Statistics Canada's Website Evaluation 2017

Consultation objectives

In January 2017, Statistics Canada conducted an evaluation of its website to seek feedback from visitors on a number of topics, including:

• task completion success rates
• overall satisfaction with the website

Consultation methodology

Statistics Canada used an intercept technology deployed across the website to invite visitors to participate by completing a short questionnaire.

In total, 10,070 visitors participated in the consultation from January 8 to 23, 2017.

How to get involved

This consultation is now closed.

Individuals who wish to obtain more information or to take part in a consultation should contact Statistics Canada by sending an email to statcan.consultations-consultations.statcan@statcan.gc.ca.

Please note that Statistics Canada selects participants for each consultation to ensure feedback is sought from a representative sample of the target population for the study. Not all applicants will be 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.

Results

Overall satisfaction

In 2017, 73% of consultation participants expressed overall satisfaction, down from 75% in 2016.

Information sought

Consultation results show that 67% of visitors were looking for data and data tables on a specific topic, while 9% searched for studies, articles or publications on a specific topic.

Task completion success

In 2017, 77% of participants completed their task successfully, down from 81% in 2016.

Among successful participants, 80% took 5 minutes or less to find the information they were seeking and 80% reported that finding information was easy.

In addition, 83% of frequent visitors (those who visited the website six or more times in the last six months) and 74% of infrequent visitors (those who visited the website fewer than six times in the last six months) indicated that they found what they were looking for. The success rate was highest for participants looking for information in The Daily (92%).

Participants in the provincial (82%) and federal government (81%) sectors were most successful in finding information. Of all the respondents, 54% were employed and 24% were students; the remainder were self-employed (8%), retired (7%), unemployed (5%) or not in the workforce (2%).

Consultation participant profile

Most employed participants worked in the business/private sector (48%), government (33%), or non-governmental organizations (12%). In 2017, 69% all participants were infrequent visitors.

Participants were also asked how they would rate their statistical proficiency: 25% said they had a high proficiency (can manipulate datasets and do univariate or multivariate analysis); 60% said medium (can analyze and interpret data tables and turn them into useable information); 12% said low (can calculate a percentage and can display in a graph); and 3% indicated that they have no statistical proficiency at all.

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.