Usability in Government Systems

Chapter 16

Getting UX Into the Contract

Timo Jokela* and Elizabeth Buie^†

*Joticom Oy, Helsinki, Finland

†Luminanze Consulting, Silver Spring, MD, USA

“It’s a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one’s safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.”

— Alan Shepard, first American in space

Introduction

Government agencies no longer select contractors solely on price, for the most part. However, as previous chapters have shown, government systems continue to suffer widely from poor usability and give citizens and public servants a less-than-pleasant user experience (UX).

Why does poor usability persist in government systems? In our view, the main reason is that government agencies fail to specify ...