Extending and Refining Usability Heuristics to Better Address User Centered Design Issues in the Development and Evaluation of Municipal Websites

Abstract

The usability of public administration Web sites is a key issue in the information environment. Unfortunately, the Web content is still difficult to use if not unusable in many Web sites. Many developers seem to neglect basic principles of user centered design. As such, usability heuristics are a valuable resource for both developers and evaluators during and after the development process. The purpose of this work is to extend and refine an existing set of heuristics in order to better address some user centered design issues. Previous studies revealed specific usability problems of municipal Web sites as well as some evaluation issues. Two heuristics were added that refer to user guidance and task support. The revised heuristics could better help evaluators explain and developers to understand usability problems in municipal Web sites.