Development of a city website : An analysis of users’ perceptions

Abstract

The internet has enabled and enhanced communication between people, organizations, governments, and cities. The internet and digitalization of services has changed the way the cities and other public sector actors provide services and information to the residents. The objective of this study was to find out the main improvements the current espoo.fi website users want to have on the renewed espoo.fi website. The renewed website will be launched in 2021. There was a mixed method questionnaire conducted, with both closed and open ended questions. Espoo has had its website since the late 1990’s and there has been one prior renewal of the website in 2011. The questionnaire was distributed via the current Espoo.fi website and Espoo’s social media channels. It was answered by 433 respondents. The research questions were: how is the current Espoo.fi website used, what are the users’ perceptions of the content on the website, and what are the main improvements the users want to the renewed espoo.fi? The current website was stated to be used to find information on the services, mainly on weekly and monthly basis, and the content of the website needed to be easy to find. The five most wanted topics by the respondents to be on the renewed website were: the services of Espoo, and more precisely health services should be more clearly stated, the contact information of all service locations, and of the employees of Espoo especially working in the city planning and building, city planning issues, a better search function, and decisions made by the City Council and the committees, including the minutes of the meetings.