Each year, our Michigan.gov suite of Websites is included in numerous ranking studies conducted by organizations across the country.

One of the most comprehensive studies for rankings is the Brown University Study of State and Federal E-Government in the United States. In 2003, our State Web site was rated 6 th in the nation. In 2004, we dropped to 22 nd place.

There were several reasons for this. Quality Problems Inability of our customers to find online services. Accessibility- the portal was not Section 508 compatible Lack of feedback tools (Ask a Question, Send Comments, etc…) on every page.

Quality Problems Improving the quality of Michigan.gov

Broken Links Broken Anchors Missing Titles Missing Key Words Missing Description Warning Redirects Missing Alt Text Local File Links 2, ,7101, ,1732 Number of Michigan.gov quality problems based on random sample of 5,000 pages through State portal Quality Problems

Broken Links Broken Anchors Missing Titles Missing Key Words Missing Description Warning Redirects Missing Alt Text Local File Links 2, ,7101, ,1732 Problems we all need to address immediately… Quality Problems

Online Services eMI Strategy for Improving Access to Online Services at the State of Michigan

Online Services We did have online services on the old home page but the listing was small and hard to read. The comprehensive listing of services was not categorized or even alpha sorted making it difficult to find anything.

Old Portal Home Page

New Home Page

Online Services Master List Old vs. New

Improved Portal Online Services On the State of Michigan home page: Top Level Online Services component Displays 5 of our most requested services Clicking on the “More Online Services” link located at the bottom of the component presents the customer a comprehensive listing Sorted by Theme Link to a complete alphabetical listing. For ease of use, we have also added three additional categories for sorting services: “Consumers” “Finance” “Services at State Departments”

New Portal Online Services Each theme of the new portal features a component that allows customers to find services related to that particular theme. The Online Services component lists 5-6 of the most requested services with a link to a comprehensive listing of all services relating to that theme. Let’s Take a Look…

Top 5 Sites from the Brown U Study Tennessee Maine Utah New York Ilinois

Next Steps Improving Online Service Access at the Agency Site Level

Add a Link to Statewide Online Services Add a link to the Statewide Online Services Index to your home page. Ideally, we would like a standard location and verbiage for this link on all agency sites. A standard asset and link will be added below the More State Web Sites button on the RNav If you are not using a RNav on your home page, you will need to include the link in the top navigation menu. Link Text: Statewide Online Services URL: /som/0,1607, ,00.html

Proposed look of the added functionality:

Create Agency Online Services Index on All Agency Sites 1.Create an ONLINE_SERVICES category at the navigation level and select Content as the category type. 2.Take inventory of all of the online services your agency has to offer. 3.If you already have content linking to the service, just add an association to your ONLINE_SERVICES category from the content. 4.If you do not have a link created, create a link to the service in the ONLINE_SERVICES category. 5.Add a page layout to the ONLINE_SERVICES category. Select the Sorted List as the layout type. 6.In Component Modifier, select Alpha Sort as the sort type.

7.To display the Online Services Component on your home page, ask your eMichigan Expert to add a List with More component to your agency home page. By default, the component is a single wide list – if you would like it to be different, let eMI know. 8.Associate the component to your ONLINE_SERVICES category. 9.Use the component modifier to select how many items you would like in the list before displaying the “More” link 10.Edit the “More” linktext to display what you would like to say. Examples: Click for More Services, More Online Services, Agency Services, Index of Services...

You should now have an Online Services Component and index on your site. Notify your eMI Expert and we will add the URL to access your Online Services index to the comprehensive listing on the SOM site under State Agency Online Services. We would like all agencies to implement this enhancement on their site by February 1, Questions?