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Key findings from website navigation survey

In May 2022, we conducted a website navigation survey. Participants were asked to find specific information using only the navigation labels as a guide. For example, when participants were asked to find the agenda for an upcoming meeting, their first decision was whether to look in Government or Residents.

Once they made a selection, they were able to see the options within that category. Participants could backtrack at any time, but they could only see the labels for the category they were currently in. Each participant completed 12 tasks displayed in random order. By studying participants’ search patterns, we can get insights that will help us create an intuitive site map.

Who participated

Three hundred and forty-nine (349) participants completed the exercise in English:

  • 220 current (207) or former (13) employees of the Marin County
  • 129 weren’t current or former employees of the Marin County

Of the English-speaking participants, this is how they described their race/ethnicity:

  • 236 White or European
  • 30 Asian or Asian American
  • 22 Latino/a/x or Indigenous
  • 17 Multi-racial or multi-ethnic (2+ races/ethnicities)
  • 12 Black or African American
  • 2 were American Indian or Alaska Native
  • 1 was Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
  • 28 Prefer not to state, and 7 identified as other

Summary of findings

Government and Residents labels

The first choice of “Government” and “Residents” didn’t help people find what they were looking for. With a couple exceptions, both had a large volume of click-through for most tasks.

Quote from a participant: “The difference between "Government" and “Residents” in the highest level menu wasn't always clear. In my mind, I was trying to parse whether the prompt was pointing to a service for residents or a specific function of government.

A high volume of people looked in both Government and Residents for:

  • COVID-19 testing sites (Government 52%, Residents 45%)
  • Building permits (Government 35%, Business 53%)
  • Rent Assistance Programs (Government 32%, Residents 66%)
  • Emergency wildfire information (Government 33%, Residents 64%)
  • Paying property taxes (Government 51%, Residents 45%)
  • Filing a police report (Government 68%, Residents 30%)

People clearly found these tasks in Government:

  • Board of Supervisors information: Government 91%
  • Court information: Government 85%
  • Arrests and bail information: Government 84%
  • Assessor Recorder: Government 89%

A few additional notes:

  • There are no tasks people clearly found in Residents.
  • For “Things to Do” Hike information was the only information people clearly used this category for.
  • People also struggled to find Historical Society and historical information (Government 18%, Residents 37%, Things to do 42%)

Department names

People aren’t familiar with department names or their respective responsibilities, especially when it comes to services with overlap (such as emergency, legal, and permitting).

Quotes from participants:

  • “I know what I want to do, but I don’t know your organization. For example, I know I need a building permit, but I don’t know which department issues them.”
  • “Currently the site is usable but it assumes the user already has an understanding of government and the various roles in our government offices. If trying to make it more user-friendly, the site should come from the perspective of a community member (e.g. I would like to go on a hike. I need to pay my property tax bill vs the assessor's office, I need to show up to court, etc.”

Key examples:

  • Regarding Task 2 (You have a court date coming up. Where do you find information about the location?)  and Task 4 (Someone you know was recently arrested. You’d like to know more information about their status and bail. Where do you go?), participants said:
    • “I would like to see legal services (court dates, booking log, filing police reports) easier to find”
    • “looking for the Marin county jail booking log and court dates was confusing on where it would be located”
  • Emergency services. In response to Task 10 (You want to find out which areas are being evacuated due to a wildfire. Where do you think you'd find that information?)
    • This task had only 38% able to successfully find directly
    • “Classifying Emergency Services under Residents and not government was confusing. Why is Sheriff's Office government but not the fire department?”
    • “It wasn't clear where to find the evacuation information - Fire Dept, Emergency Services, Community?”

Search

The ability to search is crucial for certain tasks.

Some tasks, like looking for the historical society or the assessor’s office were frequently called out as easier to search for than navigate to.

Quote from a participant: “Finding the historical society, I would use a search bar if available next time.”

Key takeaways

  1. Site should primarily refer to the services that departments provide, and frame services by what residents are coming to do. Departments should be listed separately for people who prefer to navigate that way. While some participants preferred to navigate by department, many others commented that they would prefer to find things described by their needs.
  2. High priority services should be visible right away — if not in the nav, then in the homepage layout. Emergency services and other high priority items should be accessible via more ways than the top navigation. Having flexible content that can be made prominent at crucial times will be helpful for timely information. 
  3. Make the search bar prominent throughout. Having a prominent and robust search bar throughout the site will help users who aren’t able to navigate with the given navigation bar.
  4. Revisit the top level navigation options. Separating information between “government” and “residents” often confused visitors. Considering the meaning here is important. “Government” might be more meaningful as “Departments,” and “Residents” might mean more as “Services,” for example.