Test results for Gravesham Borough 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.

Grey rows indicate this council is not responsible for this task, but has been tested according to how well it signposts to the correct council.

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TaskNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchReadabilityScoreTestsImportance
Address - change mine on council systems
Adult education courses - find information
Antisocial behaviour - complain about itVery easyVery easyEasyDifficult755
Blue badge - apply for one
Broken street lights - report
Bulky waste or other special waste collection - bookEasyVery easyVery easyDifficult753
Complain about something the council has done
Council housing - apply for it
Council meeting - read the last full council minutes
Council news - find itDifficultVery easyVery easyVery easy953
Council tax - pay it
Council tax / housing benefit - apply
Council tip - find a nearby one
Councillors - find who mine are
Cycling strategy - find it
Death - register one
Economic condition and strategy for the area - find it
Elections - find out when the next ones are
Employment help for people with disabilities - find information on
Events - find council ones
Flood protection - find information
Food hygiene problem - report oneVery easyEasyEasyDifficult853
Freedom of Information Act request - make one
Housing repair - request one
Jobs - find a council job
Leisure centres close to me - find one
Leisure discount card - apply for one
Library book - renew
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 information
Missed bin collection - complain about one
Noise nuisance - complain about it
Open Data - find some
Parking - find out how much it costsVery easyVery easyDifficultVery easy953
Parking fine - pay one
Petitions - create oneEasyDifficultVery easyUntested843
Planning application - comment on oneGave upDifficultEasyUntested441
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 one
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 them
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 oneGave upVery easyEasyUntested743
Taxi licence - apply for one
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 one
Unitary Development Plan / Local Development Plan - find it
Voting - register toVery easyDifficultEasyDifficult753
Vulnerable adult - express concern about one
Vulnerable child - express concern about one
Watch a webcast of a recent council or committee meeting
Welfare reform - find information about
Youth clubs in the area - find information
TotalsNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchReadabilityScoreTests 
Total scores6262707436304  
Number of tests99996 42 
Usability Index (total score ÷ number of tests)778867  

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 - 2014-10-24
Gave up attempting to navigate from the home page of GBC website as too long and hard to use. Categories didn't cover anything to do with ASB. It turned out that ASB was under the 'Housing' section which isn't relavent for non-council tenants. It should be under communities sexction. When finally on the ASB page, lots and lots of long text and information which is likely to cause someone to close the page and not bother to read it.

Bulky waste or other special waste collection - book - 2014-10-24
Form doesn't take payment. The costings were quite confusing. Bit that actually allows you to book is right at the bottom of the page. Items that can be collected is not that

Council news - find it - 2014-10-24
I found most things very easy apart from the a-z. i pressed end thinking it would come up with news however it didnt. However news is at the top of the page so wouldnt really need to be on the a-z service search.

Food hygiene problem - report one - 2014-10-24
Easy access to the food hygiene page but once on the food section, very long and confusing text which states that GBC investigates reports about food hygiene but doesn't indicate how someone can report a problem. More information is available for food businesses; the food section is not designed very well to be made suitable for members of the public as well. Lots of different confusing sections which only food businesses would understand. GBC site for food is 3rd on Google - top 2 are for FSA.

Parking - find out how much it costs - 2014-10-23
When you type a search term into the internal search box, the results always give a long list of irrelavent and unuseful information including links to policies. The search box hasn't provided a good result to any enquiry I have made.

Petitions - create one - 2014-12-08
Even though the council is called Gravesham, the area is Gravesend and typing this in Google means it doesn't come top.

Planning application - comment on one - 2014-12-08
The page is there but it is called Planning Public Access, so it's not that clear that this is how you can comment. The navigation only takes you to a list of pages A to Z.

Taxi driver - complain about one - 2014-10-23
Gave up on interal A-Z index search as error on page and list failed to load. Internal search result returned a lot of irrelavent items before showing the one I needed.

Voting - register to - 2014-10-20
Nothing came up for the Google test. When i searched Gravesham though, the page was 3rd in the list.