All Councils will have Online Presence by late September

The E-Government Bulletin reports that the last local authority in Britain will have its own website by October. All of the UK's 467 local authorities will then have a website, with the rural district of Bridgnorth coming in last as it focuses on customer requirements rather than mere presence.

Early this year, the annual Society of IT Management's review of council sites drew attention to the fact that there were four councils which had yet to develop a site – Bridgnorth, Corby, Vale of White Horse and Lichfield.

Bridgnorth, the independently-controlled district in Shropshire, is now 'the final internet adopter', according to the Bulletin, which reports the council as saying it hopes to launch an initial presence in mid-September following a tender process which will conclude in August. Technology was not a strong policy priority for the council until it was steered in that direction by last year's Government policy requirement. The newly appointed web manager is reported as saying that 'the council could have created a poor quality, static web site at an earlier stage "and been equal to much else of what is on the web" but decided instead to wait until it could create a stronger, citizen-focused site linked to a fully devolved content management system'.

The Difference Between Usability and User Experience
Source: CMS Wire, 22 March 2010
 
Never hurts to be reminded: semantics, or genuine conceptual distinction?

Use Your Users’ Language - And Use It Well!
Source: Multilingual Search, 20 March 2010
 
British English is very different from (US ) American English and Australian English. It is so very important to use your users’ language.

Cyber-criminals don't need Technical Skills
Source: SFGate, 19 March 2010
 
The unexpected downside of great usability.

Advice on Designing Mobile Sites and Apps
Source: Poynter Online, 18 March 2010
 
Series of useful tips from a recent panel discussion.

Website Usability and Conversion
Source: UsabilityBlog, 17 March 2010
 
Useful presentation on the relationship between website usability and conversion.

Tips for Usability Testing with Children
Source: Econsultancy, 16 March 2010
 
Not even chocolate will help you here.

The Hygiene Factor of Usability
Source: inspireUX, 15 March 2010
 
Is it true that usability can no longer take us 'beyond lack of dissatisfaction'?

The Business Benefits of building Accessible websites
Source: Econsultancy, 13 March 2010
 
There’s a good business case for making your website more accessible to the UK’s disabled community.

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
Source: BBC, 12 March 2010
 
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The Net generation, Unplugged
Source: The Economist, 11 March 2010
 
Is it really helpful to talk about a new generation of "digital natives" who have grown up with the internet?