Book Reviews

Consumerfinance.gov. Administered by the Consumer FinanceProtection Bureau, 1700 G Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20552.Retrieved April 29, 2013, from http://www.consumerfinance.gov/.

The intent of this review is to evaluate the merits ofconsumerfinance.gov, the website of the Consumer Financial Protec-tion Bureau (CFPB), an agency established in 2010 through theDodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act — P.L.111-203. The agency's purpose is to ensure that financial productsand services are meeting the needs of American consumers by pro-viding comprehensible and legitimate instructions and materials.According to the CFPB, its three purposes are to educate consumersabout abusive practices; enforce Federal financial laws; and studyconsumers, providers, and markets to understand their respectivebehavior (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2012).

The CFPB website's primary audience is the American public —

that is, any citizen who is a consumer; this only excludes young chil-dren. The agency also works with and supervises some banking insti-tutions and other organizations, although information on the websitefor those groups is limited. Members of the media are also a tertiaryaudience for the website. As such, the audience's demographicsrange far and wide, from consumers to institutions to the media.The website's content includes:

• Internal documents about its operations made public, includingbudgetary reports, the agency's strategic plan, and job postings

• Resources for consumer assistance and complaints• Legal and regulatory guidelines• Opportunities for consumers to give feedback on agency proposals• Data on consumer complaints.

The presentation is professional and authoritative, with a horizontalglobal navigation, a main content area, followed by a three-columnlayout. Icons guide the user through the content in each section. Infor-mation for consumers needing assistance is mostly organized by usercommunity, with separate groups for students, senior citizens, veterans,and small banks. This also provides insight into the groups that the CFPBconsiders its audiences.

Strengths

The website's designers obviously prioritized a high level oftransparency:

• There are frequent references to the agency's ombudsman (WendyKamenshine) including a footer link and extendedwebpage explainingher position and its role within the organization. Thewebpage containsa sub-navigation which links to the 2012 Ombudsman's Report, theombudsman's charter, contact information, and related blog posts.

• The site emphasizes plain writing. This extends to the CFPB's priva-cy policy, which includes succinct and understandable explanationsof how the agency uses web traffic analytics, users' voluntarilydisclosed contact information, and blog comments.

• The Freedom of Information Act is explained simply but in detail, asis agency contact information.

• An organizational chart and the director's calendar are posted to thewebsite. The calendar details his meeting schedule in the previousmonth.

From a design and user experience (UX) perspective, the CFPB'swebsite is consistently clean, with a simple color scheme that is mir-rored in its fonts and styles aswell as its infographics. There is a refresh-ing lack of stock photography. Archives and taxonomy categories arevery thoroughly maintained, which is vital for user searches.

The CFPB does an excellent job using infographics to explain com-plex financial matters, such as student loans. A new feature in beta,Paying for College, promises to help make informed decisions aboutstudent loan debt. The tools will eventually allow a comparison of fi-nancial aid packages side-by-side, quizzes that help you choose aloan, and a step-by-step guide to repaying loans. A glossary of termsdefines the nuances of forbearances and FAFSA: it is a significant un-dertaking, but central to the Agency's mission, and the digital spaceprovides the tools to make it possible. The level of interactivity isnot exceptional, but the service is not yet finished.

One source for interaction with the public is consumer complaints,which consumerfinance.gov excels at handling. “The Bureau receivedapproximately 45,630 complaints between July 21, 2011 and June 1,2012… It issued responses in 81% of the complaints,” according toAOL's DailyFinance (Effron, 2012). “Another 6% were still awaiting re-sponses,while the rest had either been sent to other regulatory agenciesor found to be incomplete (Effron, 2012).” An 81% response rate isexceptional, though the source does not indicate how quickly thoseresponses were made.

The CFPB is also empowering users to help themselves. A data-base that debuted in July 2012 provides data on which credit cardissuers have the most complaints against them, the types of prob-lems, and how the disputes were handled. Director Richard Cordraycalled it a first for the public to be able to see individual data:“Anyone with access to the web will be able to review and analyzethe information” (Sabatini, 2012). This relates to the Agency's sub-stantial focus on transparency, not only for its own operations, butalso to provide consumers with a look into a previously privatecadre of information.

Finally, the CFPB's website meets UX expectations for internetspeed. The page load time is 83% faster than other websites(Pingdom Tools). However, it does not render very well for mobiledevices, with a home page size of 91 KB (ideal is 20 KB). There areother formatting issues, including missing ALT tags, which providedescriptions for images and graphics to users who cannot view them.

Weaknesses

The agency has placed featured story content front and center onthe home page, when addressing consumer complaints arguablyshould have that visibility. Its social media content is uninspired,

Government Information Quarterly 30 (2013) 529–533

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Government Information Quarterly

j ourna l homepage: www.e lsev ie r .com/ locate /gov inf

which may explain why the number of followers on social channels isunimpressive.

From a usability perspective, there are an abundance of PDF docu-ments on the website that must disrupt the browsing session or bedownloaded and read at another time. Images are almost exclusivelygraphic, without any involving real-life people or places. This is toCFPB's detriment, since people look for faces and eyes on webpages(Fadeyev, 2009).

Other well-intentioned efforts, such as the consumer complaint da-tabase, are simply not user-friendly for the average person. Huge datasets are provided for download or to “visualize.” Even the example visu-alizations are cumbersome to navigate. For web developers or otherprofessionals, this information may be more useful.

Finally, the CFPB website is not truly interactive because, while youcan submit forms, ask for assistance or “tell your story,” you cannotread others' stories — yet.

Summary

The CFPB is a brand-new agency with a very unique mandate to thepublic. Its website is highly significant and generally well-executed. Inits mission to educate consumers, it largely achieves its objectives, orshows progress in the right direction. The website's content iswell-presented and of high quality; it is of use to consumers, and hasa generally acceptable user interface.

The CFPB likely benefited from the novelty as a new agency andthe lack of age-old burdens. Whatever the reason, it has largely ful-filled its mission through consumerfinance.gov. A focus on mobileand fresh home page content will continue to move it forward.

References

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (2012). Learn about the Bureau. http://www.consumerfinance.gov/the-bureau/ (accessed December 9, 2012).

Effron, Harris (2012). Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Complaint Site Takes onCredit Reports, Too. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/10/24/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-complaint-site-credit-reports/ (accessed December 14, 2012).

Fadeyev, Dmitry (September 24). 10 useful usability findings and guidelines.http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2009/09/24/10-useful-usability-findings-and-guidelines/ (accessed December 14, 2012).

Pingdom Tools. Test the load time of a web page. http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/#!/wVnSpY9kb/http://www.consumerfinance.gov/ (accessed December 9, 2012).

Sabatini, Patricia (July 2). Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launches online data-base that tracks credit card complaints. http://www.wptv.com/dpp/money/consumer/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-launches-online-database-that-tracks-credit-card-complaints (accessed December 13, 2012).

Jackie Sauter ZajacUniversity of Maryland, Hornbake Library, College Park, MD 20742, USA

E-mail address: jsauter@umd.edu

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2013.05.005

Voting and Elections: A USA.gov Section Review. Administered by theU.S. General Services Administration, Federal Citizen InformationCenter, One Constitution Square, 1275 First Street NE, Washington,DC 20417. Retrieved April 23, 2013, from http://www.usa.gov/.

USA.gov is the U.S. government's official web portal, acting as a cen-tralized government information service. The Government ServicesAdministration (GSA) and 22 other federal agencies funded the initia-tive, originally launched in September 2000 as “FirstGov.gov.” In 2002,USA.gov was legislatively mandated through Section 204 of theE-Government Act of 2002 and now receives annual appropriationsfrom the U.S. Congress. With information organized under

approximately 20 subject headings, USA.gov is the gateway to govern-ment information.

The Voting and Elections section of USA.gov offers voter education andelection information services to the public. As the official source for voterinformation services, it is exceptionally important that the Voting andElections site be usable, accessible, easily navigable, and informative. Pro-viding a resource that fosters an environment that allows for equitableaccess to information is essential in building an informed citizenry andpromoting democratic values.

Voting and Elections is situated within the Citizens topic header andcan be found by searching in the USA.gov search bar or through A–Ztopics listings. The home page is text-based, with no images or visualcues. A series of links in the center of the page direct the user to learnmore about the current president, elections and voting, where to vote,absentee ballots, voter registration, candidate information, volunteeringduring election times, campaign fundraising and spending, and how tocontact elected officials.

The Learn about Elections and Voting section is presented in distinctsections. “General Information” provides information on elections andvoting, how to volunteer, frequently asked questions about voter regis-tration, and voting. “EducationalMaterials” offers child-friendly informa-tion on the election process and the U.S. government as well as lessonplans for educators. “Electoral College” and “Election History” reviewthe Electoral College, voting and registration statistics, and the historyof votingmethods, to name several. The “Legislation and Reform” sectionpoints users towards resources discussing campaign finance law, consti-tutional provisions, and the Voting Rights Act. Finally, “Organizations andAgencies”provides links to state election offices and theU.S. Federal Elec-tion Commission.

The Where Do I Vote? section takes users to the U.S. Election Assis-tance Commission website where they can select their state on aninteractive map and be directed to the respective Secretary of Statewebsite. Request an Absentee Ballot provides information onrequesting and voting with absentee ballots. Volunteer and Contributeto the Election Process offers guides for citizens who wish to volunteer.Contact Elected Officials links users to the websites U.S. Senators andRepresentatives.

All of the aforementioned sections are entirely text-based, with nographics or interactive functions hosted within the Voting and Elec-tions topic. They also do not provide any actual information untilthree or four levels down — every piece is another link that directsyou to a different page, either within the Voting and Elections topic,or to an outside source. With the exception of “Register to Vote”and “Research Candidates,” all of the links from the home page arearranged in this way.

The “Register to Vote” section provides information on voter eligibil-ity and the different options for registering to vote. It directs the user toconsult their state's election office, and provides a link to the appropri-ate website. Additionally, it lists each state's registration deadlines. “Re-search Candidates” stresses the importance of informed voting to users.This section describes voting guides and informs users on how to findtheir sample ballot. It also suggests checking the voting history of candi-dates, and points users to Congress.gov where they can find candidates'voting records. Finally, it reminds users to research local ballot issuesand leads them to the state election site link list. These two sectionsare the only instances where direct information is provided on theVoting and Elections pages. Unlike the other pages that only providelinks to outside information, the “Register to Vote” and “ResearchCandidates” sections offer on-site information without having to clickmultiple levels down.

Throughout the Voting and Elections section, each page has acontact box encouraging the user to contact the site if they havequestions or comments as well as an email form users can fill out toreceive email updates on the topic. A “Related Resources” box alsoappears on every page. Suggested topics vary depending on thespecific page in use, but all lead to additional voting and elections

530 Book Reviews