Test results for Cheshire East Council

According to our records, this website hasn't had a major update since it was first registered with us - webteam members can update this information themselves.

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TaskNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchReadabilityScoreTestsImportance
Address - change mine on council systemsGave upVery easyGave upEasy453
Adult education courses - find informationGave upVery easyVery easyEasy853
Antisocial behaviour - complain about itVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Blue badge - apply for oneVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy993
Broken street lights - reportVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy10151
Bulky waste or other special waste collection - bookVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1083
Complain about something the council has doneGave upVery easyEasyVery easy753
Council housing - apply for itVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy9103
Council meeting - read the last full council minutesDifficultDifficultGave upVery easy6133
Council news - find itVery easyDifficultGave upVery easy753
Council tax - pay itDifficultVery easyVery easyVery easy9123
Council tax / housing benefit - applyVery easyVery easyVery easyDifficult9154
Council tip - find a nearby oneVery easyVery easyGave upVery easy653
Councillors - find who mine areDifficultVery easyVery easyVery easy9153
Cycling strategy - find itEasyVery easyVery easyVery easy9103
Death - register oneVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1093
Economic condition and strategy for the area - find itVery easyEasyGave upVery easy653
Elections - find out when the next ones areEasyEasyEasyEasy853
Employment help for people with disabilities - find information onGave upGave upGave upUntested143
Events - find council onesVery easyVery easyEasyVery easy9103
Flood protection - find informationEasyVery easyVery easyVery easy9113
Food hygiene problem - report oneVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Freedom of Information Act request - make oneVery easyVery easyVery easyEasy10103
Housing repair - request oneGave upEasyVery easyEasy753
Jobs - find a council jobVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy10103
Leisure centres close to me - find oneVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy10103
Leisure discount card - apply for oneEasyGave upGave upDifficult473
Library book - renewVery easyDifficultVery easyEasy853
Local history - find out aboutVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy953
Local library opening hours - find themVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Local services and information on a map - look atGave upGave upGave upUntested143
Market stall trading - find information aboutVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1072
Meals on Wheels - find informationGave upGave upGave upUntested143
Missed bin collection - complain about oneGave upVery easyVery easyVery easy853
Noise nuisance - complain about itVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy953
Open Data - find someVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1083
Parking - find out how much it costsVery easyVery easyVery easyEasy1053
Parking fine - pay oneVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1073
Petitions - create oneVery easyVery easyVery easyEasy953
Planning application - comment on oneEasyVery easyEasyVery easy9183
Planning committee meeting - find when the next one isGave upVery easyVery easyEasy873
Planning or building control violation - report oneGave upVery easyGave upVery easy653
Planning permission - apply for itVery easyVery easyEasyDifficult8194
Population and census information - find itEasyVery easyVery easyVery easy883
Pothole - report oneVery easyVery easyEasyEasy9191
Public toilets - find themVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy9143
Read the council's greenhouse gas emissions report for the previous yearVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Regulation of children on stage, film, and television - find informationGave upGave upGave upUntested143
School places - apply for oneGave upVery easyVery easyEasy8102
School term dates - find themVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy10253
Scrutiny committee reports and minutes - find themVery easyVery easyVery easyEasy1053
Senior staff and politicians in the council - find their namesEasyVery easyVery easyVery easy983
Small business support - find informationVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Social media accounts - find themGave upGave upGave upUntested143
Stopping smoking services - find informationVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Supplying the council - find out howGave upGave upGave upUntested143
Sustainability and climate change - find information onEasyVery easyVery easyUntested1043
Taxi driver - complain about oneVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy892
Taxi licence - apply for oneVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Telephone number - find the main oneGave upVery easyGave upUntested643
Trading Standards - complain about a dodgy item from a shopVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Travellers - find information about themVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Tree preservation order - apply for oneVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Unitary Development Plan / Local Development Plan - find itVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Voting - register toVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy9143
Vulnerable adult - express concern about oneVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1093
Vulnerable child - express concern about oneGave upGave upGave upUntested143
Watch a webcast of a recent council or committee meetingGave upGave upGave upDifficult173
Welfare reform - find information aboutVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Youth clubs in the area - find informationVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
TotalsNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchReadabilityScoreTests 
Total scores5225125945435612732  
Number of tests11810710911397 544 
Usability Index (total score ÷ number of tests)455565  

About the scores

Each task can be tested according to five different criteria - navigation from the home page, navigation using the A-Z directory (where present), searching on Google, searching using the site's internal search, and the readability of the page. Scores are assigned according to 10 = Very easy, 8 = Easy, 4 = Difficult, and 1 = Gave up. As more users complete any given test, the score for each aspect of each task becomes a mean average of all the individual testers scores, and thus the more tests are completed the more reliable an indication of the usability of the website can be seen. The total scores in the table are thus the sum of the averaged scores for the whole suite of tasks which have been tested.

The Usability Index is the sum of the scores of all the tests which have been carried out, divided by the number of tests which have been taken for this council, resulting in an index score between 1 and 10, with 6 being the score which a nominallly usable website with room for improvement might be expected to achieve. If any criteria have had fewer than 15 tests, or the site as a whole has had fewer than 50 individually tested items, the final Index scores are shown in a grey background to indicate insufficient testing for the result to be a reliable indicator.

The Importance column shows the mean average of how important all the testers considered the ability to complete this task to be, ranging from 0 = Unimportant to 5 = Very important.

Specific comments made about this council

Broken street lights - report - 2014-02-27
Not easy to report a broken street light from this page - Street Lighting News. Only have aphine number, no link to the report a probelm page

Council meeting - read the last full council minutes - 2014-10-28
I could not find the page to view the minutes of the last meeting using the search field on the Cheshire East Website but the navigation from the homepage was easy to use.

Council tax - pay it - 2014-10-28
easy to find and clear to use

Council tax / housing benefit - apply - 2014-02-25
Search results keeps referring to Council Tax Benefit which no longer exists. Should be Council Tax Support

Council tax / housing benefit - apply - 2015-07-14
Used different words, apply/claim, support/benefit. No crossreference from council tax to housing.

Council tax / housing benefit - apply - 2015-07-14
Used different words, apply/claim, support/benefit. No crossreference from council tax to housing.

Elections - find out when the next ones are - 2015-07-13
Shows last election results, but not when the next elections are.

Flood protection - find information - 2014-07-21
The A-Z index took me to a page for road drains and gullies, nothing to do with flooding.

Leisure discount card - apply for one - 2014-02-13
to many results came up total was 347

Leisure discount card - apply for one - 2015-07-13
Discount card wasn't available on main website, it was on leisure centre website.

Market stall trading - find information about - 2014-10-28
Everything was very easy to use and the local information for where and when they were held was good however, but I didnt find any information on how to become a market stall trader or the process involved.

Meals on Wheels - find information - 2015-07-13
I don't thing that Cheshire East offers meals on wheels.

Parking fine - pay one - 2014-07-10
I started from the Cheshire East Council home page. Also I used links from the homepage rather than searching.

Planning application - comment on one - 2014-02-13
The web page I landed on was confusing. Too much detail. There were no clear instructions that jumped out at me. As a user I would want to just click a few buttons to complete my task. There is too much jargon and the customer journey is not easy

Planning application - comment on one - 2014-02-13
This is a lot easier to navigate round and the 'e- form' to actually comment on an application is very user friendly

Planning application - comment on one - 2014-10-28
the page was written in plain english and it was very easy to understand

Planning committee meeting - find when the next one is - 2014-02-13
It was fairly easy to navigate around this section of the website but again i think there is alot of information to take in on the one page of the website.

Planning or building control violation - report one - 2015-07-14
A-Z didn't find anything to do with planning violations or reporting it.

Planning permission - apply for it - 2014-02-12
Apply for planning permission, explains to apply via portal, but then states before you submit check'do I need planning permission' which takes to another page with the portal. There is a lot of reading material before you even start on the portal.

Planning permission - apply for it - 2014-02-13
It was confusing. I was having to navigate around several pages and I was still not sure if I need planning permission or should I just go and apply with worrying about whether I need it or not

Planning permission - apply for it - 2014-02-13
to many options when the page opened

Planning permission - apply for it - 2014-02-13
There is a lot of information to read and it automatically put me off. I think it needs to be more friendly with regards to its readability. I probably would have found myself phoning to get more concise information.

Pothole - report one - 2014-02-27
very easy to do

Pothole - report one - 2014-02-27
very easy to find what i was looking for but a little more difficult to read due to the samll screen

Public toilets - find them - 2014-10-28
Home Page / Leisure, Culture and Tourism / Town Centre Management / Public Conveniences the above bread crumb is not in the navigation which could mean that Town Centre Management and Public conveniences is not categorised. Public Conveniences can only be found using the keyword search field or the A-Z index

School places - apply for one - 2014-07-10
It took me about 30 minuites to find an application form because there is an overload of information. When I found an application form I still wasn't sure if it was the correct one.

Senior staff and politicians in the council - find their names - 2014-10-28
The keyword search terms I used were Cheshire East Councillors and Cheshire East MPs and the results were found very quickly

Sustainability and climate change - find information on - 2015-07-14
A-Z found climate change but not sustainability.

Taxi driver - complain about one - 2014-10-28
I found information on how to make a formal complaint but nothing specifically on how to complain about a taxi driver. My google search term took me to Citizens Advice page 'Complain about taxis and mini cab services' which proved useful

Voting - register to - 2014-02-10
The home page navigation was based on the assumption that the user would select 'Council and Democracy'. Council staff know to use this terminology, but would the public?

Vulnerable child - express concern about one - 2015-07-15
Vulnerable adult was easy to find, but no information on a vulnerable child.

Watch a webcast of a recent council or committee meeting - 2014-10-28
I found it very difficult to find any information regarding webcasts on the Cheshire East Website. there were no results relating to my keyword. However, when I did a google search it was at the top of the listing page