Test results for Council tax - pay it

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.

CouncilNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchScoreTestsImportance
Birmingham City CouncilVery easyEasyVery easy163
Birmingham City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy53
Birmingham City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy155
Bracknell Forest CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy153
Bracknell Forest CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy203
Bradford CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy53
Brent CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy155
Brent CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy205
Cambridgeshire County CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy153
Camden CouncilEasyVery easyVery easy183
Cheshire East CouncilVery easyEasyVery easy133
Cheshire East CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy153
Cheshire East CouncilGave upVery easyVery easy123
City of Edinburgh CouncilEasyEasyEasy125
Copeland Borough CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy115
Coventry City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy205
Coventry City CouncilEasyVery easyVery easy183
Coventry City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy205
Great Yarmouth Borough CouncilEasyVery easyDifficult143
Hampshire County CouncilVery easyEasyEasy95
Harrow CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy103
Harrow CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy103
Lambeth CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy203
Lambeth CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy205
Lichfield District CouncilEasyVery easyVery easy163
Liverpool City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy205
Liverpool City CouncilVery easyVery easyEasy183
London Borough of CroydonVery easyVery easyVery easy205
London Borough of Hammersmith and FulhamVery easyVery easyVery easy53
London Borough of LewishamVery easyVery easyVery easy153
Manchester City CouncilVery easyDifficultGave up35
Milton Keynes CouncilVery easyVery easyEasy185
Newcastle City CouncilEasyEasyEasy123
Plymouth City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy153
Preston City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy205
Sefton CouncilGave upEasyVery easy83
South Lakeland District CouncilVery easyVery easyEasy133
St Helens CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy203
Walsall CouncilEasyVery easyEasy165
Wandsworth CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy153
Wokingham Borough CouncilEasyEasyEasy121
Wychavon District CouncilVery easyEasyEasy93

Specific comments made about this task

Bradford Council - 2014-03-11
Generally easy enough to do through the homepage

Brent Council - 2014-08-17
Brent council has well laid out page telling people how much council tax they will have to pay, and how to pay,very easy to follow instructions, looks like hours of works have gone into preparing the webpage to get that council tax income IN, for the FAT Brent Council MPs and their staff the "Dirty Rotten scoundrels".

Cambridgeshire County Council - 2014-02-05
The three possible search methods were very good as they were all rated as 'Very Easy'. However, there wasn't an A-Z search box on the website. Even though for this task it wasn't necessary, for others, this may be needed to make it easier for people to search. Overall, the three present options were very helpful and useful. These were near the top and were relevant so this was good. Like I stated before, the only improvement would be to add a A-Z index service.

Camden Council - 2014-02-13
Very easy to find and go quickly to the payment page.

Cheshire East Council - 2014-10-28
easy to find and clear to use

City of Edinburgh Council - 2014-02-01
Navigation was clear enough, but there was at least one redundant intermediate page between clicking the link 'pay council tax online' and getting to the payment form.

Copeland Borough Council - 2014-02-12
Finding the main council tax page was easy enough, but then going in to find the specific page for paying council tax was quite hard. As with other pages, the eye-candy image dominating the page was distracting rather than helpful.

Coventry City Council - 2014-02-04
Overall, searching this query was good because the most relevant information was at the top and that is how every webpage should be with the most helpful information at the top. using the A-Z was easy but not very easy because to improve, you could have headings at the top saying Ca, Cb, Cc so you know what section of the alphabet you are on and it'll be quicker to find. also when you scroll very fast, you should have headings to tell you where you are like the Ca, Cb, and Cc ones so you know when to stop. the search results for internal and google were easy. overall, it was easy to fing the query.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council - 2014-09-04
Top result on google search- took me to the page where i can click pay us on the right side. Internal search was more difficult- 4th on the search results.

Hampshire County Council - 2014-02-19
It was simple signposting. Not a perfect experience and there seems to be too many pages on Council tax than are needed.

Lichfield District Council - 2013-12-05
Google result takes you to a page which doesn't mention paying online!

Liverpool City Council - 2015-01-13
Found this information easily via navigation, a to z and google, but not so easily by an internal search.

Manchester City Council - 2013-12-20
Google search took me to an expired session page.

Newcastle City Council - 2015-01-15
To pay you are taken to a part of the site that looks different and has a lot of information on it making it more difficult to read. Without this it would have probably been very easy.

South Lakeland District Council - 2020-04-17
First option on google directed me straight to 'make online payment', had to scroll or go back to find all payment option. Internal search results bought up information like 'council tax discounts' and 'housing benefits' before 'pay your council tax'

Wychavon District Council - 2017-07-20
Have to admit I'm surprised that the search term 'pay council tax' doesn't result in the council tax payment page being top of the results list...