Test results for Birmingham City Council

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TaskNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchReadabilityScoreTests
Address - change mine on council systemsDifficultVery easyVery easyVery easy89
Adult education courses - find informationEasyVery easyEasyUntested812
Antisocial behaviour - complain about itVery easyVery easyVery easyDifficult713
Blue badge - apply for oneVery easyVery easyEasyUntested912
Broken street lights - reportVery easyVery easyVery easyEasy1014
Bulky waste or other special waste collection - bookUntestedVery easyVery easyEasy85
Complain about something the council has doneEasyEasyEasyVery easy817
Council housing - apply for itVery easyDifficultDifficultUntested58
Council meeting - read the last full council minutesGave upGave upGave upUntested111
Council news - find itGave upVery easyVery easyEasy813
Council tax - pay itVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy109
Council tax / housing benefit - applyVery easyEasyVery easyDifficult914
Council tip - find a nearby oneDifficultVery easyEasyVery easy79
Councillors - find who mine areVery easyVery easyDifficultEasy813
Cycling strategy - find itGave upEasyEasyEasy518
Death - register oneVery easyEasyEasyVery easy79
Economic condition and strategy for the area - find itVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy813
Elections - find out when the next ones areDifficultDifficultDifficultDifficult513
Employment help for people with disabilities - find information onGave upDifficultDifficultUntested412
Events - find council onesGave upVery easyDifficultVery hard617
Flood protection - find informationEasyDifficultDifficultVery hard49
Food hygiene problem - report oneVery easyEasyDifficultDifficult713
Freedom of Information Act request - make oneVery easyEasyEasyVery easy813
Housing repair - request oneVery easyVery easyVery easyEasy917
Jobs - find a council jobVery easyEasyEasyDifficult913
Leisure centres close to me - find oneGave upVery easyDifficultUntested69
Leisure discount card - apply for oneDifficultEasyEasyDifficult815
Library book - renewGave upDifficultVery easyUntested613
Local history - find out aboutDifficultEasyDifficultUntested613
Local library opening hours - find themGave upVery easyDifficultUntested69
Local services and information on a map - look atGave upGave upGave upDifficult311
Market stall trading - find information aboutEasyEasyEasyUntested89
Meals on Wheels - find informationVery easyVery easyVery easyUntested105
Missed bin collection - complain about oneDifficultEasyVery easyUntested89
Noise nuisance - complain about itVery easyVery easyVery easyEasy109
Open Data - find someDifficultDifficultDifficultUntested35
Parking - find out how much it costsEasyEasyEasyDifficult714
Parking fine - pay oneEasyVery easyVery easyEasy910
Petitions - create oneVery easyVery easyDifficultVery easy96
Planning application - comment on oneVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy96
Planning committee meeting - find when the next one isEasyEasyEasyUntested65
Planning or building control violation - report oneDifficultDifficultGave upDifficult36
Planning permission - apply for itVery easyVery easyVery easyVery easy106
Population and census information - find itEasyEasyVery easyVery easy810
Pothole - report oneVery easyVery easyVery easyDifficult910
Public toilets - find themVery easyVery easyVery easyUntested65
Read the council's greenhouse gas emissions report for the previous yearGave upEasyDifficultEasy511
Regulation of children on stage, film, and television - find informationDifficultVery easyVery easyVery easy86
School places - apply for oneVery easyVery easyVery easyDifficult814
School term dates - find themVery easyVery easyEasyEasy918
Scrutiny committee reports and minutes - find themEasyEasyEasyDifficult66
Senior staff and politicians in the council - find their namesUntestedUntestedUntestedVery easy92
Small business support - find informationGave upEasyGave upEasy56
Social media accounts - find themDifficultVery easyVery easyDifficult86
Stopping smoking services - find informationGave upGave upGave upUntested15
Supplying the council - find out howDifficultEasyDifficultVery easy610
Sustainability and climate change - find information onGave upVery easyEasyUntested59
Taxi driver - complain about oneDifficultEasyDifficultUntested59
Taxi licence - apply for oneEasyEasyDifficultDifficult714
Telephone number - find the main oneDifficultGave upDifficultDifficult414
Trading Standards - complain about a dodgy item from a shopVery easyVery easyEasyDifficult76
Travellers - find information about themVery easyVery easyVery easyEasy811
Tree preservation order - apply for oneEasyVery easyVery easyUntested717
Unitary Development Plan / Local Development Plan - find itVery easyVery easyVery easyEasy810
Voting - register toEasyVery easyVery easyDifficult916
Vulnerable adult - express concern about oneDifficultEasyVery easyDifficult710
Vulnerable child - express concern about oneGave upEasyEasyDifficult710
Watch a webcast of a recent council or committee meetingGave upVery easyGave upVery easy66
Welfare reform - find information aboutGave upVery easyVery easyEasy710
Youth clubs in the area - find informationDifficultEasyDifficultUntested59
TotalsNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchReadabilityScoreTests
Total scores4374375565093472287 
Number of tests22912615515660 726
Usability Index (total score ÷ number of tests)234363  

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. Thus each task will have up to five tests counted against it when a user tests it.

As users test any given task, the score for each aspect of each task becomes a rolling mean average of individual test scores, and thus as 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 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.

Specific comments testers have made about this council

Adult education courses - find information - 2016-09-16
Google took me to http://www.learnbaes.ac.uk/; internally, being under Schools and Learning may make some people miss it thinking that section is just for children.

Antisocial behaviour - complain about it - 2016-09-16
There doesn't appear to be much that you can actually report; what's the point of it? There's no clue of where it could be in the main navigation.

Broken street lights - report - 2018-09-18
took me 2 clicks to get to the page with the broken streetlights form

Council housing - apply for it - 2017-01-11
Started off easy enough, but was taken to a separate website where I had to give up. Internal search results were useless. Navigation was useless - I couldn't find anything referring to council housing in the navigation.

Council meeting - read the last full council minutes - 2017-01-11
I get to a page called CMIS - Committee Management Information System, which I assume is the place, but from the very, very, very long introductory text on the page it appears you have to register in order to access any minutes. This is outrageous.

Council meeting - read the last full council minutes - 2019-10-10
That was very confusing. I found the committee section of the website very easily, but got lost from here onward. I didn't understand what the icons were for, so mostly ignored them to start off with.

Council news - find it - 2017-01-11
The latest news on https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/news seemed to be from a week ago.

Council tax / housing benefit - apply - 2017-01-11
The readability of the pages as I went through the process just got harder and harder. There's a lot of confusion around Universal Credit, but to be fair I'd hope that real benefit claimants would be better able to know what it is they're claiming for.

Councillors - find who mine are - 2017-01-11
I'm sure the wording on the page /councillors could be snappier

Cycling strategy - find it - 2017-01-11
I found half a page of aspiration, but no actual detail of strategy. They appear to have a separate dedicated cycling website, but I couldn't find anything there either.

Death - register one - 2017-01-11
The initial information page is easy enough to find, but it tells me I need to make an appointment to do it in person, but it doesn't offer an online appointments system.

Economic condition and strategy for the area - find it - 2017-01-11
I'd actually go as far as saying this actual section of the site is an excellent example of good practice for other councils to follow! It's a shame though I could only find it by search, I gave up looking for it by navigation.

Elections - find out when the next ones are - 2017-01-11
I found the date of the next election from an internal search which took me to an election results page, almost as a footnote. I wouldn't expect to find the date of the next election on the page about past elections. Couldn't find any information by navigating.

Employment help for people with disabilities - find information on - 2017-01-12
I assume this council doesn't offer this service.

Events - find council ones - 2017-01-12
It's easy to find the events section, but finding events I might be interested in is terrible - there's no categorisation by event type, and most of the events listed are ongoing activities like martial arts classes, rather than individual events on specific dates. The link from the home page could very easily be missed.

Events - find council ones - 2024-11-11
It was easy to find the events page, but I've marked the Readability score as Very difficult on account of the large number of events which have been logged as starting at the beginning of the year and ending at the end of the year but would actually have been eg 12 monthly events. The internal search results were mostly irrelevant.

Flood protection - find information - 2017-01-12
I found a page for reporting that the street was flooded but no information about flood protection by search. I did find some information by navigation, but the user journey was very convoluted.

Food hygiene problem - report one - 2017-01-12
Finding the form via search was really easy. Once I got to the form it was terrible - some address boxes wouldn't accept input, and the nuance of whether I'm reporting a food product complaint or a food business complaint is lost on me. Navigating from the home page I found it from both Business, and Environment, though I'm not sure either of those options would be obvious to most people.

Freedom of Information Act request - make one - 2017-01-12
Finding the form was easy, but the actual form itself was awful.

Jobs - find a council job - 2017-01-12
Finding the jobs page is easy, but the display of the full list of jobs is really difficult to scan through.

Read the council's greenhouse gas emissions report for the previous year - 2024-11-11
What does need noting is that for each of the three different routes I ended up on three completely different pages. This may not be considered a good thing.

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