Test results for Lambeth Council

According to our records, this website hasn't had a major update since it was first registered with us - webteam members can update this information themselves.

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TaskNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchReadabilityScoreTestsImportance
Address - change mine on council systems
Adult education courses - find information
Antisocial behaviour - complain about itGave upEasyGave upDifficult453
Blue badge - apply for oneUntestedVery easyVery easyEasy843
Broken street lights - reportDifficultVery easyVery easyVery easy951
Bulky waste or other special waste collection - bookEasyVery easyVery easyEasy951
Complain about something the council has doneEasyVery easyEasyVery easy953
Council housing - apply for it
Council meeting - read the last full council minutes
Council news - find itGave upGave upGave upUntested240
Council tax - pay itVery easyVery easyVery easyUntested1084
Council tax / housing benefit - apply
Council tip - find a nearby oneGave upVery easyEasyDifficult683
Councillors - find who mine are
Cycling strategy - find itUntestedUntestedVery easyVery easy1033
Death - register oneVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy1053
Economic condition and strategy for the area - find it
Elections - find out when the next ones areGave upGave upGave upEasy250
Employment help for people with disabilities - find information on
Events - find council ones
Flood protection - find informationGave upDifficultDifficultUntested343
Food hygiene problem - report one
Freedom of Information Act request - make one
Housing repair - request oneGave upVery easyVery easyVery easy753
Jobs - find a council jobDifficultVery easyVery easyVery easy9144
Leisure centres close to me - find one
Leisure discount card - apply for one
Library book - renewDifficultVery easyVery easyEasy853
Local history - find out about
Local library opening hours - find them
Local services and information on a map - look at
Market stall trading - find information about
Meals on Wheels - find informationUntestedVery easyVery easyDifficult743
Missed bin collection - complain about one
Noise nuisance - complain about itVery easyEasyEasyVery easy9103
Open Data - find some
Parking - find out how much it costs
Parking fine - pay oneVery easyVery easyVery easyEasy1055
Petitions - create one
Planning application - comment on oneVery easyDifficultVery easyEasy893
Planning committee meeting - find when the next one is
Planning or building control violation - report one
Planning permission - apply for it
Population and census information - find it
Pothole - report oneEasyVery easyGave upEasy753
Public toilets - find them
Read the council's greenhouse gas emissions report for the previous year
Regulation of children on stage, film, and television - find information
School places - apply for one
School term dates - find themGave upVery easyVery easyVery easy853
Scrutiny committee reports and minutes - find them
Senior staff and politicians in the council - find their names
Small business support - find information
Social media accounts - find them
Stopping smoking services - find information
Supplying the council - find out how
Sustainability and climate change - find information on
Taxi driver - complain about one
Taxi licence - apply for oneGave upDifficultGave upUntested240
Telephone number - find the main one
Trading Standards - complain about a dodgy item from a shop
Travellers - find information about them
Tree preservation order - apply for oneVery easyVery easyVery easyUntested1040
Unitary Development Plan / Local Development Plan - find it
Voting - register to
Vulnerable adult - express concern about oneEasyEasyVery easyVery easy953
Vulnerable child - express concern about one
Watch a webcast of a recent council or committee meetingGave upGave upGave upUntested143
Welfare reform - find information about
Youth clubs in the area - find information
TotalsNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchReadabilityScoreTests 
Total scores171112191184159816  
Number of tests3226283222 140 
Usability Index (total score ÷ number of tests)547676  

About the scores

Each task can be tested according to five different criteria - navigation from the home page, navigation using the A-Z directory (where present), searching on Google, searching using the site's internal search, and the readability of the page. Scores are assigned according to 10 = Very easy, 8 = Easy, 4 = Difficult, and 1 = Gave up. As more users complete any given test, the score for each aspect of each task becomes a mean average of all the individual testers scores, and thus the more tests are completed the more reliable an indication of the usability of the website can be seen. The total scores in the table are thus the sum of the averaged scores for the whole suite of tasks which have been tested.

The Usability Index is the sum of the scores of all the tests which have been carried out, divided by the number of tests which have been taken for this council, resulting in an index score between 1 and 10, with 6 being the score which a nominallly usable website with room for improvement might be expected to achieve. If any criteria have had fewer than 15 tests, or the site as a whole has had fewer than 50 individually tested items, the final Index scores are shown in a grey background to indicate insufficient testing for the result to be a reliable indicator.

The Importance column shows the mean average of how important all the testers considered the ability to complete this task to be, ranging from 0 = Unimportant to 5 = Very important.

Specific comments made about this council

Antisocial behaviour - complain about it - 2014-04-15
More work needs to be done to make this page better to find and a bit easier to understand

Blue badge - apply for one - 2014-03-17
The application form call to action was partially hiding the txt below in IE 8.

Bulky waste or other special waste collection - book - 2014-05-07
No form to be completed: telephone booking only.

Complain about something the council has done - 2014-06-07
A-Z - nothing under complaints, but there was 'contact us' which was fine. Internal search - result I wanted came 5th, under more specific complaints pages (complain about the council tax service)

Council news - find it - 2014-06-07
They weren't anywhere in the navigation as such. I had to guess that if I clicked one of the 3 stories on the front page, that would take me to the news section - and it worked! But I wasn't completely convinced I was in the right place, because the page was called "Love Lambeth" and there was no mention of news. Would be great to have "News from Lambeth / Lambeth council" (even if just a sub-head) so I'd be sure I was in the right place. Searching in google took me to a page that I don't think is an official lambeth council news site.

Council tip - find a nearby one - 2014-06-07
Internal search only worked with 'household waste and recycling centre' - and even then, it just showed me smuggler's way, not a list of all tips near me. With google, I got to the right page no problem, but it was confusing because when I went to the Lambeth Waste and recycling centre page, I wanted a list of things that I could take to the centre. The list was a bit confusing because it came across as a a list of what, in general, people should do with different types of waste - not specifically what the recycling centre would or wouldn't accept.

Elections - find out when the next ones are - 2014-06-07
Don't think this info exists on Lambeth. The Election guide is referring to 22 May, which has already passed.

Housing repair - request one - 2014-05-01
Didn't know if this task was found under council and social housing or housing advice. Could cut out an extra click here by not giving an action page as it's not dealt with by Lambeth Council.

Meals on Wheels - find information - 2014-03-17
It wasn't clear that the information was being expanded at the bottom of the screen. I kept clicking on the sections but nothing seemed to be happening.

Noise nuisance - complain about it - 2014-02-06
can only report by phone. There are two pages in internal search about reporting noise nuisance (for thos on estates and those who aren't). Suggest single page that gives details for both. And get it online. Also, I used teh search terms based on the task. Not sure a real person would use those terms though. If I search for noisy neighbour I get a single result about 'Stockwell Good Neighbours'. Not helpful

Noise nuisance - complain about it - 2014-06-25
Good size text. But beyond the first page it is really not intuitive unless you are looking for activities.

Parking fine - pay one - 2014-04-15
There could be more information on the page about how long you have to pay, what to do if you want to appeal it.

Planning application - comment on one - 2014-06-25
To get to the section to comment on a planning application from Google you may need to put everything in the search otherwise you will get lost as I did.

Pothole - report one - 2014-02-27
There was a phone number for this service. It would have been good to have an online form to capture all the information. The internal search on mobile wouldn't allow me to type anything in. I was using a Samsung S3 Mini

School term dates - find them - 2014-06-15
Very good apart from a to z

Taxi licence - apply for one - 2014-06-07
I realised after a google search that TFL look after taxi licencing, but it would be good to have a page explaining that on the lambeth site, as at the moment, there are no results at all for taxi licences.

Tree preservation order - apply for one - 2014-05-10
This was actually very easy, HOWEVER I have tried to find other items on Lambeth Council website and could not find it because they have another site called lambeth living for certain queries. In addition their complaint form is hidden/renamed?

Vulnerable adult - express concern about one - 2014-05-07
No form to be completed; telephone hotline only.

Watch a webcast of a recent council or committee meeting - 2014-02-26
This facility isn't available on the site, so wouldn't be able to find it until it is. However search results did bring up relevant information on council meetings.