David Eaves calls for governments to invest in design and analytics to make websites more usable | opensource.com

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Sadly- little is done in the way of municipal or government web design. Some forward efforts have been made. I look to the City of Calgary and Reinvent NYC as examples of moving in the right direction.

Recently, I left the Durham Public Schools system to work for the City of Raleigh as the Open Data Program Manager. At DPS we started the move from organizationally driven websites toward a design that is starting to be based on community feedback and analytics.

Discussing the issue with Robin McCoy from DPS yesterday I noted that the winning design violated several usability heuristic principles. I was expecting push-back. Instead I got a refreshing "write it up". I helped DPS on their redesign effort as part of the last project for a system to which I had given 7 years of my career.

Now working in Open Data I see a chance to finally build interfaces based on solid analytics. Citizen engagement is measurable and the return on Open Data investment can only be realized through a high level of citizen participation. I am looking forward to my new adventure with Raleigh. I think David Eaves is right but I also think we are starting to move in the right direction.

David Eaves calls for governments to invest in design and analytics to make websites more usable | opensource.com

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