Choosing what to improve: Continuous improvement of web content

Use a task-based approach

Canada.ca is the Government of Canada primary service delivery channel.

People visit Canada.ca to do things like:

• learn about health risks
• apply for passports
• pay their taxes
• receive benefits
• find jobs
• learn about product recalls
• better understand current international trade negotiations

People come to Canada.ca to complete tasks that let them fulfill their goals or objectives. For example, the tasks might be to check eligibility requirements and apply for a benefit. The goal is to receive the benefit payment.

Improving services on Canada.ca means ensuring that people are able to complete their tasks as efficiently and easily as possible.

Top tasks

Use a people-centred and data-driven way to focus and prioritize improvement efforts on the web by focusing on top tasks.

Determining what the top tasks are for your organization is crucial to focusing on what matters.

The GC Task Success Survey offers you a people-centred and data-driven way to prioritize your improvement efforts:

• GC Task Success Survey

Improving the right thing

You won’t be able to improve everything. Some tasks are much more important to your users – and to your mandate – than others.

To choose what to improve, focus on 3 things:

• identify what tasks are causing the greatest challenges
• understand how these problems are affecting your users and internal resources
• choose what is feasible for you to improve, given time limits, organizational culture and interest levels

Use data from task success surveys, direct feedback, call centres and other sources to determine your priorities.

If the team doesn’t agree on the big picture, then they certainly won’t agree on a single feature.

Jory Mackay, 7 Ways to Prioritize Features and Product Improvements

Task success survey results

Results and feedback from task success surveys will help you identify which tasks could be good candidates for improvement.

The GC Task Success Survey lets you measure and monitor results:

• GC Task Success Survey

Frustration expressed through direct feedback

Analyzing direct feedback from people using your information through exit surveys, page feedback, and previous usability testing can help you narrow in on specific problems.

• Collect feedback, find issues (blog post)
• Page feedback tool

Call drivers, complaints, social media listening

Are you getting more calls, or more complaints from your users about specific services? Is your front-line staff describing areas of struggle? Is there a sudden flurry of posts related to your services on social media? These are clear indicators of areas you may need to focus on.

• The importance of working with call centres (blog post)

There are different methods and scorecards you can use to help prioritize problems that users are experiencing. These resources can help you learn more about prioritization methods:

• Severity Ratings for Usability Problems - Nielsen Norman Group
• 7 Ways to Prioritize Features and Product Improvements - Planio
• RICE: Simple prioritization for product managers - Intercom
• La guerre du backlog n’aura pas lieu - Eleven Labs (in French only)