Evaluating European Ministries' Websites

Abstract

Despite the proliferation of e-government in recent years few studies evaluate the efficacy of e-government websites. The aim of this article is to investigate the state of ministries' websites in Europe. Ten types of ministries in ten European countries were selected, thus giving a total of 100 websites. In order to evaluate these 100 European ministries' websites from the citizens' perspective, an evaluation framework (eGovQual) consisting of 100 criteria was developed. The thirteen main evaluation dimensions of the eGovQual are the following: 1) Content, 2) Presentation - Media - Format, 3) User Interface, 4) Structure & Organization, 5) Navigation, 6) Orientation, 7) Interactivity & Feedback, 8) Services - Functions - Facilities - Operations - Applications, 9) Reliability & Availability, 10) Maintainability, 11) Performance, 12) Openness - Compatibility - Interoperability, 13) Security. Then seven University students evaluated these websites using eGovQual. The evaluation results revealed that most European ministries' websites achieve a satisfactory quality level. The websites of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, National Defense, and Environment excelled. However, there are inefficiencies with respect to the dynamic interaction and communication with the citizen, the e-services, the personalization, and consideration given to those with special needs. Furthermore, the sites' administrators should continuously adopt new technological advances (e.g. mobile government, Web 2.0) in order to effectively serve the citizens.