Usability for public sector websites - London June 9, 2009

Gain a deep insight to usability principles and customer experience best practices for public sector web sites with our new courses.

User Experience has increasingly been crucial for businesses in current economic climate and awareness of usability in the Public Sector has been growing for the past few years. The Central Office of Information (COI) has produced new guidelines to measure the usability of Public Sector websites, which confirm that more government and public organisations want to engage citizens and deliver efficiencies through their online services.

User experience experts User Vision are offering two dates for its successful Public Sector Usability Training course:

Thursday 4 June 2009 in Edinburgh
Tuesday 9 June 2009 in London

Overview

The one day course will focus on giving you an understanding of:
* What is usability
* What are the special features of public sector usability
* Navigation and page design features that can make - or break - a good user experience for your website
* How to assess usability and how to commission usability testing
* What to consider when developing websites and applications from a user centred perspective
* The link between user experience and customer service
* How to treat user generated content

What I will learn

The course will equip you with the usability skills necessary to address the challenges brought up by the Improving Government Online initiative, including:
* How to promote Inclusiveness and getting to hard-to-reach audiences
* How to harmonise usability across all service delivery channels
* Understanding how usability can help with “No Wrong Door” and “Avoidable Contacts” problems
* How usability can promote community engagement
* How usability can increase the take-up of Web Self Service

You will also be able to rate yourself against a Usability Maturity Model, so that you can judge how far along your organisation is in bringing your users into the heart of the design of your website and its applications. This will provide a model to help your organisation understand what they should be doing to support the website as an effective service delivery channel.

About User Vision

We provide services to a wide range of public sector clients, including DirectGov, the Cabinet Office, Scottish Government, the NHS, Department of Health, DTI, Scottish Enterprise, Electoral Commission, Scottish Legal Aid Board, English Heritage, Leeds City Council , Aberdeen City Council and many other local authorities.

About the Presenters

Rob van Tol
Rob is a Senior User Experience Consultant and as a former web manager for a city council website, has experience of the real life pressures of managing a public sector website. Rob has experience handling the issues of large organisations - such as scale and organisational politics and in small organisations - where limited resources and the need to wear multi-hats is a factor. He has worked with Clients including The National Archives, Learning Teaching Scotland, the BBC and many others to deliver more user-centred sites and processes.

Chris Rourke
Chris is Managing Director of User Vision. He has over 19 years commercial experience in usability, accessibility, human factors consultancy and training. Chris has worked with a range of public sector clients including Houses of Parliament, Businesslink, Scottish Government, DirectGov, local council websites as well as many commercial clients in the UK and abroad.
What are the costs?

The cost of this unique full day course is just £300 + VAT. Lunch and all course materials will be provided for you.

Other course dates available

Edinburgh: 4th June 200. Please visit our website www.uservision.co.uk/events/2009/usability-public-sector-websites for more info.