Address - change mine on council systems - 2013-12-02
Potential for confusion about the page being called change of circumstances

Adult education courses - find information - 2013-12-02
Is adult learning a more common customer term than adult education?

Adult education courses - find information - 2013-12-04
just typed into search bar

Adult education courses - find information - 2016-07-14
Link to http://www.learnbaes.ac.uk/ resulted in a broken link

Blue badge - apply for one - 2013-12-18
Why does the online form take me to www.gov.uk rather than letting me do it on the council website?

Blue badge - apply for one - 2014-02-06
All of these search methods were easy because everything was in the right place and was relevant. In the A-Z result, you had to search under the letter 'B' for 'Blue Badge' and then the rest was self explanatory. This part of the website was very good and would be useful for those that needed to search for it.

Bulky waste or other special waste collection - book - 2016-07-14
Link to book half way down a page of very wordy text, and it's very annoying that I have to create an online account to do it

Complain about something the council has done - 2016-07-14
Calling the complaints form 'Your views' threw me a bit

Council housing - apply for it - 2016-07-14
The links I thought I needed to follow took me to a separate website, which danced around the issue of actually applying with a whole load of jargon. Working through the jargon it ended up with a downloadable form rather than an online form

Council meeting - read the last full council minutes - 2013-12-18
'Democracy in Birmingham' site search and navigation generally poor; at least the last two full council meetings had agenda documents, but no minutes. The Democracy in Birmingham site itself was at least reasonably easy to find.

Council meeting - read the last full council minutes - 2016-07-14
Getting to a part of the site which said it contained minutes was easy, but then when I came to the lists of committees and their meetings I couldn't find the minutes of them

Council news - find it - 2014-02-06
The navigation was easy because you would think to look in the 'Council and Democracy' box first. Then you would go onto the link on the left-hand side box saying 'News and Publications' and clicking on this led to a hyperlink directing you to the news page of Birmingham City Council. The A-Z was unhelpful so to improve, there could have been a heading saying 'News' in the 'N' section or 'Council News' in the 'C' section. The internal and Google search were the simplest and easiest to use in order of relevance.

Council tax / housing benefit - apply - 2016-07-14
Getting to the application section was very easy indeed, but then the application process itself was dreadful

Council tip - find a nearby one - 2013-12-13
Too many options on the councils website for different types of recycling including charity shops! Google took me straight to the large tip (household recycling centre) at Lifford Lane which is what I was after. I couldn't find the same page at all via the council's site but it obvioucly exists if google can find it!

Council tip - find a nearby one - 2016-07-14
Heavily using the language 'recycling' made it difficult to see that what they call a Household Recycling Centre is what we call a tip

Councillors - find who mine are - 2013-12-02
/councillors is in person alphabetical order, not ward; localview is confusing; internal search hit and miss.

Councillors - find who mine are - 2014-02-05
The navigation result was easy. All you had to do was scroll down the page a bit and on the left, you'd find a hyperlink saying 'Councillors' on it and if clicked on will give all the names of the councillors. The A-Z method was also very easy because you just had to go onto the 'C' section to find the word 'Councillors'. However, the Internal search wasn't good because you didn't know what to click on but I found it in the end. The Google result was 'Very Easy' because it was straight forward and the pages were in order of relevance (the page shown at the top being the most relevant).

Councillors - find who mine are - 2016-07-14
Seemed to be more click than needed from the postcode search, and the general display was a bit poor

Cycling strategy - find it - 2013-12-02
Could find lots of general cycling info from nav, but not specific strategy

Cycling strategy - find it - 2014-02-06
The navigation result could have been more visible like the box on the right being another colour as with the font. The A-Z was dfficult as I first searched in 'M' for 'Missed' and then 'B' for 'Bin' and the last one worked which was 'R' for 'Rubbish'. The internal and Google searches were good but the most relevant ones should have been at the top.

Cycling strategy - find it - 2014-04-03
It would be a lot easier to find it as the city's cycling strategy if it was called that, rather 'Birmingham Cycle Revolution'. Similarly, 'Support for cycling' as a heading doesn't look like a cycling strategy either - the intro text on the cycling landing page says it's a page about something completely different.

Cycling strategy - find it - 2016-07-14
Was reasonably easy, but it seems to be called Birmingham Cycle Revolution, and I'm not absolutely sure that this is an actual cycling strategy

Death - register one - 2016-07-14
Was reasonably easy to get to the relevant page, although there were a number of redundant clicks. The information on the page itself was very confusing, as there was a lot of it not very well laid out

Economic condition and strategy for the area - find it - 2016-07-14
This is one of the best presented economic strategy sections I've seen on a council website!

Elections - find out when the next ones are - 2013-12-02
Buried at the bottom of /election, with information about Croatia at the top; /voting is a potentially redundant page

Elections - find out when the next ones are - 2016-07-14
Getting to the elections page was easy, but there was nothing about when the next scheduled elections might be

Employment help for people with disabilities - find information on - 2016-07-14
Couldn't find anything - does this council offer this service?

Events - find council ones - 2013-12-02
A-Z entry points to old empty search page

Flood protection - find information - 2014-02-11
No 'Environment' main heading on the home page, or anything which looked like it might make a good start. Finding the initial page with the A-Z and searches was very easy, but the navigation chain was completely lost on every sub-page.

Flood protection - find information - 2016-07-14
A wealth of information about the flood strategy and the responsibilities of the various different flood risk management agencies, but nothing about what I do to protect myself from being flooded

Food hygiene problem - report one - 2013-12-20
There are a lot of things on the Environmental Health main page, but food hygiene report isn't, meaning I had to scan over to the menu. If there were fewer things on the main page then ironically scanning over to the menu would have been easier. On the form, I'm not sure if the arcane difference between a Food Product Complaint or a Food Business Complaint is clear or helpful.

Food hygiene problem - report one - 2014-02-05
Apart from the Internal search (which wasn't helpful at all), the other three options were quite easy. Most people would expect it to be under 'Health and Social Care' which it was and then on the left was a box saying 'Food Safety' and when you clicked on it, it had a blue box that you could click on to report this issue. The A-Z and Google searches I had no problem with but I gave up on the INternal search as when i typed in the query 'Report A Food Hygiene Problem', it came up with irrelevant answers and didn't direct me to the page it was suppossed to. If this problem could be sorted, then this task would be perfect!!!

Housing repair - request one - 2016-07-14
There seemed to be more prominence given to a toy which told me who will be doing my repair at the expense of making it easy for me to actually request it

Jobs - find a council job - 2014-02-06
Overall, it was quite easy to find this. The most easiest searches were the navigation and A-Z result. On the navigation, on the left hand side, it said 'Jobs' and this redirected you to the 'Job Vacancies' page and on the A-Z, you could search in the letter 'J' for 'Jobs' or the letter 'V' for 'Vacancies'. The Internal and Google search were easy but not as easy because the most relevant ones weren't at the top of the page. Overall, very good and well organised.

Leisure centres close to me - find one - 2016-07-15
Was easy to get to a page with a list of leisure centres, but I've no idea which of them might be close to me

Leisure discount card - apply for one - 2013-12-16
Once I got there, it started looking difficult; there was an extra "continue to leisureflex" page which seemed unnecessary.

Leisure discount card - apply for one - 2013-12-16
I spoke too soon: broken link: http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/membership

Leisure discount card - apply for one - 2013-12-18
I don't know why the application page has the address http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/yourchoice - that could mean anything. Far too much waffly text under the show/hide links. Bit confusing about the difference between leisure centre memberships and actual leisure discount cards.

Leisure discount card - apply for one - 2014-02-25
Easy to find but then you are asked difficult questions (eg select from a list of leisure centres which I didn't know). Then when I'd finished and paid my £15 fee there was no email confirmation (except from the card processor) eg to tell me when the card would be sent. Ten weeks later I still hadn't heard, and it turns out you need to collect from the leisure centre - which kinda makes on line ordering a bit limited!

Library book - renew - 2013-12-02
There are too many assumptions that you know to renew a book from the library catalogue

Library book - renew - 2014-02-05
The navigation and the internal search result was very easy. However, the A-Z wasn't helpful hence I gave up. There could have been an option saying 'Renew a library book' in the letter 'R' section or in the letter 'L' a section saying 'Library book renewing'. On Google, the relevant option wasn't at the top so I also gave up with this one as well.

Library book - renew - 2016-07-15
Couldn't find anything which might obviously take me to a renewals form

Local history - find out about - 2013-12-02
/localhistory points to a defunct library page, not a local history landing page; other navigation seriously broken

Local history - find out about - 2014-02-05
The navigation result was easy because it was found right at the bottom in the 'Leisure, Museums and Parks' section: where you'd expect it to be. The A-Z was very easy because you just had to look for 'Local' in the 'L' section. The internal search was good but you didn't know which one to click on. I like the 'Did you mean' section because if you made an error, it corrected it. The Google result was very easy because the relevant page was right at the top. did umean

Local history - find out about - 2016-07-15
It exists, but contains disappointingly little content

Local library opening hours - find them - 2013-12-18
Main site took me to a different site, which took me to another page, which had the information poorly presented on it.

Local library opening hours - find them - 2014-02-06
The navigation result was ok but other people may not find this easy. The heading could be more visible and more obvious (maybe be highlighted in a different colour). The A-Z wasn't that good because it had the word 'Library ' in 'L' but it didn't say 'Library Opening Hours' which is what it should have said. The internal search was easy but the most relevant wasn't at the top. The Google search result was the easiest because the most relevant page was at the top.

Local library opening hours - find them - 2016-07-15
Too many clicks through too many pages to get to the opening hours page

Local services and information on a map - look at - 2013-12-18
Having no link on the home page left me having no idea where to go from there to find this. Maps information was easy enough to find by search, but the actual map application was very clunky to use, and although it had a 'find my nearest' list of things, it didn't actually put any of that information on the map itself - the map contained no information at all, and was very poor.

Local services and information on a map - look at - 2014-08-07
I got a link to the online map with local services but truggled to find information

Local services and information on a map - look at - 2016-07-15
It's a bit rubbish, really

Market stall trading - find information about - 2013-12-02
Menu could be better

Market stall trading - find information about - 2016-07-15
Using the language of buying a market stall could be offputting to people who don't realise you can be a casual trader. I also couldn't find any information about how you move from being a casual trader to being a permanent one.

Missed bin collection - complain about one - 2016-07-15
I didn't appreciate the assumption at the top of the information page that I'm too stupid to know what day my bins are usually collected. Also, why do I have to login to an account to report a missed bin collection?

Open Data - find some - 2013-12-18
There's a page /open-data with barely any data on it. The search queries and a-z pulled up that page very easily, but there's no point if there's nothing on there.

Open Data - find some - 2016-07-14
Had to go to FOI and Data Protection to get to a page called Open Data, but there was barely any open data on there

Parking - find out how much it costs - 2013-12-02
Parking charges are in attachments - they should be as web pages

Parking - find out how much it costs - 2014-02-05
This was very easy to find because of the structure of the website. The 'Parking' section was just on the left of the webpage so it was very visible and easy to spot. The A-Z index was useful because you just had to look under 'P' for 'Parking'. It was the same with the Internal and Google search because the most relevant options were right at the top.

Parking - find out how much it costs - 2016-07-18
Had to open a .pdf to get the parking charges

Parking fine - pay one - 2016-07-18
Having all the information as FAQs was a bit confusing

Petitions - create one - 2013-12-18
On Google search the results page was called Petitions, but on the internal search it was called Citizens - 'Have Your Say and Make a Contribution' which isn't very helpful

Petitions - create one - 2016-07-18
Getting to the petitions was quite easy, but the whole process of then going on to create an account, create a petition, and wait for it to be validated was a bit of a pain

Planning application - comment on one - 2016-07-18
There was a superfluous intermediate page between the link on the main page Comment on a Current Application, and the page on which I could launch the comment form

Planning committee meeting - find when the next one is - 2013-12-18
Very easy from Planning top level menu from home page, I gave up looking via the Council and democracy menu path. On the planning committee main page at http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/planningcommittee 'Where and when does planning committee meet' might be more obviously labelled 'planning committee dates'.

Planning committee meeting - find when the next one is - 2016-07-18
Couldn't find Planning Committee or any other committee

Planning or building control violation - report one - 2013-12-18
Search took me to http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/planningenforcement which had a form as a .pdf which I had to print out and write on - not very good in 2013.

Planning or building control violation - report one - 2016-07-18
I almost missed the relevant page being headed Planning Enforcement in the section of the main page about Planning Applications. When I got to the page in question it turned out to be a .pdf form I had to print out and fill in in order to make a complaint

Population and census information - find it - 2013-12-02
Community and living not being on home page made this difficult

Population and census information - find it - 2016-07-18
This complicated information is presented in a very easy and digestible format

Pothole - report one - 2016-07-18
Getting to the form was very easy, but then the form itself was a bit of a pain. And the heading Report a Street Fault on the home page was a bit jargonny

Public toilets - find them - 2014-02-06
The Navigation was the hardest search method to use hence I gave up. This was in the wrong section (Waste and Recycling). Instead, this could have been moved to the 'Streets, Transport and Parking' section which would have been more relevant. The A-Z, Internal and Google search result was very easy because it gave the right page straight away. For A-Z, you only had to look at the 'P' section for 'Public' and on the search results, the relevant pages were right at the top. Apart from the home page navigation, the rest of the methods were good.

Public toilets - find them - 2016-07-18
I wouldn't even know where to start to find this in the navigation

Read the council's greenhouse gas emissions report for the previous year - 2014-02-14
Gave up navigating from the home page because there was nothing indicating it might be the top level for environment. Google search produced a report which may or may not have been the document in question - the search result was directly to the .pdf of a document, not to a page on which the document was attached, and there was no supporting context information to show whether it's the right document. It's a legal requirement for this report to be on the site.

Read the council's greenhouse gas emissions report for the previous year - 2016-07-18
I found the relevant page reasonably easily (although on the Environment main page it seemed odd that the link to sustainability and climate change was under Planning and building), but the documents on there were all three years old

Regulation of children on stage, film, and television - find information - 2014-02-11
I found it under Schools / Attendance / Educational Welfare Service. I don't know if there might have been a more obvious route to finding it, to be honest.

Regulation of children on stage, film, and television - find information - 2016-07-18
Very easy to get to the relevant section, but one page I went to just said 'content currently being updated', and the licence application form was a .pdf I had to download and print out rather than an online form

School places - apply for one - 2014-02-06
The navigation result was a bit difficult because it could have been in the School and Learning section but it was in the Children and Family. Even though it fits in well to this heading, it would be even better if it were in the School section as this is where I first looked and I assume momst people would be expecting it to be there. The other search methods weren't a problem at all and were very well organised in order of relevance

School places - apply for one - 2016-07-18
Page was a bit awkward to find, and then when I got to it the information was out of date - which is quite alarming considering we're approaching applications season

School term dates - find them - 2013-12-16
Pop-up survey request was annoying - I'd prefer a survey request that attracts my attention but doesn't stop me continuing to do my task.

School term dates - find them - 2014-02-05
To find the school term dates was very easy. Everything was organised very well and this is what made it easy to find this. However, for other people, the A-Z index service could be nearer to the top of the web page because at first, I wasn't sure to whether there was one or not until I scrolled right down.

School term dates - find them - 2016-07-18
Very easy indeed to find the page, but the way it separates the dates of each half of a term is a bit confusing - it should just give the term start and end dates with the dates for half term in italics below

Scrutiny committee reports and minutes - find them - 2016-07-18
I found what appeared to be pages for the various scrutiny committee meetings, which had agendas on them, but I couldn't see clear documents containing minutes and reports

Senior staff and politicians in the council - find their names - 2016-07-18
I found the page easy enough, although it wasn't under an obvious section on the Council main page

Small business support - find information - 2013-12-02
Internal search took me to the business library page under leisure and tourism

Small business support - find information - 2016-07-18
Was very easy to find the relevant section, but the first substantive page I looked at said 'applications are now open until November 2013!'

Social media accounts - find them - 2013-12-18
'Twitter' in A-Z, but not 'Social media' or 'Facebook'.

Social media accounts - find them - 2016-07-18
The main ones were there in the footer of every page. Going to the linked page for all the accounts, the main text was a large block about setting up a council online account to make complaints, followed by a very long list of Twitter accounts

Stopping smoking services - find information - 2014-02-11
No Health link on home page or anything which looked like it could have been related.

Stopping smoking services - find information - 2016-07-18
Health was under social services, which is wrong. Then when I got to the health pages I couldn't find anything about stopping smoking service

Supplying the council - find out how - 2013-12-18
Internal search took me to a completely different set of pages.

Supplying the council - find out how - 2014-02-26
Took me 10 mins to fill in the FinditinBirmingham form once I did find the correct page on BCC website, and it wouldn't let me save my profile, so I ended up not being any the wiser about how I can supply the Council. There appeared to be some good links to supplying the government, but these all went to 404 pages.

Supplying the council - find out how - 2016-07-18
Was very easy to get to the place where opportunities are advertised, but I don't like that I had to log in to a site to see those opportunities

Taxi driver - complain about one - 2013-12-02
The difference between hackney and private hire is a bit blurred

Taxi driver - complain about one - 2016-07-18
Going round the houses and I still couldn't find the page to do this on

Taxi licence - apply for one - 2016-07-18
Page was a bit fiddly to find, and then when I did find it the information about the form was buried amongst a lot of other information, and the form turned out to be a .pdf which I had to print out and fill in by hand

Telephone number - find the main one - 2014-04-09
Why do you hide the main phone number !

Telephone number - find the main one - 2014-04-10
CAN'T FIND NUMBER FOR SWITCHBOARD. NUMBER FOR ACCOUNTS 0121 464 7299 HAS BEEN ENGAGED SINCE TUESDAY!!!!!

Telephone number - find the main one - 2016-07-18
I found a page with telephone numbers easy enough, but the list was difficult to scan through, and I couldn't see a many number, only some departmental numbers

Trading Standards - complain about a dodgy item from a shop - 2013-12-18
Should it be more explicit on the page that the Citizens' Advice Bureau is the first point of contact for trading standards complaints?

Trading Standards - complain about a dodgy item from a shop - 2016-07-18
One page seemed to be telling me to phone up Citizens' Advice, and another page was a long list of FAQs in a random order

Travellers - find information about them - 2014-02-11
Found 'unauthorised encampments' easy enough under Environmental Health; finding positive information via navigation about/for Travellers was much harder.

Travellers - find information about them - 2016-07-18
I found a single page which was an introduction, promising more detail - but that detail wasn't there

Tree preservation order - apply for one - 2013-12-18
Navigation from planning was labelled 'request a new tpo'.

Tree preservation order - apply for one - 2014-02-06
They were all very easy. On the Navigation, I went onto the planning and building section and eventually found it by scrolling right down into the 'Conservation' section. Overall, this was good and most of it was relevant and very well organised.

Tree preservation order - apply for one - 2014-02-06
They were all very easy. On the Navigation, I went onto the planning and building section and eventually found it by scrolling right down into the 'Conservation' section. Overall, this was good and most of it was relevant and very well organised.

Tree preservation order - apply for one - 2016-07-18
Couldn't find anything

Unitary Development Plan / Local Development Plan - find it - 2016-07-18
I found a page easy enough, but there's a curious unexplained note on it which appears to say the council has been told not to proceed with it

Voting - register to - 2014-04-03
It would be good if in the months before an election is known to be happening for it to tell you when the actual registration deadline is. The page is very wordy; I'm sure even legal reasons mean it doesn't have to be so.

Voting - register to - 2014-10-10
good, but would benefit with big buttons. click ehre to register to vote. the text links look a bit hidden in the content.

Voting - register to - 2016-07-18
There was a page linked directly from the home page about registering to vote. The page said there was a link to the online registration site, but there was no link

Vulnerable adult - express concern about one - 2013-12-02
Very easy off the home page, but quite difficult from anywhere else in the navigation

Vulnerable adult - express concern about one - 2016-07-18
What looked like it should have been the correct page was very easy to find, but then it led me along a path of jargon and lots of unclear links

Vulnerable child - express concern about one - 2013-12-02
Internal search led to a bit of a potential confusion with adults

Vulnerable child - express concern about one - 2016-07-18
Do I need to know all about MASH in order to make a report? There were various options for phones and email, but I would have preferred an online form

Watch a webcast of a recent council or committee meeting - 2013-12-18
On a separate site with no link from the main site.

Welfare reform - find information about - 2016-07-18
It was very easy to find the relevant page, but it appeared to contain information from 2013 rather than current information

Youth clubs in the area - find information - 2013-12-18
'Youth Offer' is a redundant page, 'Youth Service' is a council term (containing council-centred content rather than user-centred content), so no actual page called 'Youth clubs' in the navigation. The page found via search - http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/youth-clubs - goes on to list some youth clubs but without information about specific activities or opening times, again presenting a council-centric view of the service. A-Z index uses the term 'Youth groups' rather than 'Youth clubs'.

Youth clubs in the area - find information - 2014-02-06
On the navigation, I gave up because I couldn't find it anywhere. I looked in the leisure and school section but I couldn't find it. However, on the A-Z and Google search, they were easy because it came up with the right and relevant pages. The internal result was hard because the most relevant wasn't at the top. However, I got there in the end.

Youth clubs in the area - find information - 2016-07-18
Going round a jargon route of Children and Family Services I eventually found a link labelled Young People, which went to a page not found error