Test results for Essex County 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.
Grey rows indicate this council is not responsible for this task, but has been tested according to how well it signposts to the correct council.
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| Totals | Navigation | A-Z | Site search | Readability | Score | Tests | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total scores | 7 | 16 | 4 | 19 | 16 | 62 | ||
| Number of tests | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 12 | ||
| Usability Index (total score ÷ number of tests) | 2 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 5 |
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
Antisocial behaviour - complain about it - 2015-08-18
couldn't finf anything at all. report button only availiable for road issues
Petitions - create one - 2015-08-18
no info or pointers on how to actually write or submit a petition
Small business support - find information - 2014-02-05
Too many clicks to find key information. Lots of diversion to other sites. One branch takes you to a site called Essex Business Support - which seems like another collection of links - whilst another takes you to Business Link - well, it actually takes you to the GOV.UK home page.
Search box contrast is not very good but the search term pointed at the relevant page.
Essex Business Support uses Flash for navigation though thankfully there is a non-Flash alternative - but you have to click on a link to get to the navigation.
Please don't make me use an A to Z! Though in this case, nice short relevant list and "Business advice and support" was the right page.