Can I find it? Can I use it? Does it Help?
Being Online is Not Enough: An Interesting Review of State Election Websites

Brokerages are spending more time and in some cases money on their websites. What features and factors are critical to your brand and value equation to agents, sellers and buyers?

Pew recently published an interesting look at the 50 US State election websites. This report raises a number of interesting issues, including:

• Website usability (don't cobble things together from disparate systems),
  
  
• The enormous potential cost savings when information is accurate, timely and easily discovered,
  
  
• 2 minutes: "On average, people spend two minutes on a website before they abandon the search for information". Consider this fact as you evaluate your home page, agent tools and the engine behind them,
  
  
• and, seven criteria for evaluating the usability of state elections websites:
  
  
  1. Web Presence:

     How easily can users find the official state elections Web site when conducting standard Web searches for key phrases related to voting? Can they find the elections Web site from the state's main Web site?

  2. Navigation Information Architecture:

     Is it easy to navigate to key topics? Can users easily tell where they are Information within the site if accessing a deep link from a search engine? Are links Architecture named intuitively? Is the site organized in a user-centered manner?

  3. Content:

     Is the content understandable to users? Is it easy to scan and find the right information? Is information made available in HTML versus PDFs?

  4. Homepage:

     Is the homepage organized such that users can tell which information is intended for them? Are important links placed and presented so they will be noticed? Is the homepage easy to scan?

  5. Accessibility:

     Can users with disabilities (severe or mild) utilize the site effectively?
     

  6. Search:

     Is there an open search field available on each page of the site? Do search results
     seem appropriate? Are result titles/content understandable?

  7. Site Tools:

     Are tools for looking up registration, finding a poll location, etc. intuitive and efficient?

These are useful questions to consider for any website initiative.

Take a quick survey of US Broker websites using our sortable list (click the column description to resort by Name, City, State, Zip Code or Website).

Pew Trusts:

Americans are increasingly incorporating the Internet into their daily lives. Today, it's an easy way to look for directions, purchase gifts or household necessities, get a movie or book review or search for information about a presidential candidate. For many companies like Marriott, Progressive, Best Buy or Toyota, a first-class Web site is part of their core strategy and the site's usability sometimes makes the difference between success and failure. Businesses realize that their customers rely on Web sites to help them not only purchase goods, but also to gather information--comparing products and prices--that can help consumers make better decisions.

In this report, Make Voting Work (MVW) examined the state elections Web sites in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine whether citizens can find the official election information they need to register to vote, check their registration status and locate their polling places. More importantly, MVW measured if potential voters can use the information on state elections Web sites and if it helps them. We found that every state has room for improvement. However, states can still take steps to help voters; as the election approaches, many states have updated their Web sites and developed tools to help voters this November.

A key point: However, usability research suggests that additions and improvements should be incorporated within a unified Web site rather than spread across different URLs or separate windows. As state elections Web sites update their information and tools, they should aim for consistency in the navigation and information architecture of their sites.

Most broker websites include a variety of systems and interfaces, counterintuitive to good usability.