Taking A Customer Centric Point of View of

Your Online Database

David Smith, CRS 2010 TAIRS Conference

Copies of this presentation will be made available at

http://www.linkedin.com/in/david211

following the conference.

AIRS Standards

Service Delivery Standard 6 : Additional Channels for Access

– You must place all or part of your database online.

– It must meet certain criteria for search features.

– Records have to be displayed in such a way that the inquirer can make an informed choice.

AIRS Standards

• Quality Indicator #5– The main role of

technology is to enhance or strengthen person-to-person contact, not to reduce or discourage such contact or make it more difficult.

– The I&R service develops strategies and procedures to ensure that all inquirers receive comparable benefit, either directly or indirectly, from the use of technology. It evaluates the pros and cons of a particular piece of technology prior to implementation to assure that one group of inquirers does not benefit while the needs of other groups are ignored.

Six Non-Negotiable Standards for High-Quality

Information Online

"When the American people need government information and

services online, they should be able to:

• Easily find relevant, accurate, and up-to-date information;

• Understand information the first time they read it;

• Complete common tasks efficiently; • Get the same answer whether they

use the web, phone, email, live chat, read a brochure, or visit in-person;

• Provide feedback and ideas and hear what the government will do with them;

• Access critical information if they have a disability or aren’t proficient in English."

Source: 2008 White Paper, Putting Citizens First : Transforming Online Government, by the Federal Web Manager’s Council.

Basic Questions

• Who is looking at your website?

• What do they want?

• How are you doing?

Basic Techniques

• Who is looking at your website?– User Personas

• What do they want?– Complete Top Tasks

• How are you doing?– Usability Testing

Personas

What Is A Persona?

• A persona is a fictional person who represents a major user group for your site.

• Personas help you identify major user groups of your Web site. You select the characteristics that are most representative of those groups and turn them into a persona.

Review Persona Handouts

• Policy Gatekeeper– http://www.ers.usda.gov/AboutERS/oursite/Personas/P

olicyGatekeepers.pdf

• Low-Income Families and Individuals

– http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/documents/USDA_Audience_Analysis.pdf

Essential Elements Of A Persona

• A name (a real name like Greg or Madeline, etc.)

• Age• A photo• Personal information, including

family and home life• Work environment (the tools

used and the conditions worked under, rather than a job description)

• Computer proficiency and comfort level with using the Web

• Pet peeves and technical frustrations

• Attitudes• Motivation or "trigger" for using

a high-tech product (not just tasks, but end results)

• Information-seeking habits and favorite resources

• Personal and professional goals• Candid quotes

Team Exercise

Task Analysis

What Is A Top Task?

A top task is a task that many of customers/staff need to regularly complete on your public website

Managing theLong Neck

Source : Gerry McGovernCustomercarewords.com

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The Long Neck

Source: Top Caller Requests

Group Exercise : What Are the Top Tasks for a Typical

I&R Website?

Usability Testing

Basic Approach

1. Get hold of some representative users.

2. Ask the users to perform representative tasks with the design.

3. Observe what the users do, where they succeed, and where they have difficulties with the user interface.

4. Shut up and let the users do the talking.

Source: Usability 101http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html

Volunteer

How Many Testers?

Define A Scenario

A scenario is a short story about a specific user with a specific goal at

your site.

Example : – I’m the outreach

specialist for a teen hotline. How can I check to see if my program is listed in the 2-1-1 database? If not, what do I need to do?

Define Success

• User successfully completes task.

• User successfully completes task within [X] search word attempts or [Y] minutes

Define Failure

• User gives up.• User fails to complete

task within [X] minutes.• Technical problems

prevent the user from completing the task.

Don’t Ignore the Disaster

• User completes task, but the result was wrong.

Individual Exercise

Create A Testing Scenario for Your

Own Website

1.Pick A Persona2.Pick A Task3.Develop A Scenario4.Define Successful

and Other Outcomes

Recap

• Know Your Customers

• Know What They Want

• Test Whether Your Website Delivers What They Want

• Make Changes Based Upon Test Results

• Repeat Cycle Forever

Bonus Content

Strategies Other I&Rs Are Using To

Bridge the KSA Gap

• 2-1-1 Connecticut E-Library

• Custom “Browse By Taxonomy” Categories

Resources

Webcontent.govUsability.gov

Useit.comCustomercarewords.com

Visit these websites, join their newsletters, read their books

And Then Let’s Talk About What’s Next

David Smithdsmith@unitedwayhouston.org

713-685-2824http://www.linkedin.com/in/david211