The redesign of the Australian Government's myGov website has been described as a mediocre attempt to give Australians a better online experience.
Joe Russell, the director of user engagement at Buzinga, an app development company, said while the site was now more more functional, it was still not particularly user-friendly by today's standards.
The new site was rolled out last weekend. myGov is meant to serve all Australians who want to access government services online.
iTWire has drawn attention to the site in the past, questioning why a one-stop shop has been set up when it could be a security nightmare.
{loadposition sam08}Said Russell: "Improvements include the sign-in process, password visibility while typing, and the ability to reset passwords, but while these are helpful features, they are really the absolute minimum we expect from a website today."
He said myGov was a task-focused site and therefore the government's goal should be to reduce the amount of time that users spent at the portal.
For this, the completion of tasks should be prioritised as efficiently as possible.
"Data entry still remains an issue," Russell said. "Having to enter the same piece of data, such as login details, multiple times is annoying and time-consuming for users.
"There are also no loading indicators when submitting forms; another pain point for users who will be tempted to hit the back or refresh button out of frustration, not aware if the submission worked or there was a disruption in Internet connectivity. This can require them to start all over again."
He suggested that basic functions to ensure customers did not disrupt the payment or submission process would significantly improve the user experience in this case.
"It's important to get myGov right for a number of reasons, the most predominant being the amount of users; 10 million Australians make 242,000 log-ins every day," Russell said.
"Opportunities have been missed here to implement UX best practice, many of which are not complicated or expensive."