New Dissemination Model – Navigation

Consultation objectives

In April 2012, Statistics Canada launched its three-year New Dissemination Model project with the goal of modernizing the methods and framework for disseminating data via its website. The key objective is to increase coherence, consistency and simplicity in dissemination activities.

Consultations were held to determine whether Statistics Canada website users find the New Dissemination Model's proposed navigation framework, taxonomy and A–Z list intuitive and easy to use.

Consultation methodology

From February 19 to March 4, 2013, Communications Division conducted usability tests, during which participants were asked to complete a series of tasks.

The tests measured the participants' success in completing the tasks and tracked the method adopted by each participant to complete them. Following testing, interviews were conducted to help determine the participants' thought processes during each task.

How to get involved

This consultation is now closed.

Individuals who wish to obtain more information or to take part in a future consultation should contact Statistics Canada through the Contact Us page.

Please note that Statistics Canada selects participants for each consultation to ensure feedback from a representative sample of the target population for the study. Not all applicants are asked to participate in a given consultation.

Statistics Canada is committed to respecting the privacy of consultation participants. All personal information created, held or collected by the Agency is protected by the Privacy Act. For more information on Statistics Canada's privacy policies, please consult the Privacy notice.

Statistics Canada thanks participants for their participation in this consultation. Their insights guide the Agency's web development and ensure that the final products meet users' expectations.

Results

What worked

Participants were able to complete a range of common tasks and found the modified website generally intuitive and easy to use.

Feedback was generally positive for the main menu, A–Z list (list of common search topics) and Key indicators. The shorter list of topics and the landing page that predominantly features The Daily were preferred.

Almost all the participants stated that the Subject list was the element that worked best for them.

Areas for improvement

• Unintuitive bread-crumbing on the home page
• Low visibility of the A–Z list
• Unintuitive links and menus in the Key indicators
• Inadequate display of the Subject list
• Unintuitive use of the 'Geography' label in the main menu
• Some unfamiliar terminology in the new taxonomy

Recommendations

• Enhance the visibility of the A–Z list
• Create web pages specific to subjects included in the A–Z list and the Subject list
• Add provinces, territories, cities and regions to the 'Geography' function (available from the top menu)
• Display the data more prominently and change menus in Key indicators
• Revise some of the new taxonomy
• Clarify the Subject list to show the topic/subtopic hierarchy
• Improve the mouse-over feature