Evaluation of usability of e-government services in Saudi Arabia - Article Example

LITERATURE REVIEW Qian, Cao, Su & others in their work define usability of e-government as efficiency, effectiveness and satisfactions. They suggest ease of use, aesthetics, navigation, terminology and learn ability as the main factors to usability (2012, 617).From previous studies, usability of e-government depends on the integral websites put in place (Abanumy, Al-Badi & Mayhew 2005). Its effectiveness leads to reliability of public service both locally and internationally (Reffat 2006). Reliability has been proved to be part of the key factors behind low illiteracy level due to its continued learning opportunities (Al-Busaidy & Weerakkody 2008).

Therefore, usability facilitates an avenue for relationship development since it creates a participatory form of governance (Reddick 2010, 484).Abanumy, Al-Badi & Mayhew (2005) in their study on evaluation of Saudi Arabia and Oman e-government websites accessibility examined accessibility guidelines, evaluation methods, and analysis tools. They together with Al-Wabil and Al-khalifa (n. d) in their study on a framework for integrating usability evaluation methods suggested that websites need considerable improvements to be accessible to all users.

Andersen, Gronlund, Engers, and others (2011) in their work found out that broken links and poor designs are among many effects on poor usability of e-government (125). These have been leading to lower usage on websites hence reducing interaction. Reduced interaction has been witnessed to affect online business transactions which need redesigning if service delivery potential clients both locally and internationally has to be achieved (Gokmen 2010).A study by Katre (2007) on identifying available opportunities for further improvement explains the inadequate coverage of fundamental issues like user-centered design.

This was well covered by the comparison done by Miguel, Pedrero and Teran (n. d) on advances in e-government usability in Spanish and Bolivian e-observatory initiative. They suggested that updated profile would be a good step towards establishing user problems on usability. This opinion backs up Al-Khalifa’s (2010, 238) opinion in hers heuristic evaluation of usability of e-government websites in Saudi Arabia. The study ascertained that among many usability problems, user satisfaction need to be tested since poor quality websites is directly proportional to bad usability.

Eidaroos, Probets and Deanley (n. d) study on two Saudi Arabia websites and Aladwani & Palvia (2010) study on instruments for measuring usability give similar opinion. The two studies suggest that constant and extensive evaluations of websites using actual users’ facilitate improvements thus increase in effectiveness. Garcia and Pinto (2005) in their study on quality of e-government sites used Nielsen’s heuristic evaluation to ascertain the problems around 127 e-government websites. Their findings suggested that a need for major improvement on the quality of usability is paramount if end users satisfaction has to be met.

Al-Khalifa (2010) backed this up with a study on heuristic evaluation of usability of e-government websites in Saudi Arabia. A number of evaluations have been done on Saudi Arabia e-government usability as Hana (2011) records in her study. She records that the ranking for “Saudi e-government was at 72 in 2005, 98 in 2006, 89 in 2007, 70 in 2008 and 58 in 2010” (1). However, Sano (n. d) in his study acknowledge that very little has been done on improvements on e-government usability to the disabled.

His study suggested that website homepages need to be usable when scripts and other programs are turned on to reduce accessibility limitations. This will enhance satisfactory service to the disabled as part of the government. Accessibility level should be high through search engines on the websites as Suhami & Isa (2011) suggest in their assessment on usability and accessibility of Malaysia E-government websites. Choudrie and Ghinea (2005) in their study on views on e-government usability proved that citizens and government interaction is essential for economic growth.

They together with Shneiderman, Zhang & Basili, (n. d) in their study on perspective-based usability inspection, suggested that government websites needed to clear their variations to be viewed as obeying set guidelines on websites. This call for improvements as Ravi (2006) suggest in his study on measurement of user-perceived web quality where he describes web quality as multidimensional.A through research has to be done on how well high standards on speed, design, page size, and links can be established.

This is as per Hana (2011) suggestions in her paper on An Evaluation framework for Saudi e-government. This research paper becomes a starting point since evaluation of usability is a way of establishing quality. ReferencesAbanumy, A, Al-Badi, A & Mayhew, P 2005, ‘e-Government Website Accessibility: In-Depth Evaluation of Saudi Arabia and Oman’, The Electronic Journal of e-government, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 99-106.Aladwani, AM & Palvia, PC 2010, ‘Development and Validating an Instrument for Measuring User-Perceived Web Quality, Information Management, Vol. 39, pp. 467-476.

Al-Busaidy, M & Weerakkody, V 2008, ‘Factors Influencing E-Government Implementation Progress in Oman: A Discussion’, paper presented in European and Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems, Dubai, 24-26 May. Al-Khalifa, HS 2010, ‘Heuristic Evaluation of the Usability of E-government Websites: A Case from Saudi Arabia’, ICEGOV2010, Beijing, 25-28 October.Al-Wabil, A & Al-Khalifa, H n. d, ‘A framework for Integrating Usability Evaluations Methods: The Mawhiba Web Portal Case Study’, Kind Saud University, Saudi Arabia.

Andersen, K Gronlund, A, Engers, T & Francesconi 2011, Electronic Government and the Information Systems Perspective: Second International Conference, Egovis 2011, Springer, US.Choudrie, J & Ghinea, G 2005, ‘Integrated Views of E-Government Website Usability: Perspectives from Users and Web Diagnostic Tools’, Electronic Government, an International Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 318-333.Eidaroos, AM, Probets, SG & Dearnley n.d, ‘Heuristic Evaluation for e-government Websites in Saudi Arabia’, Loghborough University, UK.

Garcia, AC & Pinto, CM 2005, ‘A quality Inspection Method to Evaluate E-Government Sites’, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3591, pp. 198-2009.Gokmen, A 2010, ‘Developments and Prospects in e-Government Implementations in Turkey’, International Journal of e- Business and e-Government Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 27-39.Hana, AA 2011, ‘An Evaluation Framework for Saudi E-Government’, Journal of e- Government Studies and Best Practices, Vol. 2011, No. 2011, pp.1-12.Katre, D 2007, Indian E-Government Initiative: An Ideal Case For University Usability, Viewed 26 February 2012, Miguel, V, Pedrero, A &Teran, J n.

d, Comparing Advances in E- Government Usability and Web Design: A Spanish-Bolivian E-observatory, Viewed 26 February 2012, http://mikeb.inta.gatech.edu/HCI4CID/uploads/Miguel.pdfQian, Z Cao, L Su, W, Wang T & Yang, H 2012, Recent Advances in Computer Science and information Technology, Springer, US.Ravi, S 2006, Measurement of User- Perceived Web Quality, School of Business, Faculty of Economics & Business, Sydney.Reddick, CG 2010, Comparative E-Government, Springer, US.Reffat, RM 2006, Developing a Successful e-Government, Viewed 23 February 2012, Sano, H n.

d, E-government and Municipalities: Challenges for transparency in Brazil, Federal University or Rion Grande do Norte, Brazil. Shneiderman, B Zhang, Z & Basili, V n. d, Perspective-based Usability Inspection: An Empirical Validation of Efficacy, Department Of Computer Science, Maryland.Suhami, MR & Isa, WA 2011, ‘Assessing the Usability and Accessibility of Malaysia E-Government Websites’, American Journal of Economics and Business Administration, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 40-46.