Digital information portals

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Digital information portals

Stakeholders’ preferences revealed

By

Marten de Vries

October 2009

University of Groningen, the Netherlands Faculty of economics and business

Supervisors:

prof. dr. ir. J.C. Wortmann

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1 Preface

This research paper is about the ingredients for a roadmap for the development of the information portals like the digital Wmo counter. I was given the opportunity to conduct my research project within Biblionet ID as part of the study “Business Administration” at the University of Groningen. The project started in August 2008 and was finished in August 2009.

I would like to thank Biblionet ID for the resources they provided me in order to be able to conduct this research project. In particular I would like to thank Michiel Verbeek and Patrick Eckhardt for their time, support and input during the graduation process.

From the University of Groningen I would like to thank prof. dr. ir. J.C. Wortmann and drs. S. Sibum for their time, support and input regarding the research project.

Finally I would like to acknowledge the municipal of Winschoten and the Regional Training Center (ROC) Friesepoort for giving me the chance to conduct the field research.

I hope you will enjoy reading this research paper. Marten de Vries

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2 Abstract

The research project started with the intention to get a better understanding of the stakeholders and their preferences regarding the Wmo counter. Hence, the goal of this research project was based upon determining:

“the ingredients for a roadmap for the development of the digital Wmo counter in the future” These ingredients were for this research primarily defined by the preferences of the stakeholders of the Wmo counter: end users and municipals. By identifying these preferences, Biblionet would get a better understanding of them and therefore being able to improve its’ Wmo counter.

The preferences were not solely identified upon the expressed preferences of users, but these preferences also include the behaviour of users. For a new type of information portal, the CJG (Centrum Jeugd en Gezin - the main functionality will be based upon the Wmo counter), a closer look was given at the behaviour of adolescents via an observatory research.

The information portal (Wmo counter as well as the future CJG counter) is based upon a database called INVIS (INteractief Vraaggestuurd Informatie Systeem). In this database they have gathered data about organizations and their products or services that could be financed or supported from the Wmo act.

For the second part of this research project, the preferences and the characteristics of the end users of the Wmo counter, an online survey was developed. This survey was based upon the three tiers of the information portal; interface, applications and data. Biblionet ID would like to know more about the preferences for each tier of the end users. The online survey has been available for almost one month, which resulted in 43 completed surveys.

The user of the Wmo counter are mostly first-time visitors and the main reason for visiting the digital Wmo counter is to find general information about the Wmo. Finding information about organizations and their products come respectively on a second and third place. Most users leave the counter when they have found their information.

The participants of this survey primarily use the search application to find their information. While the search application is sufficient according to the largest group of the participants, the first-time visitors, the group of returning visitors are less satisfied about the relevance of the results of the search application.

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IV A model was developed primarily based upon the Microsoft Usability Guidelines (MUG) and was complemented with additional indicators from other sources. The method consisted out of the attributes content, ease of use and made-for-the-medium.

While performing the primary tasks, the Wmo counter was validated on all attributes. Each indicator was given a score on a five point Lickert scale and a weighting. Eventually a total score was calculated based upon these two measures. The Wmo counter was given a score of 3.36 of a five point Lickert scale where a score of three should be considered as sufficient. The best performing areas are accessibility and structure. The accessibility of the Wmo counter was measured by using the W3C accessibility guidelines and whether the various priority levels were met. The Wmo counter almost met all guidelines of the first two priority levels. This means that users, who use for instance supporting tools to enable them to find information on the counter, have less difficulty to overcome obstacles when using the website. Structure was measured by looking at how many objects (menus, text areas and other objects) a page contains and whether it distracts the user from its primary goal. The pages of the counter contain about 5 till 7 content containers which is a small number compared to other websites. Hence, the attribute structure was about how much irrelevant information was shown on an individual page. Only information that would direct the user to help him or her achieve their goal was shown on a page. This prevents users from getting distracted.

There are also some areas that require more attention. The goal is not always clearly defined and presented to the user on every page. For instance, when a user is confronted with a web form, it is not clearly defined what the purpose is of filling in a web form and in which way a web form would support the user in accomplishing his or her goals and takes.

Another area of attention is feedback towards the user. The feedback a user gets from the Wmo counter when interacting with it is very limited. Users were not supported to recover from an error by, for instance, a message that would indicate what a user should do to overcome that situation.

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V These participants started their quest for information on the internet by using Google. Although they work on daily base with this application, their skills of formulating a search query are somehow limited.

When visiting a website, the participants use mainly the navigation menus to find the information on the website. This is caused by negative experiences regarding search applications on a website.

Each group of participants was confronted with one of the two types of information portal. This is done due to limited time, but also to exclude the possibility that the preferences were influenced by experience with a certain type of website. Eventually most participants prefer a functional information portal, but there is also a significant number that prefers a more appealing website. Therefore the preference of the adolescents regarding the type of information portal is not made significantly clear during this research project and further research is necessary in the future.

During the sessions with the participants it was unexpected to see that their ability to define a search query is limited. Also their ability to distinguish the given results from each other and the ability to determine which result will give reliable information and an answer to their question.

The latter part of the research is about the preferences of the municipal. The main research question here is whether it is possible to integrate the information portal of Biblionet ID more in the process of the Wmo. Therefore an interview with mr Brunink and ms Westerhof at the municipal of Winschoten was the base of the findings regarding this part of the research project.

The process within the municipal is characterized by a physical visit to client. Together with the client, a clerk determines whether a client could claim support from the Wmo and the clerk fills in a formal request.

The use of IT is very limited. Information Systems are only used for archiving the request and the reports with an advice and defiance and the main software application that are being used during the process of the Wmo, are text editors for writing a report.

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VI The ingredients for future development of the Wmo counter consists out of improving feedback via messages or information balloons towards the user, defining a goal on each page and improving the search engine so that also more experienced users will be more satisfied with the Wmo counter. Another ingredient is supporting users, with defining their search query with search suggestions when entering a search query.

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3 Table of contents

4 Introduction ... 1 4.1 Biblionet ID ... 1 4.2 Goal ... 3 4.3 Research question ... 3 4.4 Outline ... 3

PART 1: PREFERENCES END USERS ... 5

5 Introduction ... 6

6 Background information WMO ... 7

6.1 History ... 7

6.2 Goal ... 7

6.3 Civil society ... 7

6.4 Performance fields ... 8

6.5 Future ... 8

7 Stakeholders digital Wmo counter ... 9

7.1 Competition ... 9

7.2 Three tier and competitive position ... 10

7.3 Distributors ... 13

7.4 New entrants ... 13

7.5 New products/ technology ... 14

7.6 End users ... 14

7.7 Service providers ... 16

8 Target groups Wmo ... 17

8.1 Characteristics ... 17

8.2 Grouping ... 18

9 Research method ... 20

9.1 Method ... 20

9.2 Research questions ... 20

10 Preferences of end users digital Wmo counter ... 21

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PART 2: USABILITY EVALUATION ... 39

12 Introduction ... 40 13 Research method ... 41 14 Usability ... 42 14.1 Definition ... 42 14.2 Web usability ... 44 14.3 Project’s definition ... 44

15 Usability evaluation methods ... 46

15.1 SUS ... 46

15.2 MUG ... 46

15.3 Concluding ... 47

16 Heuristic model for evaluating Wmo counter ... 48

16.1 Heuristic evaluation ... 48

16.2 Pros of heuristic evaluation ... 48

16.3 Cons of using heuristics ... 49

16.4 Development of the evaluation method ... 49

17 Usability analysis ... 61

17.1 Analysis ... 61

17.2 Conclusions ... 64

17.3 Reflection ... 64

PART 3: PREFERENCES ADOLESCENTS ... 65

20 Background information ... 68

20.1 Functional vs appealing ... 68

21 Observations and analysis ... 70

21.1 Research setting ... 70

21.2 General ... 71

21.3 Site specific ... 72

21.4 Adolescents' view on informational portals ... 74

21.5 Conclusion ... 75

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PART 4: PREFERENCES MUNICIPALS ... 78

24 Background information ... 80

24.1 Description ... 80

24.2 What is an architecture ... 81

24.3 Framework ... 82

24.4 Connection to the Wmo Counter ... 82

24.5 Data exchange obstacles ... 84

26 Analysis case study Winschoten ... 86

26.1 Process ... 86

26.2 Use of IT in the Wmo process ... 89

26.3 Conclusion ... 90

27 Reflection ... 91

PART 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ... 92

29 Conclusions ... 94

29.1 User preferences ... 94

29.2 Ease of use ... 95

29.3 Adolescents: appeal or functionality ... 96

29.4 Municipals ... 96 30 Recommendations ... 98 30.1 Ingredients ... 98 30.2 Future research ... 99 31 Reflection ... 100 32 Literature ... 101 33 Attachments ... 105

33.1 Survey measuring preferences of end users ... 105

33.2 Usability analysis ... 108

33.3 Adolescents questionnaire ... 111

33.4 Screenshots information portals ... 114

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C ha pt er : Int roduc ti on

1 4 Introduction

On the first of January 2007 the government issued a new act. In order to set the borders of the AWBZ for these persons it was initially intended for, they issued a new act called Wet maatschappelijk ontwikkeling (Wmo, translated: Law for Social Development). This new act primarily supports people, enabling them to live and function in the society autonomously. The target group of this act ranges from people with small and temporary injuries to people with disabilities which make it slight harder to function autonomously, but it is still doable with some support. People who are, due to their disability, not able to function autonomously even with support are still able to rely on the AWBZ.

The municipals are, as a result of the introduction of this act, responsible for its execution. This is because the municipal knows its citizens best and is therefore the ideal governmental institution to provide the support needed.

The act is built upon nine achievement fields. One of these fields is providing information, advice and client support (Ministerie VWS, 2008 [2]). Regarding to the part of administering information, the initiator of this research project, Biblionet ID, has developed an information portal or digital Wmo counter on which citizens and other stakeholders are able find information about the Wmo act. This information portal is called Lokaalloket. Both, Biblionet ID and the information portal, will be discussed in more detail in the next section.

Now two years later, the Wmo act is embedded in the society and the municipals are familiar with its' legislation, it is time to assess the results of the implementation of the digital Wmo counter and look forward to future developments.

At first the initiator of the project, Biblionet ID, will introduced in section 1.1 in this chapter. Thereafter the research question will be introduced. This chapter concludes with the outline of this research report.

4.1 Biblionet ID

In this section the initiator of the project, Biblionet ID, and her activities will be introduced. In the first section the organization will be discussed and thereafter the products and services of Biblionet ID will be introduced.

4.1.1 Organization

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The organization was founded about five years ago. It started as INVIS (INteractief Vraaggestuurd Informatie Systeem), but later it merged with Loket X (a competitor) which led to naming the organization to Xinvis. Now the organization is embedded formally as well as physically within Biblionet Groningen. In 2008 the organization was renamed to Biblionet ID. ID stands for 'Internet Services'. The services will be discussed in the next section.

Biblionet ID employs 11 people. The structure of the organization is extremely plane with only one management layer. The organization is lead by mr. Verbeek.

The main task of Biblionet ID is to support the local libraries with digital information counters and websites. Xinvis is next to the name of the organization also the name of the most recent version of the digital Wmo counter. Xinvis is a product which has been successfully introduced in already 60 municipals in the Netherlands.

4.1.2 Services

As mentioned earlier the primary goal of Biblionet is supporting local libraries with digital information counters. Before introducing the different products and services the system on which all products and services depend will be introduced.

The Information System of Biblionet ID is based upon two databases: GIDS and INVIS. The first database is a database of the local libraries which contains mainly (contact) information about organizations and unions. The INVIS database does not only consist of contact information, but also information about the products and services an organization provides. The product information is quite extensive; it does not only consist of a description of the product or service, but also, for instance, information about the target group or the terms of the product or service. All this information allows Biblionet ID to compare the different products and services of the different organizations.

The Information System could be divided into two parts: front-end and end. The back-end system is the administrator area. There the organizations, municipals and the employees of Biblionet ID are able to maintain the information of the databases. This system also checks whether the information in the databases are still up-to-date.

The front-end system is the information portal on the internet. This portal is called Lokaalloket (www.lokaalloket.nl). This portal is split in 60 sub portals, hereafter called Wmo counters; the information in the database is distributed locally. For example, the Wmo counter of the municipal of Groningen will only display the products, services and organizations that are available in this area. Although the information is stored centrally in one database, for each municipal only information that relates to that specific area will be unlocked.

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4.2 Goal

Biblionet ID would like to know more about the preferences and desires of the end users; the citizens of a municipal, who use the digital counter to find more information about arrangements and service providers concerning their situation.

Not only the preferences of the end users, but also another stakeholder of the digital Wmo counter will be a point of interest; the municipal. The processes within a municipal, regarding to the assessment and processing of the request for support from the Wmo, will be watched closely in order to find the preferences and desires concerning the use of the digital Wmo counter within the municipal itself.

As introduced in the previous section the Information System provides the opportunity to develop new products like the CJG. Biblionet ID has relatively almost no experience with young visitors they would like to know what their preferences are regarding to a digital information portal or counter.

With the information about the preferences of these stakeholders, Biblionet ID could make a strategic decision regarding to her future competitive position.

4.3 Research question

In this section the central research question will be introduced. All these preferences, which are introduced in the previous section, could be summarized into one main research question: “what are the ingredients for a roadmap for the development of the digital Wmo counter in the future?”

The ingredients are in this case the preferences and desires of the end users and municipals (clerks) of the digital counter.

4.4 Outline

This research report consists of five parts. In the first part the Wmo counter and its’ stakeholders will be introduced. In this part the preferences of one of these stakeholders (the end users) will be determined by analyzing the results of the online survey.

The second part of this research report assesses the Wmo counter from another point of view. Instead of using the characteristics or features of the counter as basis for the analysis, the second part uses goals and tasks to identify the areas for future improvement by an expert analysis of the Wmo counter.

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knowledge about this group within the organization is limited. To know more about their preferences and their behaviors an observatory research will give an indication.

Thereafter the preferences of another stakeholder of the Wmo counter will be discussed. The municipal is the initiator for deploying an information portal. In this part a closer look will be given at the process of requesting for support from the Wmo until the order is given to provide the support and how the Wmo counter could be integrated in this process.

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5 Part 1: Preferences end users

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6 5 Introduction

Building an information portal does not only consider the desires of the initiator, in this case the municipal, but you need also to consider the users, the citizens of a municipal. For this research project, the users are defined as end users. In this part of the research project a closer look is given to the preferences of the end user.

This part starts with an introduction to the background of the Wmo act in chapter 6. Thereafter the stakeholders surrounding the digital Wmo counter will be introduced. This will lead to identifying the different stakeholders who will be discussed in the rest of this document. In chapter 8 the stakeholder central in this part of the research report, the target group of the Wmo will be discussed in more detail.

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C ha pt er : B ac kgr ound i nf or m at ion W M O

7 6 Background information WMO

In this chapter you will find background information about the Wmo. This chapter describes the history, goal, the philosophy, performance fields and the future of the Wmo.

6.1 History

Wet maatschappelijke ondersteuning (Wmo) was a result of a debate to improve performance of the public social services. The AWBZ (Algemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten) is an act which supports the disabled people who are not able to live autonomously for a very long period (Ministry VWS, 2008). Mostly chronic al illnesses and disabilities with high costs which are not financed by the insurances are supported by this act. Before the introduction of the Wmo act, a lot of other illnesses or disabilities (less chronic al) were supported. This led to a growth of costs for the AWBZ. In order to lower these costs and improve the performance of the social services provided the Dutch government introduced the Wmo act at the first of January 2007. In this chapter a closer look will be given at this act and how the future would look like regarding to the users of this act.

6.2 Goal

The goal of the Wmo act is allowing people to live autonomously even with an illness or disability. At first people should rely on family, friends etc., but if that is not possible the municipal could give the applicant the support he or she needs in order to be able to live autonomously (Ministry of VWS, 2008[2]) in the society.

6.3 Civil society

Before introducing the performance fields of the Wmo a closer look will be given at the term “civil society.” The philosophy of civil society is described as:

“as a sphere of social interaction between economy and state, composed above all of the intimate sphere (especially the family), the sphere of associations (especially voluntary associations), social movement and forms of public communication.”(Cohen, Arato; 1994 p. ix)

This term could be used within in the context of the Wmo act with the following situation: when a person needs help, the clerk at the counter will first examine the personal situation of the applicant. When possible, an applicant should make use of the care of their kin (family and close friends) at first. In some cases this is not possible and then an applicant could claim support from volunteers. Even if that is even not possible, an applicant is warranted to make a claim on (financial) support of the Wmo.

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C ha pt er : B ac kgr ound i nf or m at ion W M O

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6.4 Performance fields

The Wmo act could be split in 9 (nine) performance fields (Ministry of VWS, 2008). These fields were determined by the Ministry of VWS. The counter (digital as well as physical) have to deal with performance field 3 (three).

This field consists of informing, advice and consulting the citizens of a municipal. Every municipal is allowed to develop her own strategy to meet this performance field. A municipal could, for example, create a digital counter in order to inform their citizens about the Wmo act. Another example is that clerks advice or support people in their decision making which support they should claim in their situation.

Hence, an active role is required from the municipal. A digital counter, like Xinvis, could support a municipal with the execution and fulfillment of this performance field.

6.5 Future

The population growth is expected to decline, however the growth of the population will continue until 2035. This mostly caused by the aging population. Therefore number of people aged above 65 is expected to grow even more. Together with these trends the numbers of people with physical problems increase as well and with that the number of applications for medical support. This also would increase the number of requests for support from the Wmo even further (SGBO, 2006).

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C ha pt er : S ta ke hol de rs di gi ta l W m o c ount er

9 7 Stakeholders digital Wmo counter

In this chapter the industry and all stakeholders surrounding the digital Wmo counter. The stakeholders will be introduced by using the five forces model of Porter (1980). The forces surrounding a business of Porter are; new entrants, new products, distributors, end user and the competitive market. Using this model it is possible to make an extensive analysis of possible threats and opportunities in the environment of a business in order to define a competitive strategy. In this report the model will be mainly used to identify the stakeholders in a logical manner.

7.1 Competition

In this section the competitive market, in which Biblionet ID is active, will be introduced. Before the introduction of the competitors, the variables on which the competition is based will be discussed. This is discussed in order to make some clarification about the differences between some organizations who also offer a certain digital counter. Thereafter the main competitors will be briefly introduced individually.

7.1.1 Basis of competition

In this section a closer look will be given at the basis of the competition within the market. Biblionet ID uses a database with information about service providers and their products / services. This database is called GIDS and is developed and exploited by the libraries in the Netherlands. With all the information available in this database, Biblionet ID developed a service called Xinvis. Municipals could invest in this counter in order to provide the information about the Wmo to their citizens. Together with the information about the Wmo they also could use the database, GIDS, in order to provide their citizens with information about other service providers in the region.

Figure 1: Five forces shaping industry competition (Porter, 1985)

Suppliers Competitors Distributors Substitute product

or ser ices

New entrants

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The most important characteristic of the competition is the amount of information that is stored in the database. Without this data a digital counter is no more than a website with plain information and not offering the information about possible solutions, which are also offered by the service providers in their region, which would help the citizens in their specific situation.

Other characteristics on which most vendors compete in the market of digital counters are the accessibility of the data and the interface of the counter (the website itself).

For the competitors, vendors of digital Wmo counters with databases like GIDS, it is critical that information should be easily accessed and the data should be available at the right time. The latter means that when a user executes a search query, it is important that the most relevant information is displayed. Another aspect is the interface of a digital counter. This interface allows users to find and access data.

Figure 2: Three tier architecture of Biblionet ID

7.2 Three tier and competitive position

The characteristics could be seen as a three tier architecture on which every tier the competitors compete with each other. This is graphical displayed in the figure above. This figure is based upon the three tier architecture of FedEx (Farhoomand, NG, Conlry, 2003). Competitors in this market compete on data, accessibility of the information via several applications and the access tier; the user interface.

With the first tier, data, it is important that information is correct and up-to-date while, on the other side, the quantity also has a major impact on the competitive position of a database.

Comparison Catalogue Municipal Database with (f.i. GIDS) Service providers

Communication protocols and middleware Digital counter A cces t ier A ppl ic ation t ie r D at a t ier Physical counter

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However there is not much information available about these two variables, because of its’ competitive sensitivity.

Second, the application tier consists of the applications that process data and eventually send desired information to the interface. Examples of such applications are the search application and question and answer tree. It is important that the applications deliver the right content at the right time. Applications also provide opportunities to enhance the competitive position. The latter tier, the interface (the digital counter), displays the data and gives the user the opportunity to navigate to the right information. Design, accessibility, usability and interaction play a major role in the perception of the information. The competition on this tier is quite fierce, but it is very hard to differ from competitors due to the limitations like the accessibility guidelines introduced earlier on in this report.

In the next subsections a number of competitors, who are all competing at all three tiers, will be introduced.

7.2.1 GGD

The first competitor is the GGD (Gemeenschappelijke or Gemeentelijke Gezondheidsdienst). GGD is a local health department which executes the tasks regarding to the general health on behalf of the municipals. The GGD has deployed their activities all over the Netherlands. The database is based upon SoCard (Sociale Card) and this is developed by Orangehill (www.orangehill.nl). They have multiple portals, counters, where people are able to find the information they need. It is called Wmo Webwinkel and for every municipal, that uses this product, a separate counter or portal is created.

The layout, the interface of the product, is with every counter the same. Simplicity is one of the main aspects of this page which makes it easy to navigate.

7.2.2 MEE

The second competitor is MEE (www.mee-ugv.nl). MEE is an organization specialized in consulting on behalf of the disabled person. During the years of consulting they were able to build a large database with service providers (about 25.000 organizations in April 2007, source: PPCNET, http://www.ppcnet.nl/page/pag_view.asp?pag_id=23774).

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7.2.3 Trovare

Another competitor in this market is Trovare. Just like the first competitor, the GGD, they also have a quite extensive database with data about service providers, but, in contrast to GGD, also descriptions of the products and services a service provider offers.

They allow the user to search for products, but they also have built a map on which the locations of the different service providers are displayed. This allows a user to find service providers in their area by just using one single map. They are quite unique with this application and that gives them a unique selling point.

7.2.4 GovWorks

GovWorks (www.GovWorks.nl) is a rather unknown competitor. Their well known counter is used by the municipal, Zwolle. But also in other municipals, like Dronten, a counter was implemented. Just like the previous competitors, GovWorks has some kind of database with information about service providers. However they do not provide any information about the products and services a service provider offers.

The layout is quite large and they use easy to understand buttons for navigation. Also the accessibility of the counters is quite good. For example by supporting an user through an application that reads the content of a page. However they do not offer a search application. 7.2.5 Regelhulp.nl

Another player in this market is Regelhulp.nl. Although they do not have a large database with service providers, they could be considered as a competitor. They allow a user to directly send an application for support from a public social service to the (governmental) department that is responsible for handling the applications.

Regelhulp is supported by the Dutch government and big social governmental departments like UWV (handles the insurances of all employees of the Netherlands), CWI (Centrum Werk en Inkomen) and CIZ (Centrum Indicatie Zorg, this department judges whether a person could make a claim for support from the AWBZ) are using the website. This makes it interesting to know more about this site and whether Biblionet ID should compete or cooperate with them. Users, people who are in need for support, can visit the site and search for the services they presume.

7.2.6 Conclusion

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It could be very interesting to find out what the possibilities are regarding to a future cooperation between Biblionet ID and one or multiple competitors. However due to the fierce competition within the market it would be impossible to find mutual interests. Therefore a “competitor”, which is active on all dimensions or tiers, will solely be discussed in more detail further on in this report. Other competitors are considered not to be a threat to Biblionet Ids’ competitive position.

7.3 Distributors

The distributors are the ones who distribute your product or service to the end user. In this case the distributors of the services provided by Biblionet ID are the municipals. They enable Biblionet ID to provide their information services to the end user, the citizen of the municipal. Without the support of the municipal, Biblionet ID is not able to provide all the necessary information to the citizens.

The main interest for the municipals is being able to execute the Wmo act as effective and efficient as possible.

7.3.1 Provinces

The province subsidizes the projects surrounding the implementation or improving the Wmo activities performed by the municipals. They cannot influence the decision making through the municipals directly; however they could push the municipals to a certain solution.

Governmental organizations have the liberty to develop their own IT policy. Therefore the information systems used by, for instance, municipals could differ from one another, but also the policies regarding to the use of IT could differ. In this case provinces could have a very strict IT policy in which it is possible to request for financial support for the implementation of a digital counter, while other provinces do not have any form of dictation and also no financial support for an implementation or improvement of a digital counter.

7.4 New entrants

The possibility of new players entering the market is always there. In a relative young market, like the market for digital Wmo counters, the threat is even higher, because competitions from other markets could gain a second mover advantage. This advantage is generated by the use of competences gained in other markets. However, for this research project this force or stakeholder within the five forces model will not be discussed in much detail.

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It is possible for a municipal or a collective of municipals to develop their own digital counter. This newly developed counter could be used in a foundation, just like Biblionet ID, which could enter the market and be part of the competition.

7.5 New products/ technology

In this section a short description will be given of the competitive force new products or new technology. Due to technical developments an product could be aged very quickly. And therefore the competitive position of the digital counter offered by Biblionet ID could weaken due to technical developments in the market or even in another market.

Possible new developments for a digital counter could be the use of multimedia. For instance the use of a web cam and a Voice Over IP (VOIP, for instance Skype) technology for the interaction between the customer and the clerk. A similar example could be the use of interactive movies in which the user could be guided to the right information. The biggest difference between the two examples is that the latter is available 24/7 and the other is still bound to the opening hours of the counter.

Another possibility is the use of a virtual counter where people can visit the Wmo counter by entering the 3D virtual world, using an avatar to move around. A much known example is Second Life from Linden Lab. In this world people move around with their avatar and do even business with each other. Companies, like IBM, use this world for conferences in order to overcome the geographical barriers between the employees of IBM (King, 2008).

The virtual world offered by Linden Lab also provides the possibility to create a private virtual world with only the, in this case, counter providing public services to the visitors (King, 2008). This virtual world could be directly accessed via the website of the municipal, login and registering is not mandatory and the barriers to enter the virtual world could be as low the municipal would prefer.

However, as introduced earlier in this report, the accessibility of all the on-line services of the government should be available to all citizens. This means that also, for instance, visual handicapped should be able to use a new technology. Regarding to the use of a virtual counter, the accessibility of such this particular technology is in question for the visual handicapped while the use of VOIP would be a problem for the people with hearing issues. Concluding, the developments regarding the use of new technologies are somehow restricted to accessibility guidelines, but the influence of these guidelines is limited on Xinvis, the product of Biblionet ID.

7.6 End users

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the care of, for example, people who live in an elderly home. In the later case, the end user does not qualify for the Wmo act, because these people are able to gain support from the AWBZ.

Who are the people that could be seen as the target group for the digital counter? The report “Aard en omvang Wmo-doelgroep” (SGBO, 2006), assigned by the Dutch society of municipals (Vereniging Nederlandse gemeenten – VNG), states that almost 5 million people are in need for some kind of support. In this group a distinction could be made between support from the Wmo and the AWBZ act.

When do you rely on the support from Wmo or AWBZ act? When you are able to live autonomously with some support then you qualify for the Wmo act in other cases the AWBZ act will support you. However, in the latter case the ability to live autonomously is not present.

The report of the SGBO states that almost 2.4 million people are the target group for getting support from the Wmo. This is a large group. However, not all people from this group are going to use the support from the Wmo due to small and/ or temporarily problems, for instance a broken wrist. Almost 1.6 million people are in need of some kind of structural support from the Wmo (SGBO, 2006).

Table 1 shows an overview of all the people grouped by the problems they have. This grouping is conducted by the SGBO (SGBO, 2006) and the grouping of the target groups of the digital Wmo counter will be discussed in more detail in this paper later on.

Table 1: Number of vulnerable people in the Netherlands (Source: Aard en omvang Wmo-doelgroep, SGBO; 2006) Number of persons % of total citizens of the Netherlands Number people aged above 65 % of the total persons above 65 Physical limitations 1,500,00 9.2 % 730,000 33.2% Chronic psychological problems 120,000 0.7% 100,000 4.5% Mental handicapped 112,000 0.7% 3,700 0.2% Psychosocial or material problems 500,000 3.1% 50,000 2.3%

Small raising problems 525,000 3.2%

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The total group of end users for the digital counter is quite extensive and therefore interesting to investigate their needs and wishes related to the use of a digital counter offered by Biblionet ID. Although their direct influence on the way the information is displayed on the website is limited, it is still very important to adjust the counter to their needs.

7.7 Service providers

Another stakeholder is consisting out of service providers. This group delivers a particular product or service (related to the services which are supported by the Wmo act) to the end user. Most of these products or services contain one or more elements for home care, to enable the user, citizen, to be able to live at his or her home autonomously, not relying on care from hospitals, elderly homes, and etcetera. Service providers are, in some particular case, the municipals themselves. An example is the parking cart for disabled people, with this cart they are able to visit shopping malls or shops, because the cart allows them to use special parking places especially reserved for persons with a disability which are mostly located at the entrance of a mall.

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C ha pt er : T ar g et gr oups W m o

17 8 Target groups Wmo

In this chapter a closer look will be given at the target groups, the end users, of the digital Wmo counter. Earlier on in this report a short description was made of this group, using the report “Aard en omvang Wmo-doelgroep” (SGBO, 2006) which was assigned by the Dutch society of municipals in order to have a good overview of the potential users claiming (financial) support from the Wmo act. In this chapter a closer look will be given at the distinction between the different users. This distinction is made upon a few characteristics. These will be discussed in the first section.

8.1 Characteristics

In this section the characteristics of the target groups will be introduced by using characteristics and definitions of the target groups identified by the SGBO (2006) which are written in the previous section. Next to the regular users, also clerks use the digital counter to search for information. This could be conducted on behalf of a citizen who visited the physical counter. The clerks will not be included in this part of the research project, be will be seen as one of the aspects regarding to the preferences of the municipals.

8.1.1 Users vs non-users

First a distinction needs to be made between the users or people who are going to request support from the Wmo and those who do not need any support from Wmo or are unfamiliar with Wmo. The SGBO (2006) predicted that not all “vulnerable” people are going to use the support provided by the Wmo act.

Therefore the first distinction between the target groups is the user and non-user. During the project, the latter group will not be included, because it is expected that this group is very hard to reach and therefore hard to include in the research and make any profound conclusions about this group. However, it is important to know that this group exists.

8.1.2 Structural vs incidental

The first characteristic which makes a group identifiable is the kind of help it needs. If a group or user needs to have some kind of structural support from the Wmo, for instance when he or she is paralyzed they are not able to live fully autonomously without any form of support. This support will be given for a very long period. While incidental users only needs the support during a fixed and mostly short period of time, for instance the use of a wheelchair when a person has broken his leg(s) while skiing during the holidays.

8.1.3 Age

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A hypothesis could be that people aged above 65 are more structural users than people aged below 65. Also preferences regarding to the display of information and the way people are guided to the information they need, could be different than the people aged below 65. In the future is the group will grow even more due to the aging Dutch population.

8.1.4 Type of disability

After these rough-cut characteristics the type of problems or disabilities a person has could influence the desires regarding to the information displayed on the digital counter. A note need to be made here, the SGBO looked at the types of disabilities a person could have, while in this research project the type disability is connected to the perception of the information displayed on the digital Wmo counter. For this research project a distinction is made between mental and physical problems.

Mental

At first glance the mental problems would not be a disability which influences the perception of the information displayed at a website. However some mental problems like concentration problems might cause a problem. The ability to navigate to the right information and reading long texts could influence the perception of the information displayed. Mental problems are hard to identify as a real disability which influence the perception significantly. More concrete are the physical disabilities.

Physical

Physical disabilities are disabilities which prevent in some way a normal functioning. These disabilities differ from a 'small' problem like muscle pains to a much more, life changing or life determining like blindness. Technology offers in this an opportunity to be able to function, in some way, normally in the society. For instance a digital Braille reader.

Other

There is another group that could be identified as one of the end users. This group consists of people who take care of their kin or their neighbors and close friends. The seek information on the website on behalf of a disabled person. Mostly the persons in this group are not inhibited by some kind of disability themselves.

8.2 Grouping

The user groups could be defined with the use of the characteristics introduced in the previous section; however the number of groups would be too great to have a good overview and clear distinctions between them. For the research project some hypothetical groups were determined and these are introduced in this section. They are selected and based upon the most distinguishable characteristics.

8.2.1 65+

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8.2.2 Handicapped

In the group handicapped are the people who have one or multiple physical and/ or mental disabilities and are in need of structural support.

8.2.3 Victims

In the group of victims are people who have one or multiple disabilities. These disabilities resulted from an accident. The group could be identified by its temporarily nature of the request for support.

8.2.4 Care takers

In the group of care takers, the users are visiting a website on behalf of a kin or friend. 8.2.5 Adolescents

The group of adolescents consists out of persons that are aged under 20. This group is primarily introduced for this research project in order to know more about them and their behavior on a digital counter. Biblionet ID is developing a new counter on which the adolescents are the prime users. In the third part of this research report, a closer look will be given at this target group.

Non-users Users

Incidental Structural

Aged under 65 Aged above 65 Target Group

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C ha pt er : R es ear ch m et ho d

20 9 Research method

9.1 Method

The first subject of this research project is to find the preferences of the end users, the citizens of a municipal regarding the use of the digital information portal of the Wmo.

This part of the research was conducted by a quantitative research. This research was conducted by an online survey published on the most recent version of the Wmo counters developed by Biblionet ID. The online survey was available for one month.

9.2 Research questions

For each group introduced in the previous section a couple of questions regarding the usage of the digital counter are defined in this section.

1. What are the preferences and desires regarding to the usage of the digital Wmo counter?

2. How do users want to be helped after having found the information they needed? The question for the online survey will be about the different aspects of the Wmo counter; Xinvis. They could be split into interface, applications and database. For each one of them, some questions will be asked.

Interface

1. For what reason is a user visiting the digital counter?

2. The amount information that is displayed on one page, whether it is too much or too little? 3. Do users use the different theme’s?

4. Which theme’s should be added?

5. Search properties differ between groups (professional, intermediate and beginner). In what way would the users like to search for a specific product or service?

Applications

6. How many times are users prepared to search for a product of service?

7. When do users find the information troubling that they decide to leave the counter?

8. In what way would users like to be supported during their attempts to search for the information they need (f.i. search suggestions)?

9. Do users want to have a decision tree that is guiding them to the right information? Data

10. What do users expect to find on the digital Wmo counter?

11. Which criteria (defined by Xinvis) do users use during the process of finding their information?

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C ha pt er : P re fe re nc es of e nd us er s di gi ta l W m o c o unt er

21 10 Preferences of end users digital Wmo counter

In this chapter the results concerning the online survey regarding to the preferences of the end users will be discussed. The chapter starts with general information about the characteristics of the participants. Thereafter a closer look will be given at the preferences regarding to the three tiers (as introduced in chapter 3) interface, applications and data. This chapter concludes with the most important conclusions regarding the preferences of the end users regarding the use of the Wmo counter.

The online survey was only available on the newest version of the Wmo counter, XINVIS. This limits the number of visitors that could participate to only the citizens of a few municipals.

Assessing the most recent version of the Wmo counter would improve the value of this survey towards Biblionet ID. XINVIS was developed with the knowledge and experience Biblionet ID has gathered over the years. Gathered information from this research could be a reference point for a new version of the Wmo counter in the future.

The survey was available on eight counters for a period of one month. Users that were visiting one of these counters during that period were invited via a dialog box to participate. The dialog was only displayed when a user had visited a second page during their session on the counter.

By displaying the dialog box later in the session, would give the user the opportunity to get familiar with the interface and the applications of the Wmo counter. During the first days of the survey, this was set to three pages. However the number of visitors that were visiting three pages was low and therefore the number of participants was limited. In order to increase the number of participants the decision was made to display the dialog box one page earlier. The result was that the number of participants increased, but as a result the knowledge and experience regarding the Wmo counter decreased. This may have caused biased results.

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10.1 General

In this section general information about the characteristics of sample group will be given. Before introducing these characteristics, a closer look will be given at the number of respondents and whether the results in this research report are representative for the entire population.

Municipal Participants # Citizens

s-Hertogenbosch 34 _135,648 Hoogezand-Sappemeer 23 34,417 Zoetermeer 18 119,504 Goes 10 36,706 Bellingwedde 8 9,497 Noord-beveland 5 7,289 Wûnseradiel 3 11,804 Uitgeest 1 _12,205 Total 102 354,865

Table 2: Number of participants and the total number of citizens (per 1-1-2008) Source: CBS Statline

Table 2 displays the number of citizens per participating municipal (where the online survey was available) and the number of respondents that participated. The total number of citizens all the participating municipals is about 355 thousand.

Cooper and Schindler (2006, p435) state that for calculating the desired sample size and therefore determining whether to use a finite or infinite population size one must determine whether the sample size is not smaller than five percent of the total population size.

The sample size is 0.03% of the entire population. Therefore in calculating the sample size the population size will be considered as infinite.

For calculating the desired sample size the following formula is used (Cooper et al, 2006; p435):

Where is the standard error of the proportion while p*q is the measure of the sample dispersion. The dispersion will never be higher than 0.25 (for example: 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25, 0.3 x 0.7 = 0.21). For calculating the sample size (n) the value of p is considered as 0.5, because the margin of error is largest when p is 0.5. Therefore the number of respondents that is required to obtain solid data would increase. This is a conservative procedure to calculate the necessary sample size.

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In order to calculate the desired sample size the formula is converted into:

The standard error of the proportion is calculated by dividing the desired margin of error (10%) by the desired confidence level of 95% (Z = 1.96). Table 3 andTable 4 display the sample sizes that are necessary to determine the value of the gathered data and conclusions. The first table shows the minimal sample sizes with the different margins of error (m) at a confidence level of 95% while the second table displays the minimal sample size at a confidence level of 90% (Z=1.65).

Margin of error (m) Sample size (n)

1% 9604

3% 1067

5% 384

10% 96

15% 43

Table 3: Calculated sample size with a confidence level of 95 percent (Z=1.96)

Margin of error (m) Sample size (n)

1% 6806

3% 756

5% 272

10% 68

15% 30

Table 4: Calculated sample size with a confidence level of 90 percent (Z=1.65)

The margin of error only counts for the sampling error and not, for instance, errors regarding misinterpretations of questions and/ or answers by participants and researcher.

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10.1.1 Contribution by municipals

The survey was shown on the most recent version of the Wmo counter. In the table below you will find an overview of the participating Wmo counters. They are ranked according to the number of participants.

Municipals Frequency Percent Valid

Percent Cumulative Percent s-Hertogenbosch 34 33,3 33,3 33,3 Hoogezand-Sappemeer 23 22,5 22,5 55,9 Zoetermeer 18 17,6 17,6 73,5 Goes 10 9,8 9,8 83,3 Bellingwedde 8 7,8 7,8 91,2 Noord-beveland 5 4,9 4,9 96,1 Wûnseradiel 3 2,9 2,9 99,0 Uitgeest 1 1,0 1,0 100,0 Total 102 100,0 100,0

Table 5: Ranking of the Wmo counters according to the contribution to the research project (n = 102)

10.1.2 Age

The first question in the online survey was about the age of the participant. The average age of the participants is 46.75. The standard deviation is 15.9. As expected, the number of adolescents participating is quite small (5 participants were under 20 years or younger). Therefore a research regarding the preferences for this particular group would not have succeeded via an online survey. In part three of this research report a closer look will be given at the preferences of this group.

N Valid 102 Missing 0 Mean 46,75 Median 46,00 Mode 60 Percentiles 25 34,50 50 46,00 75 59,25

Table 6: Age of the participants of the survey

10.1.3 First-time visitors

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10.1.4 Characteristics

In this section a closer look will be given at the general characteristics of the participants.

For who do people visit the counter Total

Myself Family Friend Client Different Interested

Use of Wmo No 65,9% 6,1% 2,4% 14,6% 4,9% 6,1% 100,0% Yes 88,9% 5,6% 5,6% 100,0% Total 70,0% 6,0% 3,0% 12,0% 4,0% 5,0% 100,0%

Table 7: Cross tabulation use of Wmo services and on behalf of whom to visit the counter (n = 100)

The participants were asked for whom they were visiting the Wmo counter for information. About 70% of the participants were visiting the Wmo counter for themselves. To be 95% confident that this counts as well for the entire population a large-sample procedure is used to compute a 95% interval. The sample proportion is:

The standard error (SE) is:

The margin of error (m) is:

The confidence interval is

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About 82 percent of the participants (n = 102) were not using a public social service from the Wmo at the moment of filling in the survey. 66 percent of these none users (n = 82) are visiting the digital Wmo counter for gathering information for themselves. Of these none users about 15 percent were visiting the Wmo counter on behalf of a client. Of the participants that are currently using a service from the Wmo about 89 percent (n = 18) is visiting the digital Wmo counter for themselves.

Another question that the participants were asked to answer was about their own situation. In the table below the results are crossed with the question whether a participant is currently using a service from the Wmo.

Visitors’ situation Total

Care taker Long / permanently disabled Chronicle disease None of the options Different Nurse Use of Wmo No 9,5% 1,4% 13,5% 50,0% 17,6% 8,1% 100,0% Yes 58,8% 41,2% 100,0% Total 7,7% 12,1% 18,7% 40,7% 14,3% 6,6% 100,0%

Table 8: Cross tabulation use of Wmo and the users' current situation (n = 91)

Current users of the services from the Wmo are all for a long term or permanently disabled or have a chronicle disease according of the group of participants. While 50% (41% of all participants) of the “none users” do not have a disability.

10.1.5 Reason for visit

In this section a closer look will be given at the reason why people come to visit the digital Wmo counter. This was an open question in order to stimulate diversity of answers. Eventually the answers were transformed to a few subjects:

1. General: Information about Wmo in general

2. Process: Information about the processing of a Wmo request.

3. Organizational: information about organizations on the Wmo counter differs from phone number to product information.

4. Financial: information about financial support for a product or service.

5. Product: information about a product or service, ranging from questions as terms or more general information about products and services.

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C ha pt er : P re fe re nc es of e nd us ers d igi ta l W mo c o unt er

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Frequency Percent Valid

Percent Cumulative Percent General 21 20,6 28,4 28,4 Product 15 14,7 20,3 48,7 Organizations 12 11,8 16,2 64,9 Other 12 11,8 16,2 81,1 Financial 9 8,8 12,2 93,3 Process 5 4,9 6,8 100,0 Total 74 72,5 100,0 Missing 28 27,5 Total 102 100,00

Table 9: Information types a user expects to find on the Wmo counter (n=102)

Most participants (n = 74, 28.4 percent) search for general information about the Wmo. This is followed by product information with 20.3 percent. Organizations, other information and financial information follow with respectively 16.2%, 16.2% and 12.2%. Finally, information about the process of requesting support from the Wmo is for 6.8 percent of the participants the reason to visit the digital Wmo counter.

To extend these measures to the entire population the confidence level of 95% could not be used. Therefore a confidence level of 90% and an error margin of 10% would result in that these results can be used to extend to the entire population, because a minimum of 68 participants would be necessary (see Table 4). A confidence interval of 90% would mean that the results are less reliable. For example with 95% confidence between 18% and 39% of all users are visiting the Wmo counter for general information, while with a 90% confidence the actual value lies between the 20% and 37%. When calculating the interval of participants that would visit the Wmo counter for its product information (13%, 28%) this could be the main reason when taking another sample of the entire population.

Therefore the results in this table could be considered as an indication for the entire population.

10.1.6 Leaving the counter

When does a visitor leave the counter? Participants (n = 54) could choose between four options. Almost 67 percent of the participants answered that they would leave the digital information counter after having found the information they were looking for. Another 26 percent would leave the counter after having tried to find the information a few times.

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10.2 User interface

One of the most important aspects of a website is the user interface. It determines whether a user is able to navigate to the information as easy as possible. During the research a closer look is given at structure of the pages and the length of the texts. In this section these items will be discussed here together with the themes on the Wmo counter. The themes are some kind of short-cut items to make it easier for the user to navigate to the right information. 10.2.1 Structure

In this subsection a closer look will be given at the structure of the pages and texts on the Wmo counter. Participants were given two statements in which they were asked on a five point Lickert scale whether they totally agree or totally disagree with the statement.

The first statement states that the structure of the page is logical. About 59 percent of the participants (n = 68) agrees or totally agrees with this statement. The confidence interval of 90% lies between 49% and 69% (m is 10%). This would main that with a confidence level of 90% most of the users of the Wmo counter would perceive the structure of the page as logical. The second statement states that the texts displayed on the Wmo counter are brief. About 66 percent of all participants agrees or totally agrees with this statement. 1.5 percent of the participants disagree with this statement. With a 95 percent confidence the interval of all visitors that would agree or totally agree with this statement (57%, 76%) it can be stated that the texts on the Wmo counter are perceived as brief.

A notations needs to be made here. During the analysis of the results, it became clear that the term structure has not been clearly defined. Structure could be for instance the organization of the information (information architecture) or the design of a page. Therefore misinterpretation by the participants would give biased results.

10.2.2 Themes

In this subsection a closer look will be given at the themes on the Wmo counter. Biblionet ID has carefully selected its’ themes and it would assist the users to find information more easily. About 46 percent of the participants (n = 68) is using the themes to find information on the Wmo counter. The position of the themes is according to 57 percent of the participants (n=68) logical.

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Another statement was about whether the participants find the themes easy to understand. About 60 percent of the participants (n = 68) agrees or totally agrees with this statement. For the participants who use these themes as primary source for navigation the percentage is even higher. About 94 percent of this group (n = 31) agrees or totally disagrees with the statement. This could mean that when using the themes a user would get familiar with its position and logic and perceive as understandable. However to extend this conclusion to the entire population would lead to a high margin of error (15%) at a 90% confidence level. This measure could be an anomaly. Therefore this result should be considered as indicative.

A note needs to be made here as well. The definition of understanding is not very clear. Misinterpretation about whether understanding the different themes descriptions, its logic or layout. The results of this statement could therefore be biased.

10.3 Applications

In section 7.2 the applications of the digital Wmo counter were introduced. This one of the bases upon which Biblionet ID could gain a competitive advantage. During the research a closer look is given at the search engine of the digital Wmo counter. In this section the results regarding the use of the search engine and search options will be discussed.

10.3.1 Supporting applications

The goal of the supporting applications is to make it easier for users with a disability like some with a visual handicap. The Wmo counter should be available or all users, therefore Biblionet ID has developed a few applications to make it easier for users with a disability to read the information on a page.

These applications are: 1. Read aloud speaker; 2. Concept clarification;

3. Crumble path or breadcrumbs (“You are here: “); 4. Large text;

5. Text version

The participants were asked which of these applications they found most useful and how often they would use this application. In the table below you will find an overview of the given answers.

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Most useful supporting application Total

Read aloud speaker Concept clarification Crumble path

Large text Text version

Usage of the supporting applications Never 2 7 3 7 5 24 Now and then 0 13 5 6 6 30 Regular 0 7 0 2 1 10 Often 2 1 0 0 1 4 Total 4 28 8 15 13 68

Table 10: Cross tabulation usefulness supporting applications and the usage of these applications (n = 68, frequency table)

About 41 percent of the participants (n = 68) found the concept clarification the most important supporting application. It is also one of the most used applications, although the average usage of the applications is limited by the participants. This is caused of the fact that almost 80 percent of the participants use the applications never or on a rare occasion.

10.3.2 Search

In this section a closer look will be given at searching information on a Wmo portal. While the earlier versions had only one possibility to conduct a search on the counter, the most recent version (Xinvis) provides also other options to support the visitors in their quest for information.

A user could choose to use the ‘old’ method (the search bar at the top of the page) or use the three options presented at the homepage of a Wmo counter. Each option is aimed at a specific public, like for instance a beginner (or someone who is not able to define a specific subject jet) could use the option to search by subject in order to find the information he or she needs.

Frequency Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Search bar 37 57,8 57,8 Beginner 15 23,4 81,3 Advanced 6 9,4 90,6 Professional 6 9,4 100,0 Total 64 100,0

Table 11: Which search option is most used (n = 64)