A Methodology to Institutionalise User Experience in Provincial Government

Abstract

Problems experienced with website usability can prevent users from accessing and adopting technology, such as e-Government. At present, a number of guidelines exist for e-Government website user experience (UX) design; however, the effectiveness of the implementation of these guidelines depends on the expertise of the website development team and on an organisation’s understanding of UX. Despite the highlighted importance of UX, guidelines are rarely applied in South African e-Government website designs. UX guidelines cannot be implemented if there is a lack of executive support, trained staff, budget and user-centred design processes. The goal of this research is to propose and evaluate a methodology (called the “Institutionalise UX in Government (IUXG) methodology”) to institutionalise UX in South African Provincial Governments (SAPGs). The Western Cape Government in South Africa was used as a case study to evaluate the proposed IUXG methodology. The results show that the IUXG methodology can assist SAPGs to establish UX as standard practice and improve the UX maturity levels.