We’ve been working on a really interesting project here at Delib for the last few months with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
In the 2008 Budget, the Government reaffirmed its belief that creating a charter for HMRC could play an important role in ensuring that the tax system is understandable and accessible to all taxpayers.
As a result, after a first round of consultation last summer, the good people at HMRC have been working hard on putting together a draft charter for the organisation, which has gone out for consultation today.
We’ve put together the online component of this consultation, with a static site, background information, news section with RSS feeds, online survey with user registration and the ability for people to sign up for email updates as the consultation progresses.
We’re really pleased with the site, which we’ve built to blend seamlessly into the existing HMRC website and be fully accessible. We’re particularly pleased with the online survey side of it, which provides a good blend of linear and non linear approaches, allowing people to respond quickly and simply if they want, or alternatively come back to the site regularly to update and amend their responses at any point up until the consultation closes.
The next phase of this consultation is going to be an interactive youth engagement tool to ensure that the consultation reaches as many people as possible. After all, is there anyone who isn’t affected by the work of HMRC?
Gez, I have to say I’m a bit surprised.
I took a look at the site earlier, and found I couldn’t access the document in question without registering (irritating enough) and then found that I was asked to provide details of my ethnicity and disabilities before being able to download even the PDF document.
I’m all for trying new approaches to online consultation, but this feels like a step backward. Am I missing something?
I am sure it was not your decision, but I imagine a huge number of people are going to be put off by the online user registration form. Not only do you think “hey, what’s going on here”, but daunted by filling in the first bit, you notice that there will be more questions about you after the first lot! It rather reinforces any less than totally positive feelings one might have about HMRC!
My previous experience with online consultation in the Queensland Government in Australia was that making people scroll through lengthy terms and conditions before entering the actual online consultation was a barrier – we were losing about 1/3 of visitors who I assume couldnt be bothered. It would be interesting to see whether the registration process has similar impact. I guess if you were really interested in the topic it wouldnt be an issue, so perhaps quality of responses will be a bt higher than normal?
Thanks for the comments!
As anyone who’s heard me on the topic before will know, I’m intuitively and evangelically no fan of complex, or indeed any, user registration for participation (it’s part of the reason I’m so against discussion forums for consultation, that and the fact they don’t work).
However, in this case, there was a clear need from HMRC’s side to allow people to be able to return and amend/update their response over time, which does require registration at the end of the day.
So, we’ve minimised what you need to provide to register, just enter your email address and create your own password (so avoiding the horrible habit of being sent a randomised password you either then forget or have to change).
The fact it takes you to the demographic questions as the first page is deliberate, they could have been at the end but were felt better to capture first. They’re all non compulsory, so if you want to skip them and move on to the next page, or any other page using the top nav, you can.
In terms of access to the consultation document, the online survey isn’t meant to be the primary place to get hold of that, although it’s in there if you want it. The key content has been replicated with the questions and copy anyway. You can get hold of the consultation document through the main HMRC site, through the first item on the news page on our bit of the site and through the ‘related information’ page there as well.
It’s a difficult area though, and one that really interests me, balancing the freedom of the web with the requirements of policy making, so will be keeping a close eye on it and will report back what I can. Keep an eye out for the youth consultation element launching in a few weeks too, which will be definitely different from this formal consultation site!