To all those who completed the online questionnaires a big thank you.
We went through all 38 responses, 5 returned PDFs and 33 completed the online form.
Below is a summary of what we have learnt:
That most of you who visit the site do so for work related reasons.
That most of you are hardened internet users and gain access from multiple platforms usually on a broadband connection and casually browse, check the news, shop, do research, stream content and in fact do most things the internet provides except play games!
That over half of you have a social media account the most popular being Facebook and then Twitter. Other social media sites mentioned were Stumble Upon, YouTube, Flickr, Linked in and myspace. The overwhelming majority of you however would like your online contact with the Police to be through the official website.
That over half of you using mobile phones would like the websites optimized for use with the mobile phone.
The majority of you thought that the site could be trusted and is well designed but that some of the content could be refreshed and be a little more dynamic. You would also like the news stories to be ‘written for public’.
Most of you hadn’t used the accessibility drop down but that those that did thought that it was easy to use. No problems were reported of user accessibility software having problems with browsing the site.
The things you liked were:
- ‘the graphic banners that take you to sections of the site’
- ‘Homepage has immediate access to news items’
- ‘Links to Local policing’
- ‘Layout is consistent throughout the site’
- ‘The aesthetic design is good, bright colours, modern and professional’
and one person on Twitter from Canada wrote
- ‘DC_Police great to see you have a handle and the web site is wonderfully laid out and easy to navigate around - #jobwelldone’
The things you disliked were:
- ‘Navigation structure not simple enough’
- ‘Accessibility bar displays for a second as page renders & then disappears – makes page jump.’
- ‘Information poorly arranged’
- ‘Left-nav-pull-out often closes before a selection is made’
- ‘There are many, many different pages within the site finding them can be difficult, the search facility isn’t particularly accurate.’
The reasons for your visit to the site were varied and in order of popularity were:
- News
- Local team information
- Contact information
- Crime figures
- Recruitment
- Traffic information
- Community messaging
- Bumblebee
- Freedom of Information request
- General information
- Specialist department information
To find this information you used (in order of popularity):
- Left-hand-navigation
- Home page icon
- Site search
Generally you found the information relevant but weren’t particularly in agreement when you were asked whether it was up-to-date or well written.
The new features that you’d like to see (from the list provided), in order of preference were
- Sign up register for email news and updates
- Login for news and local policing updates that are relevant to your postcode
- Ability to securely access details about the progress of your crime
The new features you suggested were:
- ‘INFORMATION ABOUT HOW THE CUT BACKS ARE EFFECTING THE FORCE GETTING TRUTHFUL UPDATES’
- ‘to keep up with things like billboard, achievements of officers and movements.’
- ‘where the Officers and PCSO have been in their duty time and why’
- ‘Clearly marked phone numbers, Police station addresses’
The Neighbourhood policing survey results
(from 5 members of the public, questions appeared on the PDF only)
How frequently do you visit the site?
- A few times a year (3)
- Daily (1)
- Weekly (1)
Your feelings on the site were
- I can trust (3)
- Would talk to others about the site (2)
- Found site to be engaging (2)
- Well designed (1)
- Found site to be well written (1)
What you liked
- ‘Does what it says’
- ‘I can contact my local team.’
- ‘Too little content to form an opinion’
- ‘The principle idea is good - each neighbourhood team maintains their own site. This in theory would get the most relevant information 'out there'. But for some teams the novelty has worn off and looking at some dates on news articles etc, the novelty wore off some time ago. There are however some good examples of neighbourhood sites.’
What you disliked
- Very poor grammar, punctuation and attention to detail (in some, not all neighbourhoods). These things hugely influence the impression the user gets. This varies hugely from one neighbourhood to another. It seems that some authors type out their piece and haven't even read it.
- ‘Poorly arranged’
- ‘Sometimes not up to date’
- ‘Entered my postcode EX5 2TQ for PACT meeting displayed a page with "default" (as no content ?)’
The information you were looking for when you came to this site was:
- Contact my local team (2)
- Find out more information about my local team (2)
- Find out and / or report local priorities (1)
How you found the information?
- Site navigation (2)
- On site search (2)
Your views on the information were?
- The information was easy to find?
(No response)
- The information was relevant?
(3 agree, 1 neither, 1 strongly disagree)
- The information was well written?
(1 agree, 2 neither, 2 strongly disagree)
- The information was up-to-date?
(2 agree, 1 neither, 2 strongly disagree)
- The information met my needs?
(2 agree, 3 neither)
Online crime reporting survey results
(from 5 members of the public, questions appeared on the PDF only)
Have/would you use the site to report a non-emergency crime?
Three responded yes, and two no.
What type of crime would you be happy to report / did you report?
- Theft (3)
- General antisocial behavior (3)
- Theft from motor vehicles (3)
- Criminal damage (2)
- Hate crime or hate incident (0)
How would you prefer the police to contact you once they received the online crime report?
The most preferred method was email, phone and then letter, face to face was next, followed by Facebook and then Twitter.
General preferred methods of contact.
In general how would you like the police to contact you?
The most preferred method was email, phone and then face to face, followed by letter, Facebook and Twitter.
(One person responded that it would depend on the reason.)
In general how would you like to contact the police?
The most preferred method was email, phone, website and then letter, face to face and lastly Facebook and Twitter.
How would you like to find out what the police are doing?
The most preferred method was website, email and then phone, face to face, YouTube Facebook and then Twitter.
The new features in order of preference that you’d like to see on our website were:
- Access details about the progress of your crime
- Sign up & register for email news & updates
- Email local policing newsletter
- Online meetings
Conclusions
That we need to look at:
- The structure of the site and how certain information is targeted to its audience.
- The accessibility widget
- The freshness and relevancy of the content
Lessons learnt from the consultation process so far.
- That only one short but comprehensive online form should have been produced. This should have been accessed directly through the sites top banner rather than the web teams site pages.
- And that the one-to-one usability studies were exceedingly useful in clarifying what works and doesn’t work on the present site.
The next stage
- Reviewing the Local policing team’s questionnaires
- Organize discussion groups with the Local policing teams.
- Organise meetings to discuss content with stakeholders.
