TY - CONF T1 - Improving Web-based civic information access: a case study of the 50 US states T2 - 2002 International Symposium on Technology and Society, 2002. (ISTAS'02) Y1 - 2002 A1 - Ceaparu,I. A1 - Shneiderman, Ben KW - Computer aided software engineering KW - Computer science KW - contact information KW - Educational institutions KW - government data processing KW - Guidelines KW - home page design features KW - information resources KW - Laboratories KW - Modems KW - Navigation KW - online help KW - privacy KW - privacy policies KW - search boxes KW - Tagging KW - Uniform resource locators KW - US states KW - USA KW - User interfaces KW - Web sites KW - Web-based civic information access AB - An analysis of the home pages of all fifty US states reveals great variety in key design features that influence efficacy. Some states had excessively large byte counts that would slow users connected by commonly-used 56 K modems. Many web sites had low numbers of or poorly organized links that would make it hard for citizens to find what they were interested in. Features such as search boxes, privacy policies, online help, or contact information need to be added by several states. Our analysis concludes with ten recommendations and finds many further opportunities for individual states to improve their Websites. However still greater benefits will come through collaboration among the states that would lead to consistency, appropriate tagging, and common tools. JA - 2002 International Symposium on Technology and Society, 2002. (ISTAS'02) PB - IEEE SN - 0-7803-7284-0 M3 - 10.1109/ISTAS.2002.1013826 ER -