FiscalNote, a legislative intelligence platform provider based out of Washington, D.C., evaluated 54 legislative websites across the country and determined that there was substantial room for improvement in many cases.
Adam Nekola, a marketing Web developer with FiscalNote, said the company’s study looked at the several factors, including server technology, user security, mobile usability, analytics, content management and site speed.
Researchers found substantial deficiencies when compared against the leading industry practices.
“I wouldn’t say these are necessarily shocking findings,” he said.
Best, Worst Legislative WebsitesThe FiscalNote report ranked the best and worst of the legislative websites in the study based on speed, data and usability:The BestCalifornia State Legislature / Web Speed: Good, Data: Good, Usability: GoodMichigan State Legislature / Web Speed: Good, Data: Average, Usability: Average Tennessee General Assembly / Web Speed: Average, Data: Average, Usability: Good West Virginia Legislature / Web Speed: Good, Data: Average, Usability: Good Virginia Legislature / Web Speed: Good, Data: Good, Usability: Good The WorstAlaska State Legislature / Web Speed: Bad, Data: Average, Usability: AverageArizona State Legislature / Web Speed: Average, Data: Bad, Usability: Bad Florida House of Representatives / Web Speed: Bad, Data: Average, Usability: Bad Kentucky State Legislature / Web Speed: Average, Data: Bad, Usability: Bad New Mexico State Legislature / Web Speed: Average, Data: Bad, Usability: Good |
While the PHP framework is often the popular choice for high-traffic sites, the legislative websites favored ASP.NET frameworks, which seem to be a popular choice for government Web contractors.
In addition, the FiscalNote report cites that mobile users were often left in a lurch when trying to access the majority of the legislative Web pages. Failures to adjust to tablet and smartphone screens made navigation difficult.
“The vast majority were lacking mobile-friendly usability,” Nekola said.
In May 2015, Google announced that mobile Web access had surpassed desktop access for the first time. The ever-growing shift away from stationary computing for everyday Internet access underscores the need for websites that can keep up with their on-the-go users, he said.
According to the FiscalNote report, only four of the 54 legislative websites featured mobile-responsive designs.
While many of the government websites offed little in the way of modern Web “comforts,” Nekola said overhauling websites from the ground up isn’t exactly the solution.
Simple changes, like the addition and use of analytics and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security on the backend of websites, would go a long way to improving operations for the end users, he said.
The simple ability for administrators to clearly see what information users are trying to access would improve the overall experience in a line of code and allow for reactive, as-needed modifications.
Only around half of the legislature group relies on a measurable form of analytics on their websites, compared to roughly 80 percent of SaaS companies.
As for speed, Nekola said the bland, text-heavy appearance of some Web pages allowed for quicker loading times. Only six websites of the 54 took longer than six seconds to load, falling several seconds behind the ideal industry maxim of three seconds.
Nekola said while some users were surprised their state legislature’s website did not make the cut, he said function took precedence over form for the purpose of this particular study.