Credibility Review of the Malaysian States E-government Websites

8/13/2019 Credibility Review of the Malaysian States E-government Websites

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ABSTRACT

The migra tion from paper-based services to electronic vers ion has deve lope d the potent ia l of e-gov ernment

applications enormously. However, designing a credible government web site is not a simple task. This paper

discusses the importance of credibility for the Malaysian states government web sites. Top web credibility factors

are listed. Reviews on five state government websites are also presented. Assessment of the credibility issues were

done on five state government sites, which are Sarawak, Selangor, Johor, Melaka and Kedah Government web site.

We found that there are still room for improvement for the sites in terms of credibility and site appearance.

Keywords: WebsiteCredibility, Usability, E-government, portals.

Tab le 1 : State Governments Website Address

N o. State government Site Address

1 Sarawak www.sarawak.gov.my

2 Selangor www.selangor.gov.my

3 Johor www.johorDT.gov.my

4 Melaka www.melaka.gov.my

5 Kedah www.kedah.gov.my

6 Perlis www.perlis.gov.my

7 Pulau Pinang www.penang.gov.my

8 Perak www.perak.gov.my

9 Negeri Sembilan www.sukns.gov.my

10 Pahang www.pahang.gov.my

11 Terengganu www.terengganu.gov.my

12 Kelantan www.kelantan.gov.my

13 Sabah www.sabah.gov.my

1. INTRODUCTION

The migration from paper-based services to electronic

version has opened wide the potential of e-government

application [5]. Hence, several state governments in

Malaysia have started to have their online presence.

However, designing a credible government website is a

fairly complicated matter, let alone the measurement

of its impact to the citizens. Credibility is emerging as a

key element of success in the on-line environment,

especially for a site involved with the government.

In this paper, the assessment of the credibility issue

was done on five pre-selected state government sites.The sites involved are Sarawak, Selangor, Johor, Melaka,

and Kedah Government web sites. For ease of discussion,

only the homepages were accessed and reviewed. We

would like to highlight that all the states used the state

name as the Uniform Resources Locator (URL) address,

except for Johor (JohorDT.gov.my) and Negeri Sembilan

(SUKNS.gov.my). The practice of using state name as the

domain name is good for the user to easily remember the

site address hence, improving site credibility.

However, for reference, the list of all 13 state government

sites in Malaysia along with the site address is shown

in Table 1 below.

CREDIBILITY REVIEW OF THE MALAYSIAN STATES

E-GOVERNMENT WEB SITES

Jonathan Sidi and Syahrul Nizam Junaini

Faculty of Computer Science and Information

Technol ogy

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)

94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak

Tel: 082 583641, Fax: 082 583764

E-mail: [email protected],syahru ln@fi t.unim as.my


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Tabl e 2 : List of Credibil ity Factors [4]

Topic of Cr edibil ity Inc idence

Design Look 46.1%

Information Design/Structure 28.5%

Information Focus 25.1%

Company Motive 15.5%

Usefulness of Information 14.8%

Accuracy of Information 14.3%

Name Recognition & Reputation 14.1%

Advertising 13.8%

Bias of Information 11.6%

Tone of the Writ ing 9%

Identity of Site Sponsor 8.8%

Functionality of Site 8.6%

Customer Service 6.4%

Past Experience with Site 4.6%

Information Clarity 3.7%

Performance on a Test 3.6%

Readability 3.6%

Affiliations 3.4%

This paper is presented as follows: In Section 2, a brief

explanation about web credibility is given. We discussseveral top credibility factors that can be deployed to

improve the e-government web sites. Section 3 reviews

the five home pages as mentioned above. Finally, in

Section 4, we conclude with several suggestions on

how all states government in Malaysia could improve

their web site credibility and charisma.

2. WHY WEB CREDIBILI TY?

Prompted by demands for a more credible e-government

site, players involved in setting up the government

websites have been struggling with how to come upwith a highly credible site. For example, the visitor who

browses an e-government site can easily access the

credibility of the information presented through text

writing style and its relevancy. Sometimes, in certain

cases, the sites that are controlled by the government

may contain inaccurate and misleading information.

For this reason, the web designers faced increasing

demands to boost the credibility of the sites [3].

Other web credibility decisive factors are navigation,

content, reliability and technicality [6]. These factors,

even though seems general, may affect the credibility

of the site. A survey done by Stanford Persuasive TechnologyLab [7] shows that a clear answer to questions

submitted by users makes websites more credible. The

survey involved 1,481 users in Finland and the United

States. Other significant factors were the links precision

and absence of typographical errors.

One main related study on e-government website

usability was done by Tolbert and Mossberger [8].

Th ey tr y to un de rs ta nd ho w in di vi du als ev al ua te

e-government content and credibility. It is important

to assess and evaluate the factors related with

e-government website. This is to ensure that the

information and materials presented on the site satisfy

citizens needs. Moreover, the user has the desire to

know the source of information found in a web page.

It is good for e-government website to provides users

with such information that are crucial.

Other than that, there are several other issues that

influence how information on the web can be used

effectively. The information provider especially the

webmaster for e-government website must be careful,

since the user can differentiate the material that is

credible from that which is not. Generally, the user feels

that a web site loses credibility when it has errors and

technical problems. Distracting advertisements and

banners also decreases its credibility. This paper

addresses the web credibility issue for improving the

way government disseminates their information online.

2.1 WEB CREDIBILITY FACTORS

Fogg et al. [2] proposed five areas that affect the

credibility of a Web site. The factors are as follows:

Real-world Pres ence. Designers can enhance the

credibility of a Web site by conveying an organizations

real world presence such as the physical address and

phone number to users.

Small Errors. An organization must take care to

eliminate even small errors to ensure credibility of their

web site.

U se r Navig a t ion. U sabi l ity of s ite in te r ms of

navigation can enhance the sites perceived credibility. Advertisement. Only place advertisement on web

pages in ways that it does not distract readers.

Technical Proble ms. The site must perform as users

expect. Slow download time for instance affects site

credibility.

In another study Fogg et al. [4] mentioned that while

evaluating the credibility of a web site, participants

commented on the design look of the site most

frequently compared to another factors. Complete list

of the factors that they claimed affects site credibility

is presented in Table 2 below.


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The percentage shows the inc idence of the factors as

reported by 2,684 respondents. Meanwhile, anothercredibility cue may include real-world feel [1]. It refers

to indication of the government physical location i.e.

the office building and how they can be contacted. The

citizen need to know real people behind the website to

be contacted should they have any questions.

3. STATE GOVERNMENTS HOMEPAGE

CREDIBILITY

3.1 SARAWAK.GOV.MY

Overall, in terms of design and appearance, the site looks

simple and fairly straightforward. The state government

crest is suitably located on the top-left portion of the

page. Small top banner image of Kuching City on the

right of the banner adds the credibility to the site. It

helps the visitor to recognize Sarawak hence, improving

site reputation. We suggest that better photographs of

beautiful Sarawak panorama be placed on the

homepage. It will be able to promote Sarawak, which is

well known to have numerous tourist attractions.

However, the site information structure is a little bit tooconventional. Massive number of menu items makes

the page looks less credible. There are too many menu

items listed in the main menu. The best number of item

should be around 7 2 (i.e. five or nine). This site has 12

menu items. Generally, the key to information design is

a balance between breadth and depth of the site. The

site should present only what is truly necessary for

primary display on the homepage. The slightly less

important information could be placed on the second-

level page and not on the first page.

The information clar ity is fair ly good. Perfect choice of

fonts typeface and colour makes the site easy to read.For example, size of the font used for the highlight of

events columns is highly readable and clear. Nevertheless,

long text in the middle columns could reduce site

credibility. Normally, the user is more attracted withnon-textual element on the site. We recommend that

bulky paragraphs should be rectified into several

smaller paragraphs.

Th e in fo rm at io n ab ou t la te st up da te ha s no t be en

included on the homepage. A credible site should be

updated frequently. We propose that to improve site

credibility, the latest details about information update

be included somewhere at the bottom corner of the

page. However, if the information has not been updated

currently, the visitor could easily know that perhaps

the site manager does really bother to update the site.

The site only has three links in smal l banner format atthe right portion of the page. However, the usage of

animated banner is slightly less credible. We recommend

that it is better to use static banner.

3.2 SELANGOR.GOV.MY

Images of people are widely used in advertising and

branding. It acts as a means of creating positive

attitudes towards the products and credibility in brands.On this site, the usage of a real photos of the Chief

Minister is a good way to improve site credibility. The

practice of using real photos from the real event is

better than using the portrait of the Chief Minister. In

addition, the blur image of Kota Darul Ehsan arch on

the top of the site perhaps would be better if it was in

full-colour version. It will look more real compared to

the one being used now.

The source of inf orma tion is an important cri ter ia for

evaluating site credibility. For the announcement

column, for every announcement, it is better for the person

who posts the announcement to use his/her positionin the department rather than mentioning his/her name.

Use submitted by rather than submitted


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by . Credibility of the position or affiliation is

better compared to personal name that may be anonymous.

3.3 JOHOR.GOV.MY

The Chief Ministers Diary column is a credible way to

represent Johor Governments initiative to announce

their state leaders activity. Its also could improve citizen

trust about the information provided. The disclaimer

statement provided is also significant for the content

provider. For the visitor, they can think that the site

provider is really serious about their business. Other

than that, the State Governments Administrative Building

photograph used as the top image banner is a good

way to improve site credibility. Light blue colour theme

contributes power appearance to the site.

3.4 MELAKA.GOV.MY

the image or tourist attraction content using appropriate

web scripting technology. In this way, the site wouldbecome more dynamic in nature.

3.5 KEDAH.GOV.MY

Th e we lc om e me ss ag e fr om th e Ch ief Mi ni st er in

multimedia format (video) shows the Melaka Governments

initiative to improve its site quality and credibility. The

site displays historic cultural heritage site on thehomepage. We recommend that to improve this

functional ity, the site should be able to randomly change

Among all the five websites above, the Kedah homepage

is the most impressive in terms of credibility. The site is

also comprehensive and presentable. All the icons

together with the menu have been carefully designed.

Thi s fa ct or is vit al to wa rd s si te cr ed ib il it y. Th e

professional look and sleek design of the site element

such as button and images is another contributor

towards site credibility. However, in the hyperlinks

section, too many links were listed, making the list look

too cluttered.

4. CONCLUSION

We have presented a review on five e-government

homepages in Malaysia. We also have included some

comments with regards to sites credibility. It is crucial

for the webmasters to improve their sites to ensure

that their sites appearance have strong credibility. In

the near future, analysis of differences in web credibility

perceptions by gender, age, income, experience level,

and nationality can be done.

In conclusion, the state governments should exploit

this opportunity to improve their site credibility. A

highly credible site could attract worldwide audience.

It could lead to inward investment for their state. To do

so, the information on the site has to portray state

achievements and promote any related developments.


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[7] Stanford Web Cr edibil i ty Re se arch,

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[8] Tolbert, C. and Mossberger, K. (2003). The Effects of

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Documents

Credibility Review of the Malaysian States E-government Websites