Test results for Small business support - find information
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 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council | Easy | Easy | Difficult | Very easy | 12 | 0 | |
Birmingham City Council | Very easy | Gave up | Easy | Gave up | 2 | 3 | |
Birmingham City Council | Difficult | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 1 | 3 | |
Bracknell Forest Council | Easy | Easy | Very easy | Easy | 9 | 3 | |
Bracknell Forest Council | Easy | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | 16 | 3 | |
Bracknell Forest Council | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy | 12 | 3 | |
Carlisle City Council | Difficult | Difficult | Easy | Difficult | 6 | 3 | |
Chelmsford City Council | Very easy | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | 18 | 0 | |
Cheshire East Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 20 | 3 | |
Cheshire West and Chester Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 5 | 3 | |
Copeland Borough Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 15 | 3 | |
Coventry City Council | Difficult | Easy | Easy | Difficult | 8 | 0 | |
Coventry City Council | Very easy | Difficult | Very easy | Very easy | 16 | 3 | |
Coventry City Council | Easy | Easy | Very easy | Easy | 14 | 0 | |
Darlington Borough Council | Difficult | Gave up | Very easy | Very easy | 3 | 3 | |
Devon County Council | Untested | Very easy | Easy | Very easy | 3 | 0 | |
East Lindsey District Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 5 | 0 | |
Essex County Council | Difficult | Easy | Difficult | Easy | 8 | 0 | |
Great Yarmouth Borough Council | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy | 12 | 3 | |
Greater London Authority | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 3 | 3 | |
Harrow Council | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | 6 | 3 | |
Harrow Council | Easy | Very easy | Easy | Easy | 9 | 3 | |
Ipswich Borough Council | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 3 | 1 | |
Liverpool City Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 20 | 3 | |
London Borough of Lewisham | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 20 | 1 | |
Manchester City Council | Very easy | Very easy | Difficult | Difficult | 7 | 3 | |
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 8 | 0 | |
Newark and Sherwood District Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 15 | 0 | |
Newcastle City Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 20 | 1 | |
North Lincolnshire Council | Untested | ||||||
Plymouth City Council | Easy | Very easy | Easy | Difficult | 7 | 3 | |
Tandridge District Council | Easy | Very easy | Easy | Easy | 9 | 0 | |
Wandsworth Council | Very easy | Easy | Difficult | Very easy | 14 | 3 |
Specific comments made about this task
Birmingham City Council - 2013-12-02
Internal search took me to the business library page under leisure and tourism
Birmingham City Council - 2016-07-18
Was very easy to find the relevant section, but the first substantive page I looked at said 'applications are now open until November 2013!'
Bracknell Forest Council - 2014-03-05
quite long and nothing specifically for small businesses
Bracknell Forest Council - 2014-03-12
Content relates to businesses in general rather than specifically "small" businesses
Copeland Borough Council - 2014-02-12
Notwithstanding having had such a poor experience in testing other aspects of this site, I was actually quite impressed with how easy it was to navigate to complete this task and the range of information offered. As with some other tasks, the external Google search revealed more information than the internal search.
Coventry City Council - 2013-12-24
Unclear what is meant by 'support' (Advice? Grants? Loans?)
Coventry City Council - 2014-02-06
This was a very easy task to search apart from the A-Z (that could have been more specific). There could have been a heading saying 'Business Support' but there wasn't. Instead, it said other ones and you didn't know which one to click on. The most relevant ones came at the top of the Internal and Google searches so it was easy. The Naviagtion home page result was very easy even though there was alot of straight forward clicking. It was well organised and in the section you'd expect it to be in (The 'Business and Licensing ' one). Just the A-Z needs improving but I assume most people wouldn't pick this as the first method but would do the Google search or the Internal search as the first ones followed by the Naviagation result and then the A-Z (which was the least helpful of the four).
Devon County Council - 2013-12-06
the council has two sites in this area - the main site and one called investdevon...
Essex County Council - 2014-02-05
Too many clicks to find key information. Lots of diversion to other sites. One branch takes you to a site called Essex Business Support - which seems like another collection of links - whilst another takes you to Business Link - well, it actually takes you to the GOV.UK home page.
Search box contrast is not very good but the search term pointed at the relevant page.
Essex Business Support uses Flash for navigation though thankfully there is a non-Flash alternative - but you have to click on a link to get to the navigation.
Please don't make me use an A to Z! Though in this case, nice short relevant list and "Business advice and support" was the right page.
Harrow Council - 2013-12-17
Not much actual information.
Liverpool City Council - 2015-01-15
The information is easy to find.
Manchester City Council - 2013-12-17
More lists in a random order rather than alphabetical order.
Newark and Sherwood District Council - 2015-08-18
excellent website. modern, up-to-date, easy to use
North Lincolnshire Council - 2014-02-26
hard to navigate to from homepage, nothing obvious in the A-Z under either S or B, site search produced no useful results, google search produced a link in the top ten but on investigation a higher rated link to ainvestinnorthernlincolnshire also appeared to be a council site but this wasn't obvious as there was no reference to the council on the site.