Test results for Manchester City 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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| Totals | Navigation | A-Z | Site search | Readability | Score | Tests | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total scores | 344 | 11 | 401 | 345 | 175 | 1276 | ||
| Number of tests | 67 | 2 | 63 | 67 | 22 | 221 | ||
| Usability Index (total score ÷ number of tests) | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 6 |
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
Easy
Complain about something the council has done - 2013-12-17
Way down at the bottom of the page, then difficult to find the right form; search for 'complaints' ok, search for 'complain' not so good.
Council housing - apply for it - 2013-12-17
Top level 'homes and property' rather than usual 'housing'; had to look hard to find it due to random arrangement.
Council meeting - read the last full council minutes - 2013-12-20
Was easy to get to the main meetings page from the home page, but the navigation from there became difficult as the page became a list of meetings over a year in advance, having to scroll down to get to 'the last' meeting which didn't have any minutes, and the list below that was incomplete.
Council meeting - read the last full council minutes - 2014-02-13
This would be slightly better if it highlighted the last meeting more obviously. Main navigation is brilliant and easy. Internal search less so, it takes you to the video of the last meeting very well but there is no breadcrumb to try and easily view a different meeting's video/papers.
Council news - find it - 2013-12-17
Right at the bottom of a very long home page.
Council tax - pay it - 2013-12-20
Google search took me to an expired session page.
Council tax / housing benefit - apply - 2013-12-17
Page headed benefit claim calculator rather than application, could be offputting; search results on 'apply for x benefit' more focussed on information than application.
Councillors - find who mine are - 2013-12-17
The show/hide link for the list of wards on the left was a bit stupid.
Cycling strategy - find it - 2013-12-04
Navigation has information on cycling, but not cycle strategy.
Cycling strategy - find it - 2014-02-13
Cycling pages generally very easy to find, but they don't contain the cycling strategy. Internal and external search find it easily though.
Death - register one - 2014-02-13
The confusing way featured search results on internal search are presented stopped that from being Very easy.
Employment help for people with disabilities - find information on - 2013-12-04
Could be a service manchester doesn't provide.
Events - find council ones - 2013-12-04
Right at the bottom of a very long home page.
Freedom of Information Act request - make one - 2014-02-14
Internal search wasn't so good - 'freedom of information request' gave me a useful result which was some way down the list, whilst 'foi request' gave me a screenful of .pdfs.
Jobs - find a council job - 2013-12-04
General note - overall, the random ordering of what serves for menu entries makes finding anything much harder than it needs to be; search engine results page makes 'featured' results near-invisible.
Jobs - find a council job - 2014-02-27
Not obvious navigation, but search is easy
Leisure discount card - apply for one - 2014-02-13
Could only find it from the Google search.
Local history - find out about - 2014-02-14
Internal search produced various pages about the history of various buildings in Manchester (and the inevitable top search result for the archives and local history section of the library which was to a page which said the section is closed), but no section of the site holding the local history of Manchester together. Google search returned a different set of pages, mostly for the local image collection.
Meals on Wheels - find information - 2014-02-13
Searches took me to a site called mymanchesterservices, which was so opaque and dense I gave up.
Missed bin collection - complain about one - 2013-12-04
Couldn't report online without setting up an account.
Noise nuisance - complain about it - 2014-02-14
Internal search was to a screenful of .pdf documents which may or may not have been relevant.
Parking fine - pay one - 2013-12-04
Search result went to appeal page, not payment page.
Petitions - create one - 2014-02-13
Excellent seamless integration between the online petitions system and the CMS site. Seems odd that I was unable to find it via navigation, though.
Planning application - comment on one - 2014-02-27
Very easy and readable
Planning or building control violation - report one - 2014-02-13
Seems odd how easy it was to find via Google but impossible by other means.
Pothole - report one - 2013-12-17
Getting the login / register prompt at the start could get irritating after a while; going via search wouldn't allow me to do it *without* logging in first.
Public toilets - find them - 2014-02-13
To be fair, beyond trying to look on the map facility I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to find these using any navigation structure. Internal search took me to a page which said it would give the information, but didn't!
Read the council's greenhouse gas emissions report for the previous year - 2014-02-13
Apparently the council has a legal obligation to publish this.
Regulation of children on stage, film, and television - find information - 2014-02-14
Could find nothing at all via navigation and internal search was a load of .pdf documents that looked like minutes of meetings. The Google search gave the correct page as the top result, but the wording on the page was potentially confusing - 'A licence is required for a child from birth until the end of compulsory education who performs in the entertainment industry' would be better worded as 'A licence is required for a child from the start of their career [...]' or something similar - the current wording implies that you need to get a licence on the day they're born even if they don't start performing until the age of 9!
School term dates - find them - 2013-12-17
I found the actual presentation of the information confusing, but that may be subjective.
Senior staff and politicians in the council - find their names - 2014-03-17
No direct information on website, though the name can be assumed from minutes of meetings. Google quickly linked to a Wikipedia entry.
Small business support - find information - 2013-12-17
More lists in a random order rather than alphabetical order.
Sustainability and climate change - find information on - 2014-08-31
Annoying that I needed to download an Adobe report rather than just read the information on the website.
Telephone number - find the main one - 2013-12-17
Maybe not quite as difficult as 'difficult' but harder than 'easy' - link was where it would be expected to be, but labelling on the page is confusing.
Trading Standards - complain about a dodgy item from a shop - 2014-02-13
I knew to navigate via Business and investment anyway, but arriving on the Business and investment main page made it look very much like a section for businesses rather than for consumers; clicking further through the navigation did seem to involve more clicks than it should have done. Google search was potentially compromised by the potential confusion with the tradingstandards.gov.uk site appearing at the top.
Tree preservation order - apply for one - 2014-02-14
Internal search gave me a screen full of .pdf files. Google found me a page about TPOs (for some reason apparently located under Sport, leisure, and culture), but it was information about what work can be done on preserved trees, not about how somebody might apply for a tree to be protected.
Voting - register to - 2013-12-17
Different form from search to navigation.
Vulnerable adult - express concern about one - 2014-02-13
Very easy to find and clear to understand.
Vulnerable adult - express concern about one - 2014-02-14
On navigation I almost missed the relevant link from the home page due to the random order the links were presented in. Alphabetical order, please! Internal search result was a screenful of .pdfs.
Vulnerable adult - express concern about one - 2014-07-10
Very easy to find the information and the first thing that stands out is: "If a person is in immediate danger, dial 999 and ask for the police." Good advice to remind visitors of what is urgent. The next step stated "To report suspected abuse or neglect, contact us" before a tel no. and email address is given. Nice clear and to the point!
Welfare reform - find information about - 2013-12-17
Completely different information between navigation and search.