Why Do Government Websites Need A Redesign With Modern Standards?

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Introduction

Website is the flag bearer of every brand in the digital world. A website is responsible for representing the brand's values and ideals and is used to form a connection with the consumer base or visitors. In the modern digital world, you will come across a vibrant range of websites that ooze with creativity, visuals, fun integrations, and layouts. The digital revolution has ushered a new era of website development which wasn't possible before.

But unfortunately, a few websites need to catch up on modern trends, mostly official government websites. It's fair to say that keeping a constant eye on their website is the least of all concerns for a government wing. Still, when your website is supposed to instill deep reliability among the population, it shouldn't be overlooked.

There are plenty of factors to opt for a government website redesign, with aesthetic appeal and technical performance being the most important. These factors affect the overall user experience and help them positively perceive the government. Things to keep in mind while redesigning a website are image optimization, appropriate colors, site navigation, etc.,

Problems With Government Websites

But before we learn how to design a government website, we must learn WHY a government website needs a redesign. After completing a government website analysis, one would come across numerous issues that negatively affect the user experience. It could be either down to an unimpressive design or technical performance like page speed or website weight.

Some of the most common concerns of a government website are such as:

• Lack Of Aesthetic Appeal

Straight off the bat, the most common problem with a government website is that it is too bland to look at. You might notice a need for a more cohesive structure and clean layout by how cluttered the onsite content is aligned. The website doesn't contain that overall aesthetic appeal that would leave the user having a positive experience while scrolling the website. The lack of aesthetic appeal is down to not using the right colors representing the brand or a confusing layout that might overwhelm any visitor.

• The Content Is Outdated

The biggest complaint about a government website is that the content barely gets regular updates. It's not surprising to find information uploaded nearly a decade ago still up on the website. This could cause confusion among the public, who are trying to find some vital information, and negatively paint the government office. It is necessary that the website content is updated regularly as it forms an essential trust factor among the users.

• Technical Issues

Another case that arises from the lack of maintenance of government websites is that they start to show technical issues like slow speed, broken links, and miscellaneous errors. Search engines like Google constantly roll out new updates that prompt web developers to follow suit and accordingly make website changes. However, this is not the case with government websites as they rarely go through regular maintenance; thus, they start having technical errors in the long run. These technical issues can be eliminated by opting for SEO-related practices that optimize the website according to the search engine algorithm.

• Complicated Website Navigation

One of the primary issues with government websites is that they are more government official-centric than people-centric. They are developed keeping in mind that they are to be used primarily by government officers. By not taking a more public-centric approach to layout and navigation, the website could be more apparent to the general public, where searching for even a tiny amount of information could be time-consuming. It is crucial for websites, especially government websites, to maintain a clean and minimalistic layout to provide easy navigation for the users.

Tips To Redesign A Government Website

While opting for a government website redesign, you might wonder where to start and what to prioritize. Just what exactly needs to be done to modernize a government website to create a positive user experience? Let us elucidate each critical tip to consider while revamping a government website.

• ‍Choose Appropriate Colors

Colors are the ultimate representation of a brand identity. Government websites make the mistake of keeping their layout with dull and plain colors that don't necessarily create an aesthetic appeal. For a specific government office or service website, one should represent the appropriate colors that ultimately define the office's identity. The right colors on the right webpage always make a soothing impression on every visitor who comes across it. Not only that but colors are also the utmost representation of trust & reliability that every government website should yearn for.

• ‍Prioritize Better Technical Performance

The technical performance of a website is down to plenty of factors. The main focus of a website's performance is down to its page load speed. People like fast websites; it positively affects the user experience and could be frustrating. For government websites, slow page speed could jeopardize the process if a user is trying to commute for some official documentation or other kinds of services. Page load speed is down to the website being too heavy on content or documentation that needs to be optimized accordingly. To improve the overall technical performance of a government website, it is recommended to opt for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices that help optimize a website to perform best according to the search engine algorithm.

• ‍Upload Optimized Images

A website either contains content or images. One of the worst early mistakes made during a government website development is uploading images in their default file type and size. Images files take longer to load on the browser, and heavy files could affect the page load speed, thus affecting the overall performance. It is crucial that each image is resized to optimal dimensions before they are uploaded on the website. Larger image files should always be compressed to small sizes in formats like JPG or PNG. Compressing is essential as images must always be small enough to improve the technical performance but good enough to retain the quality.

• ‍Keep Website Navigation Simple

The best-looking websites are different from the ones that are overflowing with an unnecessary layout but are those that keep their structure simple and minimalistic. Government websites are usually cluttered with content and design, making navigation extremely confusing and time-consuming for users. Each government website must maintain a simple and clean layout that makes navigation easy and fast for the user. When a user is searching for a particular piece of information, the website must always provide them with easy and quick navigation to the desired location they are looking for.

• ‍Avoid Broken Links On Website

Broken links or 404 errors are hyperlinks that end up dead due to a relocation of address or an invalid URL. Another case of lack of maintenance is broken links are more common on government websites. That is because while updating a piece of information or service on the website, they overlook replacing the previous URL with the new one, thus resulting in a dead hyperlink. Broken links affect the website's performance and, more importantly, must be clarified for the users. Nowadays, the internet is full of prominent software tools that help detect each broken link on a website and eliminate them permanently.

• ‍Keep The Website Mobile Optimized

During the earlier stages of a government website development, they are created to only be accessible on a single device or system, like a desktop browser. But the advancement of technology has made the internet accessible to many devices, mainly mobile phones. Mobile phones consist of 59% of overall internet traffic among all devices. Optimizing a website is one of the most widely implemented modern digital trends that each brand makes confident of. Unfortunately, government websites overlook the importance of being mobile optimized; therefore, their performance is significantly degraded on mobile phones or other devices. One of the most people-centric steps for the government office is optimizing its website for an ideal mobile version, as it will likely receive most of its traffic on mobile devices.

Revamp Any Government Website To Modern Standards With Exemplifi!

The days of boring government websites are long gone; the digital revolution has shown new innovative ways for brand website development, and government websites can be included!

At Exemplifi, we offer our clients end-to-end website development and redesign services where we help develop a visually-excellent website with optimal performance that represents the best of our client and help them improve their consumer relationship. We have long-term professional expertise in building websites for brands in different industry sectors.

Exemplifi can help paint your government website in a limelight that was never possible before! Our experts will perfectly idealize your requirements and user base to help develop a website that can land the utmost reliability of trust among your users. We will create a website that is fast, accessible, SEO-friendly, mobile-optimized, and cost-effective and that is not only up to date with modern standards but YOUR standards as well.

Contact our team today and learn how we can help you design the ideal website for you!