1.0 Executive Summary

As part of the Improvement Service’s Customer First Programme, Scottish councils worked together to develop a shared A - Z of website content, a common Scottish Services List and a Scottish Navigation List with these, in turn, all being linked to a comprehensive knowledge base of FAQ’s and electronic forms. Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire Councils led the project, in partnership with the Improvement Service. The simple aim is to help citizens access services and find, in a consistent way, what they are looking for, on council websites, and help take councils closer to the Scottish Executive's goal of 75% of citizen enquiries being answered at the first point of contact.

Designing a navigation structure for a complex topic such as local government involves, of necessity, a degree of compromise between the competing constraints and maxims of web design and usability. A balance, too, must be sought between the breadth of the navigation structure and its depth. The SNL is designed to optimise the trade-off between breadth and depth. This documents sets out how the concepts in the SNL have been organised, proposed an SNL of 11 top level headings, sets out the rationale behind their selection and, finally, highlights some changes - additions and deletions - to the top-level headings compared to the Local Government Navigation List ( LGNL ).

1.1 Purpose of the SNL

• To provide a structured means of access to knowledge on council websites using ‘ drill-down ‘ techniques;
• To promote a user-centric focus for Scottish council websites which is not hide-bound by departmental structures

1.2 Main Principles of the SNL

• Use of simple language – not council terms;
• Intrinsic relationship to the new Scottish Services List (SSL), and to the Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary (IPSV);
• Intended for use alongside other navigation methods, such as A-Zs and internal search engines;
• Polyhierarchical Structure, i.e. information can be placed under more than one heading, to accommodate the differing thought patterns of individual members of the public;
• Flexibility for use with Content Management Systems of both single and poly-hierarchical navigation capability.

1.3 Benefits of the SNL

• Content organised with citizen focus;
• Ready link to neighbouring sites and local portals through standardised PIDs ( service reference numbers );
• Direct mapping to current and future metadata standards

1.4 Current Status of the SNL

• 1.00 released 31st October 2006
• 1.01 released 9th January 2007
• 1.02 has a submissions deadline of 1st March 2007
• 1.02 has a scheduled release date of 13th April 2007
• 1.03 has a scheduled release date of 25th May 2010

For further information, either continue reading below or visit the Project Scotland page for further details on this and all the other project deliverables.

2.0 Context

In April 2004, a consortia of 3 councils - Clackmannanshire, East Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire - bid for MGF3 funding from the Scottish Executive to develop a Knowledge Base of Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs ) and Forms for all Scottish Councils. The Knowledge Base’s intended purpose was to provide a means of streamlining access to council information so enabling frontline staff to resolve routine enquiries at the first time of asking.

The bid was evaluated and approved by the Scottish Executive and the project deliverables extended to include the development of a model A – Z, Service List and Navigation List.

The decision to focus on a common A – Z and navigation structure is guided by UK priorities identified under the Implementing Electronic Government ( IEG ) process managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

IEG Priority 2 ‘Community Information’ relates to a requirement for ‘integrated information about services for the community delivered by local and regional partnerships where appropriate and connected to a national infrastructure’. This requirement specifies access to joined-up information on all local authority services via a website. The navigation structure offers users a means of access to information on council websites.

Although IEG directives apply only to England, the requirement to adhere to UK government interoperability standards is also recognised in Scotland. Here, local authority knowledge initiatives funded by the Scottish Executive require compliance with the Open Scotland Information Age Framework ( OSIAF ). OSIAF mandates the e-Government Interoperability Framework ( e-GIF ), which includes the e-Government Metadata Standard ( e-GMS ). Scottish local authorities are encouraged to be voluntary members of OSIAF and to adhere to the mandated standards. The project’s deliverables are designed to help local authorities achieve compliance with national interoperability standards and in particular the Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary ( IPSV ), which is mandated as part of the e-GMS.

3.0 Designing the Scottish Navigation List

Design of the navigation list was a bottom-up process. Council services across Scotland were reviewed and listed in the new Scottish Services List ( SSL ), a comprehensive list of customer facing services delivered by Scottish councils.

The labelling and grouping of concepts is critical in guiding users to the right information. Users need labels that provide ‘ scent ’ to send them in the right direction to find the information they want. The choice of labels is an art rather than a science, however, it is essential to use terms that not only describe the concepts covered but to do so in way that people will readily understand.

The naming or labelling of a concept should be seen as a separate process from determining what is covered by the concept. However, they have a close relationship and it is important that the labels chosen are suggestive of what the concept covers. Great care is required in the choice.

Selection of terms for the SNL has been guided by the standard for website navigation in England and Wales, the Local Government Navigation List ( LGNL ) as well as comprehensive range of visits and discussions with many Scottish councils.

The LGNL is arranged according to the poly-hierarchy concept i.e. pages and information are found under more than one heading in the structure. This has the advantage of allowing the structure to fit in with the different ways that different users think about information. The SNL is also arranged according to the poly-hierarchy concept.

4.0 Rationale for the Structure

In designing a website’s navigation structure, there has to be a trade off between the breadth of the structure and of its depth. It is proposed that the SNL will have 11 top-level headings, that it will be 4 levels deep in certain areas and 3 levels in others as a means of optimising the balance between breadth and depth.

From a usability perspective, evidence suggests that 7 top-level headings are optimum. However, the SNL covers 1400 unique pages and because it is poly-hierarchical there are around 4000 pages in total. This means that a structure with 7 top-level headings would need to be 5 levels deep to accommodate all of the pages in the structure. A lower number of top-level headings means that the structure becomes deeper or broader at lower levels. In such circumstances, it is more difficult to display the list of pages on one standard screen and for users to scan the list.

With 11 top-level headings, it is considered that the concepts covered are distinct enough for users to identify where the information they are looking for sits in the navigation structure and that there are not too great a number of options so as to confuse users.

Accessibility for all pages within three clicks has been the prevalent dogma of website design in recent years. However, user experience of the web is growing and research now suggests that it is acceptable to employ four levels, provided users are orientated by aids such as breadcrumb trails.

The problem with designing a three-level structure to cover a complex area like local government is that even with 11 or 12 top-level headings, the number of concepts presented to users at second level can be up to 32 and up to 40 at the third level. Research suggests that navigation-only pages should be kept short. Therefore, the SNL has been produced with four levels, to avoid large numbers of terms at the third level. The only feasible way to display this number would be as a large list on a scrolling page.

Some areas of council services are inherently more complicated than others – for example, housing is a more complex area than leisure. Therefore, Housing goes down to four levels more often than Community Life and Leisure. The idea behind the four-level option is to avoid forcing concepts into structures that negatively affect their presentation on the web.

5.0 Rationale for the SNL’s 11 Top-Level Headings

The 11 top-level headings are:

• Business and trade
• Council and government
• Education and learning
• Housing
• Jobs and careers
• Law and licensing
• Community life and leisure
• Planning and the environment
• Social care and health
• Tourism and visitor attractions
• Transport and streets

5.1 Changes to the Labels for SNL’s Top-Level Headings ( as compared to LGNL headings )

• Business has become Business and Trade to try to give the concept some context and users more idea of what is covered.
• Council and Democracy has become Council and Government because there is evidence that people think more in terms of the concrete concept of ‘ government ’ rather than the abstract concept of ‘ democracy ’.
• Environment and Planning has been reversed to become Planning and the Environment as ‘ planning ‘ is a more widely searched for term on council sites than ‘ environment ’. As a clearly understood concept, it helps to give the more nebulous concept ‘ the environment ’ some context.
• Health and Social Care’' has been reversed to Social Care and Health’' in the belief that social care should be given more prominence as a primary area of council responsibility.

5.2 Additional SNL Top-Level Headings ( not present in LGNL )

• Law and Licensing has been included because of the feedback received from English councils that users find it difficult to place it in the LGNL’s structure.
• Tourism and Visitor attractions has been included as a top level heading in response to councils’ requests that information provided for tourists and visitors should be given more prominence to reflect the economic importance of leisure visits to local areas.

5.3 LGNL Top-level Headings that are not represented in the SNL

• Advice and Benefits has been dropped as a top-level heading. Firstly, as it was noted that councils provided information rather than advice and, secondly, as information and any advice given fits better under the other top level headings e.g. if a user wanted housing ‘ advice ’, this information could be found under the top level heading of Housing.
• Community and Living has merged with Leisure and Culture to become Community life and Leisure to provide a coherent structure for the full range of participant activities at a local level. Some of the Community and Living concepts are now included under Social care and Health.
• Culture has been dropped from the top-level because of public confusion over its true meaning. In general, it cannot be regarded as a public-facing term.

6.0 Making Changes to SNL

It is proposed that the SNL is updated in accordance with the standard practice for the family of local government controlled lists. At present, these lists are updated twice annually. Updates should be timed to coincide with and build up changes to the Scottish Services List ( SSL ) and IPSV.

6.1 Change Process

When considering changes to the SNL, the following criteria should be considered:

• Is the concept in the SSL? ( i.e. does it have a PID/SSL number? )
• Is it similar to an existing service already in the SNL?

8Is it a concept that people would think to look for on a local authority site?

If the answer to the first question is ‘No’, a temporary number will be assigned and the service considered for inclusion in the SSL.

6.2 Adding/Modifying/Deleting SNL

When recommending a change to the SNL, it would be most helpful if contributors could provide the following for each proposed change:

• Name of term (in Plain English)
• PID/SSL reference number ( if one exists )
• Nature of change i.e. addition/deletion/modification
• Location of change i.e. Current parent ( including primary and any secondary relationships )
• Proposed change i.e. Proposed parent ( including primary and any secondary relationships )
• General comment/ supporting argument

7.0 Conclusion

Comments or queries can be directed via the forum at: http://www.esd.org.uk/forums/viewforum.php?f=169

Please post questions and comments on the Scottish A - Z and Knowledge Base Project forum at http://www.esd.org.uk/forums/viewforum.php?f=169. Your normal Local e-Government Standards Body and esd-toolkit login applies. You can register and login from http://www.esd-toolkit.org/integratedforums/. (You do not need to be a local government officer to use this forum.)

Feedback can also be by e-mail to standards@esd-toolkit.org.