Scenario evaluation of municipal web sites: development and use of an expert-focused evaluation tool

Municipal Web sites are a prominent product of e-government initiatives worldwide. The Internet is becoming increasingly important in the communication between local governments and citizens, which makes the usability of municipal Web sites a critical factor in government–citizen communication. A current approach to ensure the quality of municipal Web sites is by means of expert evaluation. Various studies, however, have shown that communication professionals cannot adequately predict the problems Web users will experience. In this article, the possibilities are explored of a new expert-focused approach for evaluating municipal (and other government) Web sites, which helps experts to focus on users' needs. A scenario evaluation method was developed and used to evaluate fifteen municipal Web sites. The method involves presenting experts with realistic usage scenarios, combined with limited sets of user characteristics and evaluation criteria. The scenario evaluation method and its underlying principles are discussed, and preliminary findings about the method's strengths and weaknesses are presented.