Rigsrevisionen

National Audit Office of Denmark

Report to on the user-friendliness and user involvement in the development of e-government services in Denmark Read full summary in English

2013 report 02/2013

The e-government user-friendliness requirements are divided into five overall categories: language, design and flow, data and functionality, and accessibility. 1) The objective of the study is to provide an assessment of the authorities’ efforts to ensure that e-government services are user-friendly. The report answers the following questions: - Have the authorities involved the users in the development of the e-government services? - Have the authorities conducted post-launch assessments of the user-friendliness of the e-government services, and do the contracts with the suppliers of the solutions stipulate that improvements of the solutions can be implemented post launch? - Are the e-government services user-friendly, and is the take-up satisfactory? 2) The study included the following five e-government services: - NemID (EasyID – the Danish public sector common digital signature solution), The Danish Agency for Digitisation (the Ministry of Finance); - TastSelv Borger (E-tax self-service), The Danish Customs and Tax Authorities (the Ministry of Taxation); - The Danish electronic land registration system, The Court Administration (the Ministry of Justice); - online notification of change of address, the municipalities; - online application for assistive devices, the municipalities.

In the report: part Subchapter of Main Conclusion - Before the launch (page 2)

- The requirements of the Danish Agency for Digitisation concerning user-friendliness, and test the user-friendliness regularly are only set up for mandatory e-services.

- The public sector is not required to test the user-friendliness of e-government services before they are launched, but Rigsrevisionen sees these tests as effective tools in securing the user-friendliness of online solutions.

- The two municipal services are based on standard IT solutions, which usualy do not allow or limit the tests of user-friendliness of e-government services before they are launched.

- The contracts with the suppliers of the three digital services launched by central government do not include any requirements concerning implementation of on-going enhancements of the user-friendliness of the solutions post launch.

In the report: part Subchapter of Main Conclusion - Communicating with citizens who are unable to use digital services (page 2-3)

- the guiding principles developed by the Danish Agency for Digitisation, which are aiming to support the authorities’ implementation of the mandatory e-government services, do not address whether the authorities have made assisted digital services available to citizens who are unable to use digital services.

- not all the requirements set for e-government services are available to the public.

The risk cases visible on this page are collected and described by the e-Government Subgroup of the EUROSAI IT Working Group in contact with author Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI). In the same way, analytical assumptions and headings are chosen by the Subgroup. We encourage you to read the original texts by SAIs - to be found in the linked files.