
Zhejiang Y N Y N
Government
affairs Y N Partly Partly
Interaction Y N Not necessary
Online
service hall Y N N N
Personal
settings N N Not necessary
Online
enquiry centre Not necessary
Web sites
monitoring N N Not necessary
News in
videos Y N N N
For secondary navigation menus
Except for the “Online enquiry centre” category, for which the secondary menu is
not considered necessary, five categories have their secondary navigation menus
organised. However, the locations of secondary menus are chaotic.
For the “General of Zhejiang”, “Government affairs” and “Interaction” categories,
the secondary menus will not appear on their sub-homepages. However, if users
move the mouse over the three labels in the top level navigation menu on the
homepage of the Zhejiang government web site, the floating secondary menus will
appear. Screenshot 4.4 shows the floating menu of “General of Zhejiang”.
29
Screenshot 4.4
The floating menu of “General of Zhejiang”
Moreover, if users click either elements in the floating menus of “General of
Zhejiang”, “Government affairs” and “Interaction”, users will be directed to the web
pages on which their secondary menus appear under the top level navigation menu.
Screenshot 4.5 shows the secondary menu of “General of Zhejiang”.
Screenshot 4.5
Homepage → Historical figures (in the floating menu of “General of Zhejiang”)
For “Online service hall” and “News in videos” categories, their secondary menus
appear on the top area of the web pages where the top level navigation menu is
supposed to be. Screenshot 4.2 and 4.3 show the secondary menus of these two
categories.
30
For tertiary navigation menus
As far as I observed, except for the categories of “Interaction”, “Personal settings”
and “Web sites monitoring”, for which the tertiary navigation menus are considered
not necessary, only two sub-categories in the “Government affairs” category have
sub-menus, they are “Governors” and “Public announcement”. Both sub-menus are
organised and placed on the left panel of the web pages. Screenshot 4.6 shows the
example of the “Governors” sub-menu.
Screenshot 4.6
Homepage → Governors (in the floating menu of “Government affairs”)
4.1.1.3 Observation of feedback to users’ operations
Feedback should be provided when users click a link, so that users know where they
are and where they have been. In this part of the research, 30 randomly selected links
in all categories were tested to observe the usage of breadcrumbs navigation and the
change of link colour.
31
Observation of breadcrumbs
The research results are demonstrated in table 4.5.
Table 4.5
Category Number of web
pages tested
Number of web pages providing
proper breadcrumbs
General of Zhejiang 5 3
Government affairs 4 4
Interaction 4 0
Online service hall 5 5
Personal settings 4 4
Online enquiry centre 2 2
Web sites monitoring 1 1
News in videos 5 3
Total 30 22
In total, 15 links out of 23 provide feedback to users in the form of proper
breadcrumbs. “Proper breadcrumbs” refers to detailed and correct breadcrumbs. For
2 links in the “General of Zhejiang” category, the breadcrumbs provided were not
detailed to the last level. The following example exemplifies this statement.
According to the “Geoparks” sub-category, there are three geoparks in Zhejiang
province: Linhai, Yandangshan and Changshan National Geoparks. However, when
the link of “Linhai National Geopark” was clicked, the breadcrumbs ended with
“Geoparks”, rather than “Linhai National Geopark”, as shown in screenshot 4.7.
Screenshot 4.7
Homepage → General of Zhejiang → Major attractions → Geoparks → Linhai
National Geopark
32
Besides, the pathnames were slightly inconsistent with the category headings. In the
“General of Zhejiang” category, the pathnames should start with “了解浙江 (General
of Zhejiang)”, but they all started with “浙江概况”. Although the meanings of these
two phrases are similar in Chinese, it would be better if all elements in pathnames
could reflect the headings of each category.
For the “Government affairs” category, all 4 links provided correct and detailed
breadcrumbs. However, similar to the “General of Zhejiang” category, all pathnames
started with “浙江政务”, rather than “政务公开 (Government affairs)” which
appeared in the top level navigation menu.
For the “Interaction” category, all 4 selected links failed to provide breadcrumbs. In
order to ensure that this situation is not a coincidence, 5 more web pages from five
sub-categories of “Interaction” were checked. All these 5 web pages failed to provide
breadcrumbs, and 3 of them even failed to place the top level navigation menu on the
top area of web pages.
For the “News in videos” category, 3 out of 5 links provided correct and detailed
breadcrumbs. But these breadcrumbs were in different fonts and sizes compared with
the ones which appeared in the “General of Zhejiang” and “Government affairs”
categories.
Observation of the change of link colour
It is suggested that the colour of a link should change into another one after it is
clicked, so that users know this destination has been visited. The research results are
shown in table 4.6, and all the tested links remained the same after they were clicked.
33
Table 4.6
Category Number of
links tested
Number of links which changed
colour after being clicked
General of Zhejiang 5 0
Government affairs 4 0
Interaction 4 0
Online service hall 5 0
Personal settings 4 0
Online enquiry centre 2 0
Web sites monitoring 1 0
News in videos 5 0
Total 30 0
4.1.1.4 Observation of the clickable “list of contents” on long pages
It is advised that for a long page with several sections that are not visible from the
first full screen, a list of contents which provides the outline of that page enables
users to locate the specific sections quickly. In order to make sure the lists of
contents are provided on the long pages in the Zhejiang government web site, 10
randomly selected web pages with distinct sections of contents were checked. The 10
links to these web pages can be found in appendix C. The result of the research is
briefly illustrated in table 4.7.
Table 4.7
Number of web pages checked Number of web pages providing lists of contents
10 0
Surprisingly, among the 10 long web pages which have distinct sections, none
provided the list of contents. Take this web page as an example:
http://www.zj.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node6/node18/userobject9ai75158.html.
This web page is to introduce the Eleventh Five-Year Plan on the development of
quality supervision in Zhejiang province. According to the contents of the web page,
this plan is comprised of four major parts: the background of the Eleventh Five-Year
Plan and development foundations, guidance and aims, major tasks and
corresponding measures. In total, 9,523 Chinese characters which occupied 25 full
screens on a 13.3-inch widescreen monitor were used to introduce this plan. If users
34
want to find a specific section about this plan, for instance the major tasks, they will
have to scroll many times, and this is very time consuming and inefficient.
4.1.1.5 Observation of “back to homepage” options
As far as I observed, there are three main ways of bringing users back to the
homepage of a web site: “Homepage” label on the top level navigation menu,
“Homepage” in breadcrumbs, and the clickable site logo. Considering the logo of the
Zhejiang government web site is not clickable, in this part of the research, two other
methods were used to check the “back to homepage” options are properly set across
the web site. 23 web pages were randomly chosen and checked. The research results
are presented in table 4.8.
Table 4.8
Category Number of web
pages checked
Users can go back to the homepage by …
“Homepage” link
in top level menu
“Homepage” in
breadcrumbs
General of Zhejiang 2 2 2
Government affairs 2 2 2
Interaction 5 2 1
Online service hall 4 0 0
Personal settings 4 4 4
Online enquiry centre 2 2 2
Web sites monitoring 1 1 1
News in videos 3 3 3
Total 23 16 15
Generally, 16 out of 23 web pages provided “back to homepage” options in the form
of a clickable “Homepage” link in the top level navigation menu. Also, except for
tested web pages in “Interaction” and “Online service hall”, web pages in other
categories provided breadcrumbs in which the “Homepage” tag could bring users
back to the homepage as well.
For the web pages in “Online service hall”, the “Homepage” label in the navigation
menu will bring users to the sub-homepage of “Online service hall” category, rather
than the homepage of the Zhejiang government web site. Besides this, the
“Homepage” tag in breadcrumbs was not clickable either. However, users can return
35
to the homepage through clicking the link in the top right corner of the web pages, as
shown in screenshot 4.8.
Screenshot 4.8
Homepage → Online service hall
4.1.1.6 Observation of “do not direct users to a new browser window”
Users may feel frustrated when they are directed to a new browser window because
usually the “Back” button is disabled and they cannot return to the previous page by
using the “Back” button. In this section, 65 links in six categories were clicked to
check if users will be redirected to new browser windows. The research results are
illustrated in chart 4.1and table 4.9. Directed arrows (→) from one menu to another
represent the link between them; “√” on a link means a new browser window was
not opened after the link was clicked, and “×” on a link means a new browser
window was opened after the link was clicked.
36
Chart 4.1
Homepage Primary menu Secondary menu Tertiary menu/
Detailed contents
Geography
Nature &
Geography
Climate
Natural resources
Homepage General of
Zhejiang
History Ancient history
Cultural heritage
Population Religions
International
communication International trade
Detailed content 1
Governors Detailed content 2
Homepage Government
affairs
Regulations
& Laws
Detailed content 3
Special topics Detailed content 4
Detailed content 5
Email to
governors
Detailed content 1
Homepage Interaction Online survey Detailed content 2
Online forum
√
×
√
√
√ √
√
×
×
×
√
×
√
×
×
√
√ √
√
√
√
√
√
×
×
×
×
×
√
×
√ √
×
√
×
×
×
×
37
Homepage
Online
service hall
Guide
Download
forms
Online
application
Online enquiry
Complaints
Detailed content 1
Detailed content 2
Detailed content 3
Detailed content 4
Detailed content 5
Detailed content 6
Homepage
Personal
settings
Personal
information
Settings
Detailed content 1
Detailed content 2
Detailed content 3
Homepage
Web sites
monitoring
Departmental web
sites operation
condition
News release
Detailed content1
Homepage
News in
videos
Events
Detailed content 2
Attractions
in Zhejiang
Detailed content 3
√
√
×
√
√ √
√
×
√
×
√
×
√
√
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
√
√
√
×
×
√
√ ×
38
Table 4.9
Categories Number of links …
checked will not open new windows
General of Zhejiang 18 11
Government affairs 12 6
Interaction 8 3
Online service hall 12 3
Personal settings 6 4
Web sites monitoring 2 1
News in videos 10 7
Total 68 35
(NB: The “Online enquiry centre” serves as a platform from which users could contact the online staff
for detailed inquiries. Once users click the online staff of a department, a dialog box will pop up and
enable users to have an audio conversation with the online staff. The conversation dialog is not
considered as a new browser window here, therefore, the “Online enquiry centre” category was not
observed in this part of the research.)
In this research, 35 links did not redirect users to new browser windows when the
links were clicked, which accounts for 51.5 % of the total links. Besides, there is no
pattern for whether a new browser window will be opened after a link is clicked.
4.1.2 Online services of Zhejiang government web site
4.1.2.1 Observation of basic information about all departments
Links to all the departments of Zhejiang government are organised and presented in
the “Government affairs → Departments” category. The link to this web page is
http://www.zj.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node22/node166/index.html, and the structure
of all 48 departments is shown in screenshot 4.9. The research results are shown in
table 4.10.
39
Screenshot 4.9
Homepage → Government affairs → Departments
Table 4.10
Category Number of pages checked
in this category
Number of pages which provide
introduction to the department
General office 1 1
Provincial departments 24 24
Special institutions
directly under Zhejiang
government
1 1
Institutions directly
under Zhejiang
government
16 16
Administrative
organisations 6 1
Total 48 43
40
Among the 6 department links in the “Administrative organisations” category, only
the link to Zhejiang Food and Drug Administration (浙江省食品药品监督管理局)
provides basic information on the department. The other 5 department links lead
users to the homepages of these department web sites.
4.1.2.2 Observation of links to other government web sites
At the end of the Zhejiang government web site homepage, links to other
government web sites and mass media are organised into seven categories, as shown
in screenshot 4.10. Five out of seven categories provide links to other government
web sites.
Screenshot 4.10
Links to other government web sites and news media
In order to make sure the links to other government web sites are valid, all links were
checked, and the research results are shown in table 4.11.
41
Table 4.11
Categories
Number of
links to
departments
Number of
bad / wrong
links
Names of bad links
Provincial
Administrative
Departments
45 3 审计厅，省政府研究室，省工商局
Prefectures &
Cities 90 11
杭州：上城区，拱墅区
温州：洞头县，苍南县
嘉兴：秀州区，海盐县
湖州：长兴县
金华：永康市
台州：三门县，天台县，仙居县
Ministries 78 11
档案局，法制办，社保基金会
保监会，建设部，国防科工委
食品药品监管局，邮政局
新闻出版总署，交通部，铁道部
Other provinces &
cities 34 3 湖北省，山西省，宁夏省
Important cities 45 9 昆明，武汉，烟台，四平，蚌埠
辽源，兰州，威海，石家庄
Total 292 37
As shown in the table, the number of bad links is 37, which accounts for 12.7% of
total links. Most of these bad links returned no data, and other links provided wrong
URLs. For example, the URL to Shanxi government web site provided in this site is
http://www.shanxi.gov.cn, but the official URL for the Shanxi government web site
is http://www.shanxigov.cn.
4.1.2.3 Observation of contact information
According to the statistical figures in table 4.10, 43 links which lead users to the
department introduction pages were checked to ensure the contact information
(which includes telephone number, postal address and email address) is provided so
that citizens can contact the government departments. The research results are
presented in table 4.12.
42
Table 4.12
Categories
Number of
links to
departments
Number of links which provide…
telephone
phone postal address email address
General office 1 1 1 1
Provincial
departments 24 24 24 19
Special entity 1 1 1 1
Directly
affiliated
institutions
16 15 15 11
Administrative
organisations 1 1 1 1
Total 43 42 42 33
It can be seen from the table that almost every department provided their contact
information in the form of a telephone number and postal address. 10 departments
did not provide email addresses to the public. Considering the fact that a
considerable proportion of citizens do not have adequate skills of using email, it is
estimated that making phone calls and going to the departments are still the main
ways which citizens contact their government.
4.1.2.4 Observation of downloadable forms
Downloadable application forms can be found in the “Download forms” sub-
category of the “Online service hall” category, as shown in screenshot 4.11.
Screenshot 4.11
Download forms
It can be seen that the application forms are organised according to different service
targets which include individuals, legal persons and departments in the Zhejiang
government. According to the figures provided by this site, there are 765
downloadable forms. Considering the large number of downloadable forms in this
43
web site and the time limit for this part of research, 60 forms in three categories were
randomly selected as samples and checked. The research results are presented in
table 4.13.
Table 4.13
Categories Number of forms checked Number of downloadable forms
Individuals 20 20
Legal persons 20 20
Departments 20 20
Total 60 60
The research result shows that all 60 sample forms are downloadable. However,
users will have to print out the forms, fill them in and then post the forms back to the
responsible departments to complete the application process.
4.1.2.5 Observation of online application and submission
In the navigation menu of “Online service hall”, there is a sub-category labelled as
“Online application” which enables citizens to fill in forms and submit online, as
shown in screenshot 4.12.
Screenshot 4.12
Homepage → Online application
According to the figures provided by this site, there are 914 items that can be applied
for online. Specifically, 226 items regarding individuals can be applied for online. In
order to check the authenticity of these online application services, 22 items in
“Education” and “Social security” categories which are closely related to people‟s
44
daily lives were selected as samples and checked. The research results are shown in
table 4.14.
Table 4.14
Categories Number of items
in this category
Number of items that
can be applied for
online indeed
Names of items
cannot be applied for
online
Education 9 8
引进播出教育、科
学、文化等境外其他
广播电视节目审批
Social security 13 8
职工提前退休审批，
基本医疗保险定点零
售药店资格审查，
基本医疗保险定点医
疗机构资格审查，
设立中外合资（合
作）职业介绍机构审
批，
职业介绍机构资格认
定
Total 22 16
The table shows that 16 out of 22 items can be actually applied for online. In terms
of the other 6 items, prompt windows appeared to inform users that the items are
currently not available online.
4.1.2.6 Observation of paying taxes or bills online
Based on my observation, Zhejiang government web site does not support paying
bills taxes or bills online. For citizens in Zhejiang province, the web site of Zhejiang
Local Taxation Bureau is the official web site for paying taxes, and the link is
http://www.zjds-etax.cn/index.jsp. However, the link to the web site of Zhejiang
Local Taxation Bureau is not provided in the Zhejiang government web site.
In this part of the research, “bills” mean the statement of money owed for services
which are closely related to people‟s daily lives, for example water bills, electricity
bills and gas bills. In the city of Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang,
citizens can pay these bills through Alipay, which is an online payment system like
45
PayPal. Citizens in other cities of Zhejiang will have to go to the relevant
departments or agencies, for instance the post office, to pay bills.
46
4.2 Research on Jiangsu government web site
4.2.1 Navigability of Jiangsu government web site
4.2.1.1 Observation of the top level navigation menu consistency
On the homepage of the Jiangsu provincial web site, the top level navigation menu is
located on the top area of that page, as shown in screenshot 4.13. A brief description
about each navigation label is presented in table 4.15.
Screenshot 4.13
Homepage of Jiangsu government web site
Table 4.15
Navigation labels Function description
Homepage
(首页) This provides the link to the homepage.
About Jiangsu
(走进江苏)
This category provides basic information about Jiangsu
province to the public.
Transparent government
(透明政府)
This category introduces the government structure and
agencies.
Legal environment
(法治江苏)
This category covers the contents relating to laws and
regulations.
Culture
(文化江苏)
This category introduces cultural products and industries to
the public.
Sincere Jiangsu
(诚信江苏)
This category releases the enterprises‟ credit information on
a regular base.
Peaceful Jiangsu
(平安江苏)
This category provides information on fighting against
crime and protecting citizens‟ rights.
Green Jiangsu
(绿色江苏)
This category provides information on protecting the
environment.
The navigation labels are clearly organised and no obscure names or abbreviations
are used to confuse users. In order to test whether the locations of the top level
47
navigation menu are consistent across the site, five web pages from each category
were randomly selected and tested. The research results are shown in table 4.16.
Table 4.16
Categories
Number of web pages …
tested in this category on which the top level navigation
menu is consistently placed
About Jiangsu 5 5
Transparent government 5 5
Legal environment 5 5
Culture 5 5
Sincere Jiangsu 5 0
Peaceful Jiangsu 5 5
Green Jiangsu 5 5
Total 35 30
The web pages in the “Sincere Jiangsu” category failed to provide the top level
navigation menu on the top area of the web page, as shown in screenshot 4.14.
Besides, the sub-homepage of “Sincere Jiangsu” employs a different style than the
basic style which is applied in the homepage of the Jiangsu government web site.
Screenshot 4.14
Homepage → Sincere Jiangsu
Besides, for the web pages in the “About Jiangsu” category, although the top level
navigation menu is placed on the top area on the web pages, the style of the
navigation menu is different from the one which appears on the homepage of the
Jiangsu government web site, as shown in screenshot 4.15.
48
Screenshot 4.15
Homepage → About Jiangsu
4.2.1.2 Observation of subsidiary navigation menus
It is a web site design convention that the corresponding secondary and tertiary
navigation menus should be organised and presented on the left panel of a web page
if users click on a label from the top level navigation menu. In this part of the
research, the structure of contents of the Jiangsu government web site was observed
first, and then the current situation of subsidiary menus was recorded.
49
Observation of contents’ structure
The contents of each category were observed and are presented in table 4.17.
Table 4.17
Main categories Level 1 contents Level 2 contents
About Jiangsu
Overview
Nature & Geography
Natural resources
Administrative divisions
History
Population
Celebrities
Major attractions
Local customs
Local specialties
Economic development
General strength
Economic structure
Agricultural economy
Urban construction
Common development
Sustainable development
Social undertakings
Infrastructure construction
Education
Science & Technology
Cultural undertakings
Health service
Sports undertakings
Civil administration
People‟s livelihood
Social security
Open & Reform
Reform of state-owned
enterprises
Private economy
International
communication
Import & Export
Foreign investment
Development zone
Investment in other
countries
Ports
50
Transparent
government
News in pictures (Detailed contents)
Governors (Detailed contents)
Message from the Governor (Detailed contents)
Provincial-level cities (Detailed contents)
Hot topics (Detailed contents)
Information publicity (Detailed contents)
Government agencies
General office
Provincial departments
Special institutions directly
under Jiangsu government
Institutions directly under
Jiangsu government
Administrative
organisations
Departments under Jiangsu
government & ministries
Others
News conference (Detailed contents)
Legal environment
Trends (Detailed contents)
Law-based management (Detailed contents)
Law-based administration (Detailed contents)
Judicial justice (Detailed contents)
Regulations & Laws (Detailed contents)
Legal education (Detailed contents)
Law-based operation (Detailed contents)
Democratic self-governance (Detailed contents)
Popularisation of legal
knowledge (Detailed contents)
Culture
Trends (Detailed contents)
News bulletin (Detailed contents)
Policies (Detailed contents)
Cultural projects (Detailed contents)
Cultural industry (Detailed contents)
Cultural facilities (Detailed contents)
Cultural heritage (Detailed contents)
Cultural celebrities Writers
Artists
Culture essence
Films & TV shows
Audio-visual products
Books, Journals &
Magazines
Lyre-playing, Chess,
Calligraphy & Painting
Literature
Application approval (Detailed contents)
51
Sincere Jiangsu
News (Detailed contents)
Announcement (Detailed contents)
Government departments (Detailed contents)
Online service (Detailed contents)
Enterprises (Detailed contents)
Ask & Answer about credit (Detailed contents)
Honest credit education (Detailed contents)
Peaceful Jiangsu
News (Detailed contents)
Three major constructions
Meditation mechanism
Preventive control
Infrastructure construction
Solved criminal cases (Detailed contents)
Tips from the police (Detailed contents)
Legal aids (Detailed contents)
Online interview (Detailed contents)
Green Jiangsu
News (Detailed contents)
Regulations & Laws (Detailed contents)
Application approval (Detailed contents)
Green industry (Detailed contents)
Resources protection (Detailed contents)
Application approval (Detailed contents)
Based on the observation on the structure of contents in the Jiangsu government web
site, it is suggested that all seven categories should at least have secondary
navigation menus, which should be consistent with the contents in column “Level 1
contents”.
52
Observation of the current situation of subsidiary menus
The current situation of subsidiary menus of the Jiangsu government web site was
observed and is summarised in table 4.18.
Table 4.18
Categories
Secondary menus are … Tertiary menus are …
organised placed on the left
panel of web page organised
placed on the left
panel of web page
About Jiangsu Y N N N
Transparent
government N N N N
Legal environment Y Y N N
Culture Y Y N N
Sincere Jiangsu N N N N
Peaceful Jiangsu Y Y N N
Green Jiangsu Y Y N N
Total 5 4 0 0
For secondary navigation menus
According to the observation, except for the “Transparent government” and “Sincere
Jiangsu” categories, the other five categories have secondary navigation menus, and
they are organised. In terms of the locations of secondary menus, there are two
situations. For the categories of “Legal environment”, “Culture”, “Peaceful Jiangsu”
and “Green Jiangsu”, the secondary menus are consistently placed on the left panel
of the web pages, and they are in the same style. Screenshot 4.16 is the example of
the secondary menu of “Green Jiangsu”.
Screenshot 4.16
Homepage → Green Jiangsu
53
With regard to “About Jiangsu”, the secondary menu is organised and evenly placed
on both sides of the web page, as shown in screenshot 4.17. Therefore, strictly
speaking, the secondary menu of “About Jiangsu” cannot be considered as being
placed on the left panel of web page.
Screenshot 4.17
Homepage → About Jiangsu
For tertiary menus
According to the observation, no category has its tertiary navigation menu organised
and presented on the web pages.
4.2.1.3 Observation of feedback to users’ operations
In this part of the research, 40 randomly selected web pages in the seven main
categories were tested to observe the application of breadcrumbs and the change of
link colour.
Observation of breadcrumbs navigation
The research results are shown in table 4.19.
54
Table 4.19
Category Number of web
pages tested
Number of web pages providing
proper breadcrumbs
About Jiangsu 5 0
Transparent Jiangsu 4 0
Legal environment 6 0
Culture 7 0
Sincere Jiangsu 7 7
Peaceful Jiangsu 6 0
Green Jiangsu 5 0
Total 40 7
The breadcrumbs navigation is not extensively used in the Jiangsu government web
site. Only the “Sincere Jiangsu” category provided correct and detailed breadcrumbs
on every web page.
Even though in the 4 tested web pages in the “Transparent Jiangsu” category, 1 web
page provided the breadcrumbs, the breadcrumbs was not correct. The screenshot
4.18 shows the situation after the path “Homepage → Transparent Jiangsu →
Government agencies → Department of Public Security of Jiangsu Province” was
clicked. In this breadcrumbs, the middle part of the path was omitted.
Screenshot 4.18
Homepage → Transparent Jiangsu → Government agencies → Department of Public
Security of Jiangsu Province
Observation of the change of link colour
The research results are shown in table 4.20. 13 links in the “Sincere Jiangsu” and
“Peaceful Jiangsu” categories changed their colour from black to dark grey after
being clicked. Nonetheless, the contrast between black and dark grey is so minute
that users could rarely notice.
55
Table 4.20
Category Number of
links tested
Number of links which changed
colour after being clicked
About Jiangsu 5 0
Transparent Jiangsu 4 0
Legal environment 6 0
Culture 7 0
Sincere Jiangsu 7 7
Peaceful Jiangsu 6 6
Green Jiangsu 5 0
Total 40 13
4.2.1.4 Observation of the clickable “list of contents” on long pages
In order to make sure the lists of contents are provided on the long pages in the
Jiangsu government web site, 5 randomly selected web pages with distinct sections
of contents were checked. The 5 links to these web pages can be found in appendix D.
The results of the research are briefly illustrated in table 4.21.
Table 4.21
Categories Number of web
pages checked
Number of web pages
providing lists of contents
Transparent government 1 0
Legal environment 1 0
Culture 1 0
Sincere Jiangsu 1 0
Green Jiangsu 1 0
Total 5 0
It can be shown from the table that all 5 web pages which have distinct sections
failed to provide the list of contents. Users will have to scroll many times to reach the
end of the web pages.
4.2.1.5 Observation of “back to homepage” options
The logo of the Jiangsu government web site is not clickable, and consequently in
this part of the research, the “back to homepage” options refer to the “Homepage”
label in the top level navigation menu and the “Homepage” tag in breadcrumbs. For
each category, web pages from each section on its sub-homepage were randomly
56
chosen and tested to make sure the “back to homepage” options are provided. The
research results are presented in table 4.22.
Table 4.22
Category Number of web
pages checked
Users can go back to the homepage by …
“Homepage” link
in top level menu
“Homepage” tag
in breadcrumbs
About Jiangsu 4 4 0
Transparent
Jiangsu 4 4 0
Legal environment 9 9 0
Culture 9 9 0
Sincere Jiangsu 7 0 7
Peaceful Jiangsu 6 6 0
Green Jiangsu 5 5 0
Total 44 37 7
It can be seen from the table that all the web pages tested provide only one “back to
homepage” option. For the web pages in “Sincere Jiangsu”, users can only go back to
the homepage of the Jiangsu government web site by clicking the “Homepage” tag in
breadcrumbs. For web pages in other categories, the only way that could bring users
back to homepage is the “Homepage” label on the top level navigation menu.
4.2.1.6 Observation of “do not direct users to a new browser window”
In this section, 59 links in seven main categories are clicked to check if users will be
redirected to new browser windows. The research results are illustrated in chart 4.2
and table 4.23. Directed arrows (→) from one menu to another represent the link
between them; “√” on a link means a new browser window was not opened after the
link was clicked, and “×” on a link means a new browser window was opened after
the link was clicked.
57
Chart 4.2
Homepage Primary menu Detailed contents
Homepage
About
Jiangsu
Detailed content 1
Detailed content 2
Homepage
Transparent
Jiangsu
Item 1 in “Governors” section
Item 2 in “Governors” section
Item 3 in “Government agencies” section
Item 4 in “News conference” section
Item 5 in “News conference” section
Item 6 in “Government work report”
section
Item 7 in “Government work report”
section
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
×
√
√
√
√
×
√ √
58
Homepage Primary menu Secondary menu Detailed contents
Homepage
Legal
enrivonment
Trends
Law-based
management
Law-based
administration
Legal
ecucation
Detailed content 1
Detailed content 2
Detailed content 3
Detailed content 4
Detailed content 5
Detailed content 6
Detailed content 7
Detailed content 8
Homepage
Culture
Trends
Policy
planning
Cultural
projects
Detailed content 1
Detailed content 2
Detailed content 3
Detailed content 4
Detailed content 5
Detailed content 6
Homepage
Sincere
Jiangsu
News
Credit
notice
Regulations
& Laws
Ask & Answer
about credit
Detailed content 1
Detailed content 2
Detailed content 3
Detailed content 4
×
√
√
√
×
√
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
√
√
√
√
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
√
√
×
×
×
×
59
Homepage Primary menu Secondary menu Detailed contents
Homepage
Peaceful
Jiangsu
News
Solved
cases
Online
interview
Detailed content 1
Detailed content 2
Detailed content 3
Detailed content 4
Detailed content 5
Homepage
Green
Jiangsu
News
Regulations
& Laws
Resource
protection
Detailed content 1
Detailed content 2
Detailed content 3
Detailed content 4
Detailed content 5
Detailed content 6
×
√
√
×
√ ×
×
√
×
√
√
√
√
×
×
×
×
×
×
60
Table 4.23
Categories Number of links …
checked did not open new windows
About Jiangsu 4 3
Transparent government 11 10
Legal environment 13 4
Culture 10 4
Sincere Jiangsu 9 2
Peaceful Jiangsu 9 4
Green Jiangsu 10 4
Total 66 31
Generally, 31 links, which constitutes 47% of the total links, did not direct users to
new browser windows. It can be seen that there is no pattern for whether a new
browser window will be opened.
4.2.2 Online services of Jiangsu government web site
4.2.2.1 Observation of basic information about all departments
Links to the web pages which provide a basic introduction about the departments in
Jiangsu government are organised and presented on the sub-homepage of the
“Transparent government” category, as shown in screenshot 4.19.
61
Screenshot 4.19
Homepage → Transparent government
The screenshot shows that all 69 departments in Jiangsu government are organised
into seven groups. All links to the 69 departments were clicked to ensure that the
basic introduction to each department is provided. The research results are shown in
table 4.24, and seven departments failed to provide any information about the
departments.
62
Table 4.24
Category Number of departments
in this category
Number of departments
providing basic introduction
General office 1 1
Provincial departments 24 23
Special institutions
directly under Jiangsu
government
1 1
Institutions directly
under Jiangsu
government
15 15
Administrative
organisations 7 5
Departments under
Jiangsu government &
ministries
9 7
Others 12 10
Total 69 62
4.2.2.2 Observation of links to other government web sites
At the end of the Jiangsu government web site homepage, links to other government
web sites are organised into two groups and presented, as shown in screenshot 4.20.
Screenshot 4.20
Links to other government web sites
In order to examine the links to other government web sites, all the links were
checked, and the research results are shown in table 4.25.
63
Table 4.25
Categories
Number of
links to
departments
Number of
bad / wrong
links
Names of bad links
Departments 66 3
江苏省能源局，
江苏省国防科学技术工业办公室
江苏省盐务管理局
Prefectures & Cities 107 5
无锡：滨湖
常州：天宁
连云港：海州，灌南
淮安：淮阴
Total 173 8
Among 8 incorrect links, 2 links directed users to the department introduction web
pages in the Jiangsu government web site, the other 6 links were bad links which
returned no data.
4.2.2.3 Observation of practicable contact information
As shown in screenshot 4.19, the links to 69 departments were checked to ensure the
contact information (which includes telephone number, postal address and email
address) is provided so that citizens can contact the government departments. The
research results are presented in table 4.26.
It can be seen that most departments provided their contact information in the form
of a telephone number and postal address. However, four departments: Department
of Provincial Security of Jiangsu, Civil Servant Bureau of Jiangsu, Energy Bureau of
Jiangsu, and Defence Science & Technology Office of Jiangsu failed to provide any
contact information.
64
Table 4.26
Categories
Number of
links to
departments
Number of links which provide…
telephone postal address email address
General office 1 0 1 0
Provincial
departments 24 23 23 17
Special
institutions
directly under
Jiangsu
government
1 1 1 0
Institutions
directly under
Jiangsu
government
15 15 15 11
Administrative
organisations 7 4 4 3
Departments
under Jiangsu
government &
ministries
9 7 7 6
Others 12 10 10 7
Total 69 60 61 44
4.2.2.4 Observation of downloadable forms
On the homepage of the Jiangsu government web site, a dynamic image which is
shown in screenshot 4.21 could bring users to the online service platform of Jiangsu
government, which can be accessed by the link http://www.js.gov.cn/wsfw2008/.
Screenshot 4.21
According to different user groups, the online services of Jiangsu government web
site are categorised into two groups: services for individuals and services for
enterprises. After choosing a specific service from either group, the corresponding
service guidance, downloadable forms, FAQs and online processing option (if
applicable) will appear on the web pages. Based on the figures provided by this
65
service platform, more than 2,000 forms are downloadable for citizens, and more
than 800 applications can be processed online. Considering the large number of
downloadable forms and the time limit for this part of the research, 20 forms from
each group were randomly selected as samples and checked. The research results are
presented in table 4.27.
Table 4.27
Categories Number of forms checked Number of downloadable forms
For individuals 20 20
For enterprises 20 20
Total 40 40
All the test samples provided downloadable forms. However, similar to Zhejiang
government web site, users will have to download the forms, fill them in and post the
forms back to the government department to complete the application process.
4.2.2.5 Observation of online application and submission
As mentioned before, users can get access to online services from the online service
platform. In order to check the authenticity of online application services, 20 items in
the group “For individuals” were selected as samples and tested. The research results
are shown in table 4.28.
Table 4.28
Categories Number of items
checked in this category
Number of items can be
actually applied for online
For individuals 20 0
Total 20 0
It is surprising that all the links to “online processing” of the 20 items which are
marked as “online applicable” encountered an error when clicked. 16 errors were
described as “the requested resource is not available”, and another 4 errors were
described as “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage”. In order to ensure the
situation was not a coincidence, the research was carried out again one week later.
The result was identical. It is assumed that the server of online services was not
operational.
66
4.2.2.6 Observation of paying bills online
Based on my observation, citizens in Jiangsu province cannot pay taxes or bills on
the Jiangsu government web site. The web site of Jiangsu Provincial Office.SAT is
the official web site for paying taxes, and the link is http://www.js-n-tax.gov.cn/.
However, the link to this site is not provided in the Jiangsu government web site.
Similar to the Zhejiang government web site, the Jiangsu government web site does
not have the feature of paying bills online. However, in the city of Nanjing, the
provincial capital of Jiangsu, citizens can pay water bills, gas bills and electricity
bills through Alipay. Nonetheless, in most cities of Jiangsu, citizens still have to go
to the relevant departments or agencies, for instance the post office, to pay bills.
67
4.3 Research on search engine visibility
In order to conduct a non-biased and comprehensive visibility test, seven search
engines which support searches in both Chinese and English are utilised to test
search engine visibility, namely, Baidu, Soso, Sogou, Bing, Google Hong Kong,
Youdao and Yahoo.
4.3.1 Research on the visibility of Zhejiang government web site
According to the methodology adopted in this part of the research, “浙江政府” and
“Zhejiang government” were used as Chinese and English keywords respectively to
test the search engine visibility. The search results were recorded in table 4.29.
Table 4.29
When Chinese was used as the keyword entry language, the score was 56 which
accounts for 80% of this dimension‟s full mark. Except for Bing, the Zhejiang
government web site appeared in the top ten in the search results provided by the
other six search engines. More specifically, the Zhejiang government web site was
the first result given by five search engines. When using English as the keyword
entry language, the score was 60 which accounts for 85.7% of this dimension‟s full
mark. Except for Sogou, which did not provide the Zhejiang government web site in
its first hundred search results, in the results given by other six search engines, the
Zhejiang government web site appeared as the first result. The total mark for the
Zhejiang government web site in terms of search engine visibility was 116, which
was 82.9% of the full mark.
Chinese keyword
“浙江政府”
English keyword
“Zhejiang government”
Search engine Ranking Score Ranking Score
Baidu 1 10 1 10
Soso 1 10 1 10
Sogou 1 10 >100 0
Bing 4 6 1 10
Google HK 1 10 1 10
Youdao 1 10 1 10
Yahoo >100 0 1 10
Mark 56 (80%) 60 (85.7%)
Total mark 116 (82.9%)
68
4.3.2 Research on the visibility of Jiangsu government web site
According to the methodology adopted in this part of the research, “江苏政府” and
“Jiangsu government” were used as Chinese and English keywords respectively to
test the search engine visibility. The search results were recorded in table 4.30.
Table 4.30
When Chinese was used as the keyword entry language, the score was 58 which
accounts for 82.9% of this dimension‟s full mark. Except for Yahoo, the Jiangsu
government web site appeared in the top ten in the search results provided by the
other six search engines. More specifically, the Jiangsu government web site was the
first result given by five search engines. When using English as the keyword entry
language, the score was 47 which accounts for 67.1% of this dimension‟s full mark.
Two search engines, Soso and Sogou, failed to provide the Jiangsu government web
site in their first hundred results. The total mark for the Jiangsu government web site
in terms of search engine visibility was 105, which was 75% of the full mark.
Chinese keyword
“江苏政府”
English keyword
“Jiangsu government”
Search engine Ranking Score Ranking Score
Baidu 1 10 1 10
Soso 1 10 >100 0
Sogou 1 10 >100 0
Bing 2 8 1 10
Google HK 1 10 1 10
Youdao 1 10 1 10
Yahoo >100 0 3 7
Mark 58 (82.9%) 47 (67.1%)
Total mark 105 (75%)
69
5. Findings
5.1 Navigability of Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites
Based on the contents in the research and observation chapter and the marking
criteria proposed in the methodology chapter, corresponding marks were given to
both sites and are presented in tables 5.1 and 5.2.
Table 5.1
Zhejiang government web site
Criteria Marks
Top level navigation elements are grouped and placed across
the web site. 6
Subsidiary navigation menus are grouped and shown on the
left panel of web pages. 4
Feedback is provided so that users know where they are and
where they have been. 4
A list of contents is given at the beginning of the page, if the
page is too long. 0
“Back to homepage” options are properly set across the web
site. 8
Users will not be redirected to new browser windows when
clicking a link. 5
Total mark 27 (45%)
Table 5.2
Jiangsu government web site
Criteria Marks
Top level navigation elements are grouped and placed across
the web site. 9
Subsidiary navigation menus are grouped and shown on the
left panel of web pages. 7
Feedback is provided so that users know where they are and
where they have been. 3
A list of contents is given at the beginning of the page, if the
page is too long. 0
“Back to homepage” options are properly set across the web
site. 10
Users will not be redirected to new browser windows when
clicking a link. 5
Total mark 34 (56.7%)
70
Generally, the Jiangsu government web site has higher navigability than the Zhejiang
government web site. In the following sections, the detailed comparison of these two
government web sites in terms of the six dimensions of navigability evaluation will
be presented.
5.1.1 Top level navigation menus
The Jiangsu government web site scored higher than the Zhejiang government web
site in this aspect. Both web sites have their top level navigation menus organised
and differentiated, and the labels used are descriptive to show the various functions.
But the locations and styles of the top level navigation menus of these two sites
appeared to be inconsistent to varying degrees.
For the Zhejiang government web site, two out of eight categories failed to place the
top level navigation menu on the web pages. Furthermore, the category of “Online
service hall” is considered to be an independent web site, and the label of “Online
service hall” provides the link to this independent web site, rather than a category of
the Zhejiang government web site. The following two facts could support this
statement. First, the site name which appears on the sub-homepage of “Online
service hall” is different from the one which appears on the homepage of the
Zhejiang government web site. Second, a link to the homepage of the Zhejiang
government web site is posted on the upper-right corner of the sub-homepage.
For the Jiangsu government web site, one category out of seven failed to place the
top level navigation menu on the web pages. Nevertheless, this category of “Sincere
Jiangsu” is estimated to be an independent web site, rather than a category of the
Jiangsu government web site. The reason for this is twofold. First, the site name
which appears on the sub-homepage of “Sincere Jiangsu” is different from the one
that appears on the homepage of the Jiangsu government web site. Second, a link to
the homepage of the Jiangsu government web site is posted on the upper-right corner
of the sub-homepage.
5.1.2 Subsidiary navigation menus
The Jiangsu government web site scored higher than the Zhejiang government web
site in this perspective. For most categories in the Zhejiang and Jiangsu government
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web sites, although the subsidiary menus are organised, the placements show great
differences.
For the Zhejiang government web site, the placement of subsidiary menus is in chaos.
The secondary menus of three categories will only appear on the web pages under a
certain circumstance. For the other two categories, the secondary menus were placed
on the area where the top level navigation menu should be.
Compared with the Zhejiang government web site, the placement of subsidiary
menus of the Jiangsu government web site is relatively consistent, and the five
categories out of seven have their secondary menus organised and placed on the left
panel of the web pages.
5.1.3 Feedback to users’ operation
The Zhejiang government web site provides better feedback than the Jiangsu
government web site in terms of users‟ operation. However, the effectiveness of
feedback provided by both sites need to be improved.
For the Zhejiang government web site, the only form of feedback is breadcrumbs
which provides path and hierarchy information for the web site. Approximately 70%
of the tested pages provided proper breadcrumbs. In terms of link colour, all tested
links remained the same colour after they were clicked.
For the Jiangsu government web site, 17.5% of the tested web pages provided
breadcrumbs to show the users where they are. Also, one third of the tested links
changed the link colour after they were clicked. However, the changed colour and the
original colour are so similar that users could rarely notice the colour change.
5.1.4 List of contents on long pages
Both the Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites failed to provide the list of
contents on long pages. It is assumed that the importance of the list of contents on
long pages was not considered during the web site design and construction.
72
5.1.5 “Back to homepage” options
The Jiangsu government web site enjoyed the full score in this dimension, and
Zhejiang scored lower than the Jiangsu government web site.
For the Zhejiang government web site, except for the web pages in “Online service
hall”, nearly all tested web pages provide feedback in two forms: a “Homepage”
label in the top level navigation menu and a clickable “Homepage” tag in
breadcrumbs.
For the Jiangsu government web site, all tested web pages provided a “back to
homepage” option on all web pages, either in the form of a “Homepage” label in top
level navigation menu, or in the form of a clickable tag in breadcrumbs.
5.1.6 Whether a new browser window will be opened
In this dimension, the Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites scored the same.
Half the links tested on both sites opened new browser windows when they were
clicked. The reason for examining whether a new browser window will be opened
after a link is clicked is that the newly opened browser windows disables the back
button which could bring users back to the contents they were browsing before, and
this may frustrate users.
73
5.2 Online services of Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites
Based on the contents in the research and observation chapter and the marking
criteria proposed in the methodology chapter, corresponding marks were given to
both sites and presented in tables 5.3 and 5.4.
Table 5.3
Zhejiang government web site
Criteria Marks
The web site provides a brief description of all departments
of this government. 9
The web site provides links to ministries, departments and
other government agencies that provide services. 8
The web site provides basic contact information, for
instance, phone number, postal address and email. 8
The web site provides comprehensive downloadable forms
for services and applications, and these forms are
categorised by subject or function and can be mailed back to
the government.
5
Users can download forms from the web site, fill them in
and then submit online to complete an application. 7
Users can pay bills online and receive receipts
electronically. 0
If the information about one citizen is stored in different
databases, it can be integrated and shared.
Total mark 38 (54.3%)
74
Table 5.4
Jiangsu government web site
Criteria Marks
The web site provides a brief description of all departments
of this government. 9
The web site provides links to ministries, departments and
other government agencies that provide services. 9
The web site provides basic contact information, for
instance, phone number, postal address and email. 9
The web site provides comprehensive downloadable forms
for services and applications, and these forms are
categorised by subject or function.
5
Users can download forms from the web site, fill them in
and then submit online to complete an application. 0
Users can pay bills online and receive receipts
electronically. 0
If the information about one citizen is stored in different
databases, it can be integrated and shared.
Total mark 32 (45.7%)
Generally, the Zhejiang government web site has an advantage in providing online
services compared with the Jiangsu government web site. In the following sections,
the detailed comparison of these two government web sites in terms of online
services evaluation will be presented, and the current stage of development of the
Zhejiang and Jiangsu e-government projects will be discussed.
5.2.1 Stage one – Web emerging
In the stage of “web emerging”, a government web site is created mainly as the
response to social pressure coming from the media or demanding citizens. The e-
government at this stage is in its initial phase with limited functions, for example
only basic information about the government is posted on the web pages. Two
criteria were designed to examine whether the e-government projects of Zhejiang and
Jiangsu provinces achieved stage one.
For the Zhejiang government web site, all 48 tested links were valid, while 43 links
led users to the web pages on which the basic description of the department was
presented, which constitutes 89.6% of the total tested links. However, 37 out of 292
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links to departmental homepages were bad links which either returned no data or
provided wrong URLs.
For the Jiangsu government web site, all 69 tested links were valid, while 62 links
led users to the web pages on which the basic description of the department was
presented, which constitutes 89.6% of the total tested links. Besides, 8 of 173 links to
departmental homepages were bad links which either returned no data or led users to
the web pages on which a description of the department was presented.
In summary of this section, although there are a few errors and bad links on the
Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites, basically both sites achieved stage one,
and the scores are quite close.
5.2.2 Stage two – Interaction
In this stage, e-government begins to focus on the way that citizens interact with the
government. The purpose of this stage is to create a more convenient and efficient
way for citizens to access the government services, which enables the citizens to
interact with the government in an active way. Two criteria were designed to
examine whether the e-government projects of Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces
achieved stage two.
For the Zhejiang government web site, except for 1 department which provided no
contact information in any form, all the other 42 departments provided their basic
contact information in the forms of phone number and postal address. 33 out of 43
departments also provided their emails to the public. Moreover, the Zhejiang
government web site provided comprehensive downloadable forms which are
categorised according to different subjects and functions, and all 60 tested forms are
authentically downloadable. However, instead of e-mailing back the forms to the
government, citizens will have to post them back to complete the application process.
For the Jiangsu government web site, except for the 4 departments which failed to
provide any contact information in any form, the other 65 departments provided their
contact information either in the form of a phone number, postal address, or email
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address. Nonetheless, phone number and postal address are still the main ways to
contact the government. Furthermore, the Jiangsu government web site provided
comprehensive downloadable forms which are categorised according to different
subjects and functions, and all 40 tested forms are authentically downloadable.
Similarly, citizens will have to post the forms back to complete the application
process, rather than e-mailing forms back to the e-government.
In summary of this section, although there are a few errors in the Zhejiang and
Jiangsu government web sites, basically both sites are in the intermediate phase of
stage two.
5.2.3 Stage three – Transaction
This stage enables users to transact online with the government. Examples of such
transaction could include applying online and paying bills. Two criteria were
designed to examine whether the e-government projects of Zhejiang and Jiangsu
provinces achieved stage three.
For the Zhejiang government web site, 16 tested items were authentically online
applicable, which constitutes 72.7% of the total tested items that were marked as
“online applicable”. In terms of paying taxes, citizens in Zhejiang province can use
another web site for paying taxes, although the link to this official web site is not
given by the Zhejiang government web site. For citizens in Hangzhou city, Alipay
can be employed to pay water bills, gas bills and electricity bills. Nonetheless,
paying bills online is not extensively applied throughout Zhejiang province, and most
citizens have to go to the relevant departments or agencies to pay bills.
For the Jiangsu government web site, it is surprising that all the links to “online
processing” of the twenty items which were marked as “online applicable”
encountered errors when clicked. Sixteen errors were described as “the requested
resource is not available”, and the other four errors were described as “Internet
Explorer cannot display the webpage”. Until the completion date of this dissertation,
the links to twenty “online processing” items encountered the same problems. In
terms of paying taxes and bills, the situation of Jiangsu province is quite similar to
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Zhejiang province. Citizens in Jiangsu province can use another web site for paying
taxes, although the link to this official web site is not given by the Jiangsu
government web site. For citizens in Nanjing city, Alipay can be employed to pay
water bills, gas bills and electricity bills. Nonetheless, paying bills online is not
extensively applied throughout Jiangsu province, and most citizens have to go to the
relevant departments or agencies to pay bills.
In summary of this section, the e-government project of Zhejiang province is in the
intermediate phase of stage three, and Jiangsu has not entered the third stage.
5.2.4 Stage four – Integration
This stage aims to integrate and share the information stored in different databases,
so as to create a one-stop service experience for citizens. One scenario was designed
to examine whether the e-government projects of Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces
achieved this stage. Considering the fact that the e-government project of Zhejiang
province is in the intermediate phase of stage three, and the e-government project of
Jiangsu province is still in stage two, it is assumed that there is no necessity to
examine whether the online services of these two sites have achieved stage four.
Generally, the e-government project development of Zhejiang province has achieved
stage one, and is in the middle of stage two and stage three. For Jiangsu province, the
e-government project development has achieved stage one, and is in the middle of
stage two.
5.3 Search engine visibility of Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web
sites
Based on the contents in the research and observation chapter and the marking
criteria proposed in the methodology chapter, the summarised results are presented in
table 5.5.
78
Table 5.5
Zhejiang government web site Jiangsu government web site
Search
engines
Chinese
keyword
English
keyword
Chinese
keyword
English
keyword
Baidu 10 10 10 10
Soso 10 10 10 0
Sogou 10 0 10 0
Bing 6 10 8 10
Google HK 10 10 10 10
Youdao 10 10 10 10
Yahoo 0 10 0 7
Mark 56 (80%) 60 (85.7%) 58 (82.9%) 47 (67.1%)
Total mark 116 (82.9%) 105 (75%)
It is suggested in the study by Mofleh and Wanous (2009) that the visibility of a web
site can be considered low if the total score is less than 80%. For the Zhejiang
government web site, the average score was 116 which accounts for 82.9% of the full
score. Meanwhile, the marks when using Chinese and English as input languages
were 56 (80%) and 60 (85.7%) respectively. Namely, the visibility of the Zhejiang
government web site is high, regardless of input language.
In terms of the Jiangsu government web site, when the keyword entry language was
Chinese, the visibility was higher than the Zhejiang government web site, with the
mark of 58; when the keyword entry language was English, the visibility was much
lower than the Zhejiang government web site, with the mark of 47 which accounts
for 67.1% of the full mark.
Interestingly, when testing the visibility to Yahoo with Chinese keywords and the
visibility to Sogou with English keywords, both the Zhejiang and Jiangsu
government web sites failed to appear in the top ten search results. It is assumed that
Yahoo and Sogou employ different search algorithms that are different from the ones
that are currently adopted by other search engines.
In general, the search engine visibility of the Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web
sites are approximately the same level when Chinese is used as the keyword entry
language. The Jiangsu government web site has low visibility when searching in
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English. However, considering the overwhelming majority of users of these two sites
are Chinese, both the Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites are considered to
have high visibility to search engines.
80
6. Conclusions & Implications
6.1 Conclusions
This dissertation used criteria adapted from previous research to evaluate and
compare two aspects of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang government web sites; navigability
and online services. The web sites‟ visibility to several major search engines in
China was also tested. Based on the relevant literature in the fields of e-government
and web site usability, and the observations of the Zhejiang and Jiangsu government
web sites, the conclusions of this study are presented below.
The Jiangsu government web site has higher navigability than the Zhejiang
government web site. The navigation structure of the Jiangsu government web site
is clearer, better organised and more consistently placed on the web pages
compared to the Zhejiang government web site.
The Jiangsu government web site has a good feature of design in the navigation
elements. Each category label employs a unique colour representing this category,
and the web pages in each category share the same colour scheme.
The homepages of both web sites need to be subdivided into several web pages. It
is evident that the homepages of both sites are comprised of several parts which
are independent in terms of their contents. If both web sites have the desire to
optimise their design so as to promote the usability, the contents on the
homepages of both sites need to be rearranged.
The list of contents is not applied in both sites. It is suggested that both the
Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites should provide a list of contents with
links that take users to the corresponding content farther down the page. Besides,
it is suggested that a “back to top” link is also placed at the end of each section of
long pages.
It is recommended for the web site which has higher navigability, in this case, the
Jiangsu government web site, to employ breadcrumbs navigation which shows the
information hierarchy.
For both Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites, the site logos are not
clickable. It is a web site design convention to have a clickable site logo so that
users could be brought back to the homepage easily. It is recommended that both
81
Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites should make their logos clickable to
promote the usability.
None of the Zhejiang or Jiangsu government web sites follows a consistent pattern
in whether new browser windows will be opened after a link is clicked.
Nonetheless, a web site should have a consistent pattern of whether a new browser
window will be opened after a link is clicked.
For both sites, the English versions are not the direct translation from Chinese, but
more like independent web sites which introduce the tourism in the region to
international friends. Besides, a great many misspellings and grammatical
mistakes were found in both sites. If the Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web
sites intend to attract more tourists, the English versions need to be improved
urgently.
For a robustly constructed web site, the ratio of broken links should be under 2%.
However, a great many broken links were found in both the Zhejiang and Jiangsu
government web sites. It is suggested that both sites should check the validity of
the links on a regular base and repair the broken links.
For both the Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites, the link colours either
remained the same or did not change noticeably after they were clicked. It is a
web site design convention to change the link colour into another one which
differs significantly from the original colour so that users can be informed that the
destination has been visited. Both sites should employ this convention.
In terms of the ways in which citizens contact their government for inquiries,
making phone calls and going to the responsible departments are still the main
ways. Email is not extensively applied in both Zhejiang and Jiangsu government
web sites.
For the Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites, although the function of
paying bills online is not available, both sites should provide links to the agencies
which provide this service, and the links should be placed in an obvious place on
the web pages.
Currently for email enquiries, almost every department in Zhejiang and Jiangsu
governments posted their departmental email address. For detailed email inquiries,
users will have to choose from the variety of addresses and, if the inquiry is
irrelevant to the responsibility of the chosen department, no response will be
82
received. It is strongly recommended to both sites that an automatic identification
and dispatch system for inquiries should be adopted, so that users could send their
inquiries to one email address, and the system could automatically categorise all
the inquiries according to the department responsible and then send them to those
departments.
For online services, both Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites failed to
provide a FAQs page. It is recommended that both sites should provide FAQs
pages on their online service sub-homepages, and the link to FAQs pages should
be prominent on the web pages.
Both Jiangsu and Zhejiang government web sites have high visibility when
searching in Chinese. Baidu, Soso, Google HK and Youdao are better search
engines than Bing. Yahoo and Sogou perform poorly when searching in Chinese
and English respectively.
Even though the Jiangsu government web site sets up a good example of a
government web site for most government web sites in mainland China, compared
with the Beijing government web site, the Jiangsu government web site has plenty
of room for improvement. The Zhejiang government web site, on the other hand,
is not as well designed as the Jiangsu government web site, and needs to be
improved.
6.2 Limitations & Suggestions for further study
Considering the methodology and procedure which are adopted in this research, and
the theoretical frameworks proposed by previous studies, this study presents five
main limitations.
In this study, six factors and seven perspectives derived from several previous
studies are adapted to evaluate the navigability and online services of two web
sites. Many other factors which have influence on the navigability and online
service quality were not adopted in this research. Therefore, a web site which
received a high score in this research is not guaranteed to perform well in other
perspectives. Regarding navigability and online service evaluation, other
perspectives which were not adopted in this research are proposed in previous
83
studies. These perspectives could be examined so as to obtain comprehensive
results.
Usability evaluation is a complicated procedure which involves user groups, test
materials and other necessary facilities. Due to the lack of participants‟
involvement and other facilities, this research is based on individual observation
which might lead to incompleteness and blind spots. In a further study, user
groups can be considered as a relatively objective and heuristic method for
usability evaluation, compared with individual observations.
Due to the time limit for this dissertation, samples were chosen to represent the
whole. Therefore, the research results depend greatly on the samples which were
selected. For the tested samples, receiving a high score in one test does not
necessarily mean the whole part is successful. In a further study, a larger sample
size could be considered.
Due to the time limit for this dissertation and the huge amount of contact
information which is provided by both sites, it is unrealistic to dial the contact
number of every department, or send emails or letters to all the departments, to
test the practicality of the contact information. Thus, a web site which received a
high score in the aspect of providing contact information does not necessarily
confirm that the contact information is practical. In a further study, the practicality
of contact information should be tested to make sure it is functional.
Only one word in each language was chosen as a keyword to test the search
engine visibility, therefore the results might be incomplete. In a further study,
more keywords in deep linking web pages could be chosen to test the visibility.
Also, a comparative study of the Beijing, Hong Kong and Jiangsu government web
sites could be carried out to analyse the distance among them in terms of government
web site development.
As a final comment, this dissertation evaluated the usability, online service and
search engine visibility of two Chinese government web sites, and has shown that
both Zhejiang and Jiangsu government web sites need to improve their navigability
and online service to a different extent. Moreover, the development of e-government
projects in china is uneven, and it indicates that further research into other
84
government web sites would be beneficial. Hopefully, this study will provide some
valuable information to web site designers who are dedicating themselves to the
optimisation of Chinese government web sites.
85
Appendix A
Marking sheet for navigability evaluation
Criteria Marks
Top level navigation elements are grouped and placed across
the web site.
Subsidiary navigation menus are grouped and shown on the
left panel of web pages.
Feedback is provided so that users know where they are and
where they have been.
A list of contents is given at the beginning of the page, if the
page is too long.
“Back to homepage” options are properly set across the web
site.
Users will not be redirected to new browser windows when
clicking a link.
Total mark
86
Appendix B
Marking sheet for online service evaluation
Criteria Marks
The web site provides a brief description of all departments
of this government.
The web site provides links to ministries, departments and
other government agencies that provide services.
The web site provides basic contact information, for
instance, phone number, postal address and email.
The web site provides comprehensive downloadable forms
for services and applications, and these forms are
categorised by subject or function and can be mailed back to
the government.
Users can download forms from the web site, fill them in
and then submit online to complete an application.
Users can pay bills online and receive receipts
electronically.
If the information about one citizen is stored in different
databases, it can be integrated and shared.
Total mark
87
Appendix C
Links to long pages in Zhejiang government web site
http://www.zj.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node6/node18/userobject9ai75158.html
http://www.zj.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node6/node14/node127/userobject1ai14672.ht
ml
http://www.zj.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node6/node15/node144/userobject1ai5048.htm
l
http://www.zj.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node6/node8/node55/userobject1ai10030.html
http://www.zj.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node22/node167/node357/userobject9ai11719
1.html
http://www.zhejiang.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node22/node170/node2565/userobject9
ai36101.html
http://www.zhejiang.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node22/node170/node401/node7001/us
erobject9ai112432.html
http://www.zhejiang.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node22/node170/node685/userobject9ai
36608.html
http://www.zj.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node22/node169/userobject9ai117398.html
http://www.zj.gov.cn/gb/zjnew/node3/node23/node2146/userobject1ai17680.html
88
Appendix D
Links to long pages in Jiangsu government web site
http://www.js.gov.cn/shouye/zwgk/zfgzbg/200801/t20080121_192675.html
http://www.js.gov.cn/fzjs/fzjs_zcfg/201008/t20100813_484421.htm
http://www.js.gov.cn/whjs/whyc/200710/t20071026_176811.htm
http://www.js.gov.cn/xcxjs/qy/zcfg/200806/t20080602_216099.htm
http://www.js.gov.cn/lsjs/spfw/200909/t20090915_383499.htm
89
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