Evaluation of E-Government and Social Services Public Affairs 598 Kristen, Marie, Timothy, and Miryam February 2, 2006

Evaluation of e-Government with a Social Service Emphasis Comparison of an east coast and west coast State government website with a focus on the following social services: housing assistance, employment assistance, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, TANF and drug rehabilitation

Evaluation Criteria Search Readability Interactive Contact Info Disability Access Eligibility standards for programs posted Online applications for services # of Online Services Integrated with other Social Service websites Foreign language access Accessibility Ease of navigation Content centered Intuitive FAQ

How Did They Compare?

Washington State Website:

Washington State Website Strengths  Very integrated with other departments and services  Forms were available online and could be submitted online  Prominent foreign language content  Great interactive chat session to access help Weaknesses  No disability access  Occasionally had to navigate multiple links to get to relevant content  Dead links (e.g., Contacts link)  Misleading to translate top navigation tabs into foreign languages if linked content is in English

Contacts???

State of Maryland:

State of Maryland Website Strengths  Easily accessible contact information  Consistent design and navigation across department sites (e.g., How To tools)  Overall design not cluttered  More direct links to relevant content Weaknesses  Dead links  Info provided by search function not helpful for average citizen  Forms available to download from the web but required citizen to physically go to office to turn them in  No disability access or privacy statement  Multilingual content buried in site – not easily accessible

Applications Available in Multiple Languages

Conclusions Overall, the Washington site scored higher than the Maryland site. This was largely due to the higher number of online services available through the site and its more effective integration into other department sites. Both sites could provide more regionally relevant services that are available through nonprofit organizations that would better assist low income citizens.