Municipal digitalization: best practices for modern e-government

Digital Transformation in Municipalities: E-Government in Everyday Life

The digital presence of municipalities on the web is now a matter of course for most citizens. Cultural and leisure activities, the ordering of ID cards or even the application for building permits: As with services from private companies, digital services enable easy, quickly accessible and reliable contact with public administration. The E-Government Act, which has been in existence since 2013, the GDPR, which has been in effect since 2018, and most recently the access restrictions associated with the Corona pandemic are clear signs of the trend towards digital transformation. It is evident that very different E-Government solutions are used by cities and other municipal administrations. 

In 2020, IW Consult published a study on the digital service friendliness of the 100 largest German cities. As a result, Berlin led the ranking, but what is the current situation in other major German cities? What content is in demand? How can this be sensibly structured and what challenges are associated with it? We take a look at current trend developments and provide four basic tips.

What topics are relevant for the municipal web presence? 

To understand how public information and services can be efficiently and attractively prepared, it must first be defined which type of content is to be digitally represented. Four main focuses can be identified in terms of informative purposes:

1.) General city information and opportunities for participation in city life

This includes all relevant information on the topics:

• City history
• Infrastructure (e.g., green spaces and playgrounds, digital maps)
• Statistics and current figures, such as river levels
• Tourism, especially in metropolises
• Education
• (Voluntary) engagement
• Health, information on coronavirus and access restrictions
• Culture, sports and leisure activities
• Migration and integration
• Mobility
• Planning, building and living
• Safety and order
• Social affairs and work
• Environment and climate
• Information on proper waste disposal, bulky waste collection dates, container locations and disposal stations for hazardous substances 

2.) Information on city politics

Here, personal contact and transparency are crucial, especially for:

• Mayor and Lord Mayor
• City councils and administrative boards
• Elections
• City budget and finances

3.) Current news

With a focus on local and relevant topics such as:

• Development of urban infrastructure and mobility
• Prevention and safety information for emergencies
• Creation of social contact points and help offers 
• Cultural events 

4.) Citizen service

Separately from this, the digital services often referred to as „Citizen service“ are to be considered as the fourth content focus. These usually include:

• Digital appointment scheduling
• Help with increased cost of living
• Help for people from Ukraine
• Daycare places, assistance with subsistence, daycare for children
• Information on business tax, business registration and funding opportunities (BAföG)
• Infection protection and nursing help
• Sports promotion and library card
• Residence permit, identity card and passport, certificate of good conduct
• Building permits, rent index
• Desired car license plates 
• Certification of documents 
• Fines
• Special use of public spaces

Challenges in bundling public web content and services

Bundling such a variety of content on central web platforms poses enormous challenges. For example, to make information and services available to a broad public, the removal of barriers is essential. In the digital environment, options for presentation in simple language and sign language are important. The city websites of Cologne, Bielefeld, Düsseldorf and also Erfurt are leading the way: Each of these websites has easily accessible settings where a user with common surfing behavior would intuitively search for them, namely within or above the navigation bar. The corresponding buttons allow direct settings for the website display or text and video content for barrier-free use of the website to be selected. The example cities, however, also share a common design flaw. Due to the excessive use of red elements, the useful buttons lose their conspicuity, especially since reading white text elements on red backgrounds can become very strenuous for the user. The city of Stuttgart has the advantage here with its simple color choice and the striking contrasts at the same time. The color palette to be used in the design should therefore be well thought out and, in parallel to important notices and warning signs in public transport, offer orientation.  

This should be accompanied by functions for quickly finding targeted content. While the cities of Essen, Dortmund and Saxony integrate their search functions rather inconspicuously into the navigation bar, the cities of Cologne and Bielefeld and also Minden put their search bars at the center of their homepage. This ensures that the function is also used. The city of Essen compensates for this function with a clear quick selection of the most important topics, but Cologne combines both approaches very compactly. Content such as appointment scheduling, telephone contacts, services and feedback options can be found directly under the search bar. 
Users who, on the other hand, are looking for several topics, rely on a clear navigation with consistent logic. The corresponding implementation represents one of the most difficult challenges, especially for large cities, as a large number of sub-items quickly arise, which can quickly overwhelm the user with so many links. Such overwhelming link walls can be well observed in Cologne, Bielefeld, Dortmund and also in Mönchengladbach. Düsseldorf, on the other hand, takes a different approach by categorizing its own content more strongly and visually highlighting it in a tile structure. The navigation remains clear, even though it represents a comparable number of contents as the cities already mentioned.

From these examples it becomes clear that the balance between content overview and the most comprehensive representation of all offered services is a guiding principle in coping with such challenges. A survey of the relevant target groups to be addressed with the public web presence serves as a guide.
 

Content Prioritization with Target Group Definition 

Users who search the web for public information and services for a municipality usually do not perceive the entire range of content and functions represented with a web presence. Therefore, it makes sense to focus on two target groups with very individual profiles:

1. Local population

• These are citizens from the region who often want to use a service of the website with a specific concern.
• They are therefore primarily interested in digital services, but also like to inform themselves about current city politics and infrastructure development.
• This means that the content should be prepared digitally, easy to find and easy to understand. Efficiency and a clear user guidance are the focus of this group.

2. External users from other regions / tourists

• This supra-regional group usually searches for useful information, for example about culture and leisure activities.
• For this group, it is worthwhile to present the content as completely and attractively as possible. 

Addressing target groups with contrasting concerns in a contemporary manner is a balancing act that can only be achieved sustainably with a clear content prioritization. The basic recognition is that there can be no „golden pattern solution“ to best represent every user scenario. Depending on the size of the city or municipality and the services it offers, the content structure must be defined individually, which can only contribute positively to its efficiency, provided some basic must-haves are observed.

Four tips for a positive user experience and efficient content management

A clear layout with clearly divided segments
The use of tile clusters, as seen on the Essen website, may seem modern at first glance, but quickly creates disorder. The cities of Cologne and Bielefeld are convincing on several levels: unobtrusive cookie notices, a layout with a clear division of page elements and a resulting user guidance that quickly takes the user to his desired destination. Clarity and order in the structure are therefore preferable to the manual feeding of mere content.

Integrate display options
In addition to the mentioned design basics for color choice and contrasts, the technical implementation of extended display options is essential. Essen, Dortmund and Cologne offer deep and particularly useful options for this, from setting font sizes, through day-dependent modes, to hiding disturbing animations and image elements. This creates a sustainably barrier-free user experience and invites the use of the site functions.

One philosophy, one navigation 
Information and services should be equally accessible in the navigation. It does not matter whether this is done in the form of (preferably short) link lists or subcategories. Relevant are a comprehensible user guidance and a consistent preparation of the respective contents.

Efficient Content Management
Citizens who should rely on the content information of municipal websites need current, consistent and reliable information, especially in situations with high dynamics, such as impending floods, danger situations or also when meeting important deadlines. To be able to quickly and clearly incorporate content of this kind, it is advisable to use a content management system that meets the technical requirements of modern e-government and is intuitively operable.

Modern E-Government with imperia CMS

The modern imperia CMS is designed to actively support the digital transformation of municipal administrations. The content management system assists cities and other municipal administrations in the structured development, storage and publication of daily updated content. It is the technical link between common administrative processes and a sustainably positive user experience, through which citizens can clarify their concerns time-saving and frustration-free.

Would you like to experience the imperia CMS live? Feel free to book your personal and non-binding online demo. Our experts will demonstrate to you how we have successfully implemented your requirements in similar customer projects.