Test results for Local history - find out about
Here is the table of test results for this task. The score on each row is out of a possible total of 20, and the importance column is a rating of 1-5 according to how important testers considered being able to complete this task was.
Filter within results: or click headings to sort.
Council | Navigation | A-Z | Site search | Score | Tests | Importance | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argyll and Bute Council | Gave up | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 12 | 3 | |
Birmingham City Council | Difficult | Gave up | Easy | Gave up | -2 | 3 | |
Birmingham City Council | Difficult | Difficult | Easy | Difficult | 6 | 3 | |
Birmingham City Council | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | 16 | 3 | |
Birmingham City Council | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 3 | 3 | |
Bracknell Forest Council | Difficult | Gave up | Very easy | Very easy | 8 | 3 | |
Bristol City Council | Difficult | Gave up | Very easy | Very easy | 8 | 3 | |
Calderdale Council | Difficult | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | 14 | 3 | |
Central Bedfordshire Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 20 | 5 | |
Cheshire East Council | Difficult | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 16 | 3 | |
Copeland Borough Council | Gave up | Very easy | Easy | Easy | 3 | 3 | |
Coventry City Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 15 | 5 | |
Coventry City Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 20 | 3 | |
Dumfries and Galloway Council | Gave up | Gave up | Very easy | Difficult | -5 | 3 | |
East Ayrshire Council | Difficult | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | 4 | 3 | |
Greater London Authority | Difficult | Very easy | Very easy | Difficult | 2 | 3 | |
Harrow Council | Difficult | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | 4 | 3 | |
Harrow Council | Gave up | Very easy | Gave up | Gave up | -9 | 3 | |
Leeds City Council | Difficult | Difficult | Very easy | Very easy | 12 | 3 | |
Liverpool City Council | Gave up | Gave up | Gave up | Gave up | -12 | 3 | |
Liverpool City Council | Gave up | Gave up | Easy | Difficult | -2 | 3 | |
London Borough of Bexley | Easy | Very easy | Easy | Very easy | 16 | 1 | |
London Borough of Hackney | Difficult | Difficult | Very easy | Easy | 10 | 1 | |
Manchester City Council | Gave up | Very easy | Difficult | Difficult | -1 | 3 | |
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council | Gave up | Gave up | Very easy | Easy | -3 | 0 | |
Newcastle City Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | 18 | 3 | |
Newcastle City Council | Difficult | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | 14 | 3 | |
North Devon Council | Easy | Difficult | Easy | Easy | 10 | 3 | |
Northamptonshire County Council | Gave up | Difficult | Gave up | Gave up | -8 | 3 | |
Nottinghamshire County Council | Very easy | Easy | Easy | Very easy | 16 | 3 | |
Plymouth City Council | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | Easy | 11 | 3 | |
Surrey County Council | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | Easy | 16 | 3 | |
Uttlesford District Council | Gave up | Gave up | Easy | Very easy | 2 | 0 | |
Wandsworth Council | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | 6 | 3 | |
Warrington Borough Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 20 | 3 |
Specific comments made about this task
Birmingham City Council - 2013-12-02
/localhistory points to a defunct library page, not a local history landing page; other navigation seriously broken
Birmingham City Council - 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
Birmingham City Council - 2016-07-15
It exists, but contains disappointingly little content
Bracknell Forest Council - 2014-03-05
The information that most people are likely to be looking for on finding out about their familiy history is quite far down the page, below 'reminiscences groups.' This information could be condenced into a table perhaps?
Bristol City Council - 2013-12-16
Many items on the pop-out navigation from side panel were off the bottom of the screen (on laptop); I had to scroll them up and then hover again.
Popup survey requests are irritating.
Can't click on main area of text search box - have to click slightly too low in order to focus on it.
(OSX / Chrome / Macbook non-retina)
Central Bedfordshire Council - 2014-06-17
This looks like you can report it online but then when you get to the page there is just a phone number so that is a bit confusing.
Coventry City Council - 2014-02-04
All of these methods of searching were very easy. On the home navigation, you had to go into the 'Sports, Leisure and Tourism' section and there would be a box saying 'Local History' on it. This was the same with the Internal and Google search result. The A-Z index was also very easy as you had to go to the letter 'L' and then find 'Local History'.
Dumfries and Galloway Council - 2015-08-18
No specific pages, but subpages relating to the history
Harrow Council - 2013-12-04
Only had a page about how the local history library has moved to the museum.
London Borough of Bexley - 2014-02-13
Works well - google/navigation lead to a parent page - very easy click through though.
London Borough of Hackney - 2014-02-12
Socitm pop-up - evil!
Google search takes you to landing page.
Internal search looks like Google - so it's fine. But...links open in new window.
A to Z doesn't include "history" or "local history". Found under "Archives" but probably wouldn't have known that if hadn't done searches first.
Archives under "Leisure and culture". Not immediately evident from home page - went through "Library".
Manchester City Council - 2014-02-14
Internal search produced various pages about the history of various buildings in Manchester (and the inevitable top search result for the archives and local history section of the library which was to a page which said the section is closed), but no section of the site holding the local history of Manchester together. Google search returned a different set of pages, mostly for the local image collection.
Newcastle City Council - 2015-01-05
Took me three attempts before I found the correct category. Explore heritage wasn't a particularly helpful title when looking for local history. A-Z lacked the terms history or heritage.
Northamptonshire County Council - 2014-01-31
There was information about heritage sites as lists of .pdf files, information about what collections the Records Offices holds in the archives (again lists of .pdf files), but no simple overview of the local history of Northamptonshire.
Surrey County Council - 2015-01-05
Whilst there are lots of pages containing local history information, there was no central page for how to get started.
Uttlesford District Council - 2014-12-06
The council website seems geared very much to allowing residents to access services and doesnt cater for visitors to the area or people who wish to visit the area