Norwegian public sector bodies have only one year left to comply with
a tough new set of usability specifications for all their web-based forms
for citizens, E-Government Bulletin has learned.
The Norwegian government has set out what is thought to be the most
comprehensive set of guidelines for the usability of public service web
forms produced by any administration, and mandated compliance by
all its agencies by the end of 2008.
The ‘ELMER 2′ framework covers styles, page layout and interaction
rules for online forms in minute detail, with around 100 requirements
in all, presented in table form.
“Web form design is about the most important and under-rated issue if
e-government is to really help ordinary people communicate with
government agencies – it’s not just about saving money for the state”,
Tor Nygaard, ELMER 2 project manager, told E-Government Bulletin.
In the preface to the guidelines, the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and
Industry:
“Electronic reporting may be an important simplification measure for
the respondents, but only if the internet-based solutions are felt to be
more user friendly than the old paper versions.”
The ELMER guidelines had been put into use outside Norway in a few
international e-government projects where the country was a partner,
particularly to improve the accessibility of electronic services for users
with varying cognitive ability, Nygaard said. “But most e-government
initiatives outside Norway are not familiar with the ELMER concept at
all.”
An English version of the guidelines can be found at:
http://www.elmer.no/english .
