User-Centric Evaluation of Government of Kenya Online Services: The Case of iTax

Abstract

National and local governments have been working to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to increase citizen participation in their operations. While many of these efforts have been driven from a government perspective, the users‟ needs, motivations and behavior have been largely ignored. This paper explores a user-centric approach to e-governance and looks at how user perspectives and attitudes affect adoption of online government services. A user-centric evaluation model of online government services was developed in this research. The iTax online system, which facilitates electronic filing of tax returns in Kenya, was selected as a case study. The research framework was based on the technology acceptance models focusing on the aspects of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Interviews, questionnaires and a usability study were used to collect data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the qualitative data, while coding and usability metrics were used to analyze the quantitative data. The findings show that to increase the adoption of online government services, governments need to focus their strategies on addressing the needs of their users, their attitudes towards to the electronic services, and respond to the identified needs appropriately.