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26 Jun 2020  (454 Views) 
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Smart Nation


Bad design of govt agencies websites
The websites of many govt agencies are badly designed. They include MOM, ICA, IRAS and ACRA.

It is troublesome to login to the website. After that, it is troublesome to search for the form that is required to be completed. The search is done through layers of links.

These agencies provide a detailed FAQ on how to navigate the website. Reading the FAQ could take maybe half or one hour, and the public will still be confused.

Searching for the outcome of a transaction can also be a hassle. The public has to provide NRIC/FIN or sometimes an application number that is not readily available. Why can't the website allow search by partial name?

Even downloading a PDF reply can be a big hassle due to the need to use a specific outdated browser.

In past years, the govt agency provides a well manned hotline to guide the public through a tedious and complicated process. This hotline is no longer available. To reach a person for help, it may take half an hour on the hotline.

I suspect that the hotline has been overwhelmed by the large number of inquiries from the public. The underlying problem is the bad design of the websites.

This problem has persisted over many years. I raised this feedback on several occasions with several agencies over a period of ten years. Nothing was done. The problem persisted till today.

The bad websites must have resulted in a horrendous cost to the country in the time that the public and business has to spend on submitting transactions with the govt agencies. 

It is not difficult to design a website that is easy to use and does not take so much trouble for the public. There are millions of websites that achieve this standard. 

It is shocking that the websites of our govt agencies continue to be so painful to use.

I will be happy to elaborate more on my terrible experience over the past years and to suggest areas for improvement.

Tan Kin Lian


 


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