Assessing and Improving User Experience with e-Government Portals

Objectives: Classify e-service functions on Websites or portals in order to prioritize which ones to improve based on their performance and importance as viewed by consumers. Methods/Statistical Analysis: We use the standard SERVQUAL questionnaire to extract the Website consumers’ views. Then, we analyse the collected data using the Two Dimensional Mean Value Matrix (TDMVM) by mapping the consumer’s perception on a 2D space of function performance-importance. The SERVQUAL questionnaire has been customized to suit the business domain we are experimenting with. Findings: As a proof-of-concept, we applied our methodology to one of the national e-government Websites called Tanmia. The two mean values of performance-importance for the 20 quality-specific questions of SERVQUAL were mapped to the 4 quadrants of the TDMVM. Based on the final projection of the quality questions on the 4-quadrant matrix, a recommendation report has been generated with a course of action for each corresponding quadrant. Application/Improvements: Consumers deserve to express their feedback toward e-services delivered. At the same time, decision makers and Website admins need the right tools that allow them to focus on what matters the most to the consumers in order to fix underperforming functions. We showed a methodology, which combines SERVQUAL and TDMVM, that can pinpoint the areas that need immediate attention and the areas that we do not need to waste resources on fixing them. The methodology should boost consumer satisfaction while rending decision makers working effectively and efficiently by allocating resources at the right functional areas.