Government health-information sites are doing an exceptionally good job, according to the report. Career and recruiting sites are also standout performers, particularly in specialized fields such as State Department and CIA jobs.
Not all the news is rosy, though all categories of sites measured have, on average, shown improvement. Portals and agency main Web sites tend to have the least-impressive scores. The report indicates that meeting the multiple expectations of diverse audiences effectively remains a largely elusive goal, and these sites, in general, are still early in their evolution.
The ACSI E-Government Satisfaction Index is produced quarterly by the University of Michigan in partnership with the American Society for Quality, CFI Group, and ForeSee Results, an online customer satisfaction management firm. Participation is voluntary and is used by agencies as a performance measurement and improvement tool. The e-government assessment is a special service of the ACSI, whose main product is a national measure of the quality of goods and services, both online and offline, as experienced by consumers.
Recruitment Sites: With large proportions of government workers nearing retirement age and with national security imperatives demanding more talent, recruiting people into federal service is particularly important.
The Central Intelligence Agency careers site registered an 80 on the ACSI's100-point scale, six points above the national average of all goods and services measured by the ACSI. The CIA's score is better than most commercial Web sites. The State Department's careers site shows similar strength, with a score of 79.
The government's comprehensive careers portal, USAJOBS, has an even bigger job to do. It earned a respectable score of 73, while serving more than six million visitors per month.
Health Sites: Government health sites rival -- and surpass -- the commercial sector. MedlinePlus, a general health site operated by the National Institutes of Health, earned a score of 86, putting it in striking distance of one of e-commerce's leaders -- Amazon.com. In a recent ACSI report on e-commerce, Amazon registered an 88, one of the highest scores ever earned by any company measured by the ACSI.
Health-site satisfaction is driven by a few key factors. Users find that the sites include the specific types of information they want, and there is a level of specificity and detail that may be hard to find elsewhere. The sites generally get high marks for accessibility, having built navigation systems that are very similar to what users are accustomed to from commercial sites.
MedlinePlus en espa
