Statistics Canada's Website Evaluation 2010

Background

• Website evaluation first conducted in 1997
• Conducted annually until 2007
• 2010: Focus on task completion
  • Now THE measure of a successful user-centric website
  • Fact-based

Research objectives

• Measure success
  • Task completion based on primary purpose of “today’s” visit
  • Overall satisfaction with the website in general
• Identify any significant changes to respondent profile
• Identify priorities for improvement
• Obtain feedback on two recent site changes: redesigned Home page and updated search function

Methodology

• Innovative intercept technology developed for the invitation
  • Deployed across the site
  • All visitors invited to participate
• Short core questionnaire with optional content (search/Home page)
• Launched April 8, 2010
  • Live for 15 days to April 23, 2010
  • Almost 10,000 respondents (versus slightly over 2000 in 2007)
  • Response rate: 3%

Results: Respondent profile

• Occupation/Sector: Results similar to previous years – Education represents the largest sector, followed by government and business
• New - Usage of mobile devices: Devices currently used to access websites in general (check all)
  • Most common way is still a desktop PC (72%)
  • Laptop/notebook (61%)
  • Mobile Phone/Smartphone/or similar device (15%)
    • Recent Visitor Pattern Analysis indicated that only 0.4% of visitors to the StatCan site used mobile devices

Findings: Frequency of visits

• In 2010, infrequent visitors (62%) represented the majority of visitors

Findings: Information sought and planned use

• Looking for data/tables on a specific topic (48%) and studies /articles/publications on a specific topic (16%)
  • The top topics of interest:
    • 4 Key Indicators (13%)
      (CPI annual inflation; Population estimate; Unemployment rate; Monthly GDP growth)
    • Health (9%)
    • Population/Demography (9%)
  • Half of respondents were looking for social statistics topics
• How respondents were planning to use the information
  • For school assignment purposes (19%)
  • For academic purposes (16%)
  • For business development or analysis (13%)
  • For policy research, analysis and development (12%)

Findings: Task completion success

• In 2010, 65% of respondents completed their task successfully…
• …compared with only 55% who found All/Most of their information in 2007
• Three-quarters of frequent visitors were successful in completing their task
• The rate was highest for respondents looking for information in The Daily (86%)
• The rate for respondents looking for census, aboriginal and demography statistics was 69%

Findings: Overall satisfaction

• Overall satisfaction (65%) appears to have decreased since 2007

Findings: Optional questions

• Home page used today (2,073)
  • Frequent visitors - 48%; Infrequent visitors – 52%
  • Of these, 59% of respondents found what they were looking for using new features – Analysts and researchers; Browse by key resource
• Search function used today (2,029)
  • Frequent visitors –38%; Infrequent visitors – 62%
  • Of these, 49% succeeded in finding the information they were looking for using search
    • Of these, 48% found what they were looking for in the first 3 search results

Findings: Suggestions for improvement

• Ease of access to data/information still ranks as the top priority for improvement

Summary of findings

• Top three sectors are still education, government and business
• Infrequent visitors represent a majority of respondents (62%)
• 65% of respondents succeeded in completing their task
  • Of these, 71% found it easy to complete
• Low completion rate when looking for information on:
  • Jobs at Statistics Canada
  • Specific topics:
    • Education, training and learning
    • Crime and justice
    • Health
    • Families, Households and Housing
• Respondents’ top priorities for improvement:
  • Ease of access to data/information
  • Search