Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey about our Islington Council website. We received 272 responses to our survey. Please find details of the findings and what improvements we plan to focus on.

Findings

User groups

• 89% of users are Islington residents.
• 6% of users visit our website for business purposes, with about half of them also living in Islington.
• The rest 5% of users visit our website for:
  • professional purposes (seeking jobs or working in Islington)
  • legal matters (applying for certificates as a representative or will executor)
  • visitor matters (visitor information or paying a PCN)
  • property matters (buying leasehold flats)
  • personal interests (looking up borough history and events)
  • on behalf of others or helping others use the website

User behaviours

Frequency of using the website

For residents:

• 48% of residents use our website once a month or less (Occasional users)
• 39% of residents use our website several times a month (Moderate users)
• 13% of residents use our website more than weekly (Active users)

For businesses:

• 44% of businesses use our website more than weekly (Active users)
• 44% of businesses use our website less than monthly (Occasional users)
• 12% of businesses use our website once or several times a month (Moderate users)

Purpose of using the website

For residents:

• Most (39%) residents come to our website to find information.
• Other common purposes include:
  • applying for something (17%)
  • paying a bill or setting up a Direct Debit (13%)
  • reporting something (10%)
• Other less common purposes include (in order of commonality):
  • accessing support
  • accessing library services (reserving or ordering books, renewing memberships, and using the library catalogue)
  • managing council tax matters (reviewing bills, registering, and seeking help with payments)
  • making complaints
  • viewing planning applications
  • bidding for housing
  • searching for council employee contact details

For businesses:

• Most (44%) businesses come to our website to find information.
• Other common purposes include:
• Other less common purposes include:
  • applying for something (25%)
  • paying a bill or setting up a Direct Debit (13%)
• Other less common purposes include:
  • reporting something (6%)
  • accessing support (6%)
  • ordering refuse and recycling bags (6%)

User habits

• Half of users prefer using search to find the page they need, either using a search engine (30%) or the search on our website (20%)
• About the other half of users prefer using service category to find the page they need, either on the homepage (25%) or in the header (24%)

User experience

Success rate

• 76% of residents managed to achieve the purpose they visited our website for
• 69% of businesses managed to achieve the purpose they visited our website for

Easiness

To complete a task or find information on our website:

• 63% of residents and 64% of businesses said it was easy
• 23% of residents and 18% of businesses said it was neither easy nor hard
• 14% of residents and 18% of businesses said it was hard

User feedback

Housing

• Users struggle to find key documents like statements and tenancy agreements
• Housing officers’ contact details are not easily accessible
• Separate rent and repairs accounts cause confusion
• Repairs process lacks transparency, leaving users unsure of progress
• No option to set up Direct Debit online

Parking

• Parking rules are unclear, causing confusion and misunderstandings
• Third-party websites are difficult to navigate
• Call-to-action buttons, such as permit applications, are not placed intuitively

Login

• Users experience login issues and system downtime
• Password recovery is difficult
• Important emails, such as password resets or confirmations, are delayed or not received

Contact details

• Users struggle to find direct and accurate contact details on relevant pages
• Some pages contain outdated or incorrect information, causing delays in resolving issues

Content

• Broken links prevent users from accessing information
• Some content is outdated, irrelevant, or not comprehensive enough
• Forms are too complex, making them difficult to complete
• Search filters do not work properly

What we will do next

Based on what you told us about difficulties accessing certain services and information, we analysed and categorised the input, and summarised the following top areas for improvement.

• Housing: ensure all documents, especially statements and tenancy agreements, are easy to find, make housing officers’ contact details available, unify rent and repairs accounts, provide transparency on repairs process, allow setting up Direct Debit online
• Parking: explain rules more clearly, improve third-party websites’ usability, put call-to-actions in a more intuitive position
• Login: maintain reliable functionality, allow easy password recovery, ensure relevant emails are sent promptly
• Contact details: provide direct and accurate contact details on relevant pages and directory
• Content: fix broken links, keep content relevant, comprehensive and up to date, simplify forms, ensure search filters work properly
• Other areas also include payment process, website navigation, website performance, and being mobile-friendly.

What we are going to do next is conduct an audit of all the content on our website and come up with a plan to rework our content, so information on our website will be easier to navigate and understand.

We are also starting a website redesign project. We will take your valuable feedback into consideration when we are redesigning the site, including how we structure it, the way we lay out pages, and how we design components like buttons and forms, and more.