Test results for West Sussex County Council

Welcome,

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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TaskNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchReadabilityScoreTestsImportance
Address - change mine on council systems
Adult education courses - find information
Antisocial behaviour - complain about itGave upGave upGave upUntested143
Blue badge - apply for one
Broken street lights - report
Bulky waste or other special waste collection - book
Complain about something the council has doneUntestedDifficultDifficultVery hard343
Council housing - apply for it
Council meeting - read the last full council minutes
Council news - find it
Council tax - pay it
Council tax / housing benefit - apply
Council tip - find a nearby one
Councillors - find who mine are
Cycling strategy - find itGave upVery easyVery easyEasy653
Death - register one
Economic condition and strategy for the area - find it
Elections - find out when the next ones are
Employment help for people with disabilities - find information onGave upGave upGave upUntested143
Events - find council ones
Flood protection - find informationVery easyDifficultVery easyDifficult753
Food hygiene problem - report one
Freedom of Information Act request - make one
Housing repair - request oneGave upVery easyGave upUntested343
Jobs - find a council job
Leisure centres close to me - find one
Leisure discount card - apply for one
Library book - renewVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Local history - find out about
Local library opening hours - find themEasyEasyEasyVery easy853
Local services and information on a map - look at
Market stall trading - find information about
Meals on Wheels - find information
Missed bin collection - complain about oneGave upVery easyVery easyEasy853
Noise nuisance - complain about it
Open Data - find some
Parking - find out how much it costsEasyEasyEasyVery easy853
Parking fine - pay one
Petitions - create one
Planning application - comment on oneEasyVery easyVery easyDifficult853
Planning committee meeting - find when the next one is
Planning or building control violation - report one
Planning permission - apply for it
Population and census information - find it
Pothole - report one
Public toilets - find them
Read the council's greenhouse gas emissions report for the previous year
Regulation of children on stage, film, and television - find information
School places - apply for oneVery easyVery easyVery easyDifficult953
School term dates - find themEasyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Scrutiny committee reports and minutes - find them
Senior staff and politicians in the council - find their names
Small business support - find information
Social media accounts - find them
Stopping smoking services - find information
Supplying the council - find out how
Sustainability and climate change - find information on
Taxi driver - complain about one
Taxi licence - apply for one
Telephone number - find the main oneGave upGave upGave upUntested243
Trading Standards - complain about a dodgy item from a shopDifficultDifficultDifficultVery hard353
Travellers - find information about them
Tree preservation order - apply for one
Unitary Development Plan / Local Development Plan - find it
Voting - register to
Vulnerable adult - express concern about oneGave upVery easyVery easyEasy753
Vulnerable child - express concern about one
Watch a webcast of a recent council or committee meeting
Welfare reform - find information about
Youth clubs in the area - find information
TotalsNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchReadabilityScoreTests 
Total scores897311110878459  
Number of tests1615161612 75 
Usability Index (total score ÷ number of tests)657776  

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

Complain about something the council has done - 2024-10-16
'This form will take approximately 10 minutes to complete' - srsly?!?!?!?!

Flood protection - find information - 2024-10-17
I think the text can be much simpler than it is. Surprisingly it was a long way down the Google page - I almost gave up.

Housing repair - request one - 2024-10-17
Google sent me to the correct council on the Google search, there was no signposting in this website

Library book - renew - 2024-10-17
As an aside from this task, the way internal search results are presented, separating web content from documents from new, is textbook.

Local library opening hours - find them - 2024-10-17
I wasn't expecting Libraries to be the first link on the home page so I didn't immediately see it. Then after clicking onto an individual library page I was then directed to another website to find the opening times.

Planning application - comment on one - 2024-10-17
I've dropped a level on navigation tests because of the random order services and sub-services appear in

School places - apply for one - 2024-10-17
I loved the way the key dates are presented on the main school places page! I was in two minds whether to mark the Readability overall as Easy or Difficult; there's a lot of complex information which might be difficult to simplify, but on the other hand there might be ways to present that information more digestibly.

School term dates - find them - 2024-10-17
The school term dates page is textbook - the only thing missing from it is a download file to import into your own calendar!

Telephone number - find the main one - 2024-10-17
The most likely internal search result took me to a page for help with the childcare portal. I wonder if that number gets many calls that aren't for them?

Trading Standards - complain about a dodgy item from a shop - 2024-10-17
Is 'business and consumers' wording that ordinary citizens would recognise? Or indeed 'illegal and undesirable activity'? Is there a particular problem with pigs being fed kitchen waste or sightings of wild boar there? What's the difference between a consumer issue and a Trading Standards issue

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