The assessment of credibility of e-government: Users' perspective

Abstract

Electronic government is increasing worldwide; however there are still some problems which influence users' interaction with them. One of these problems is trustworthiness, which appears to be affected by whether e-government websites demonstrate their credibility. This study uses an empirical approach to evaluate credibility of e-government websites, especially at the local level in the UK. The evaluation consists of three steps: free interaction, task-based interaction and questionnaire. The results indicate that the majority of credibility problems are related to "site easy use", "site looks professional" and "site update". The value of the study is that it provides guidance for designers to improve the credibility of e-government websites. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.