This study investigates the refinement of an evaluation framework for e-Government websites. The aim of the research was to determine how an existing evaluation framework, which recommends the use of multiple usability techniques, could be used to obtain usability data that would indicate how to improve e-Government websites and satisfy users' needs. The framework describes how common techniques, such as heuristic testing and user testing, can be used with the emerging discipline of web analytics to provide a comprehensive and detailed view of users' interactions on e-Government websites. The original framework was refined in the light of the findings and the refined framework should facilitate the improvement of e-Government websites depending on users' demands and interactions. The work involved implementing the original multi-dimensional framework in e-Government websites in Saudi Arabia. A case study method was used over two implementations. In the former implementation, the evaluation methods consisted of heuristic evaluation followed by usability testing then web analytic tools. However, in the later implementation, refinements to the evaluation framework were proposed and the order of methods was amended: web analytics was used first, followed by heuristic evaluation then usability testing. The framework recommends specific usability methods for evaluating specific issues. The conclusions of this study illustrate the potential benefits of using a multidimensional evaluation framework for e-Government websites and it was found that each usability method had its own particular benefits and limitations. The research concludes by illustrating the potential usefulness of the designed evaluation framework in raising awareness of usability methods for evaluating e-Government websites in Saudi Arabia.

With the rapid development of the Internet and web technology, governments worldwide have caught onto this revolution and shown rapid development of electronic government (e-government) in the public sector. Nowadays, there are a significant number of e-governments that are accessible via the Internet and provide a range of information and services. However, existing research indicates that e-government still faces the challenge of generating greater users’ interaction in terms of accessing information, utilizing services and participating in e-government decision making. Among a variety of reasons for this challenge, usability and credibility have been found to be the key factors in users’ decisions about e-government engagement and need to be explored. This research attempts to evaluate the usability and credibility of current e-governments, focusing on specific e-government websites in the UK. This research adopted heuristic evaluation, which is based on users’ perception, to implement a thorough and in-depth assessment of e-government websites. In addition, to obtain a more comprehensive evaluation, users’ performance was measured in order to reveal the level of users’ interaction with e-government websites when they perform a set of practical tasks. The research design was a quasi-experimental, consisting of two linked experiments. Experiment 1 aimed to evaluate usability and credibility of the target e-government websites, identifying a range of existing usability and credibility problems. Based on the usability and credibility problems found, design solutions were proposed for each of the target e-government websites. Experiment 2 aimed to examine the effects of the proposed design solutions on the usability and credibility problems identified on the redesigned e-government websites. The findings of experiment 1 suggested that the e-government websites need to improve their usability and credibility. In particular, the most serious usability problems found in the target e-government websites lay within the areas of “aesthetic and minimalist design”, “recognition rather than recall”, and “consistency and standards”. In addition, the most serious credibility problems identified were within the areas of “site looks professional”, “make site easy to use and useful”, and “show the honest and trustworthy people behind the site”. The findings of experiment 2 revealed that the usability and credibility problems found in experiment 1 had been improved by the proposed design solutions. Furthermore, these improvements might increase the overall usability and credibility of the target e-government websites, making the users’ task performance better within the redesigned e-government websites. Based on the findings of the experiments, this research developed a set of usability and credibility guidelines. Each guideline addressed a number of the specific usability and credibility elements at the detailed level of e-government website design. These guidelines can be helpful to guide designers to develop more usable and credible e-government websites.

Among the many promises of the revolution in the information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly the Internet, continues to be its potential to significantly transform governments around the world. This transformation is referred to as e-government or web-based government, often used interchangeably in most of the IS literature. Despite these however, the level of adoption and use of such innovation is still low and does not meet expectations in developing countries in general and Jordan in particular. Yet, existing research on the adoption and implementation of e-government in developing countries is still lacking explanatory power for the following reasons: 1) focusing either on the supply-side, or on the demand-side separately to study the adoption and implementation of e-government, and therefore there is no enough research on the integration between them as a single phenomenon, and 2) focusing on the results of previous research, and therefore not to develop theories fit the new context to be investigated to understand the relationship between the IT implementation and social structures in the same context. This research aims to fill these gaps through the use of a holistic approach to enable in-depth understanding and gain valuable insights on the adoption and implementation of e-government from multiple perspectives, and in the real context of a developing country, namely Jordan. This would reduce the gap between government strategies and policies related to implementation of e-government services and applications on the one hand, and perceptions of citizens on the other hand, allowing a better understanding of the needs of citizens and the priorities that must be taken into account by governments in order to ensure the success of such projects on a large scale. Through two phases, this research proposes and empirically tests an integrated model of the determinants of adoption and implementation of e-government services and applications in Jordan. The first phase employs a grounded theory methodology for the development of the research model, as well as the survey instruments necessary to test the model. The second phase employs a survey questionnaire to test the research model using multivariate and SEM with the results demonstrating support for the proposed model. The empirical results indicate that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and the security of e-government systems are no longer among the main determinants that affect the decision to adopt and implement e-government services and applications in this particular context. This confirms that the prevailing models and theories on the adoption of IT do not apply equally to the context of developing countries such as Jordan, and thus do not explain and predict behaviour toward the adoption and implementation of e-government services and applications in the same context. There is a direct and positive relationship between citizen involvement in the change process towards e-government and the decision to adopt and implement e-government services and applications. There is also a strong positive relationship between the decision to adopt and implement e-government services and applications and the decision to use such services and applications within the same context. Unexpectedly, the prevailing sociocultural determinants indicate a direct and positive relationship with the decision to adopt and implement e-government services and applications in the same context. Also, the results indicate direct and negative relationships between citizen trust and website design issues with the decision to adopt and implement e-government services and applications. Finally, the research concludes by highlighting the theoretical and practical implications, limitations and future directions.

當政府機關開始大量的透過網路傳遞服務給民眾，政府迫切需要知道民眾對政府網站服務品質的認知評價為何。然而該如何衡量政府網站的服務品質至今仍沒有一個明確的方法。本論文旨在建構一套可以用來衡量政府網站服務品質的指標同時對政府網站服務品質提出相關的政策建議。本研究使用了線上問卷調查法與層級分析法，利用網路問卷線上調查了使用者對政府網站服務品質的評價，然後請專家利用層級分析法分析並計算出這些指標的相對權重。 本研究主要結果如下：(1).建構適合衡量台灣政府的網站服務品質指標，包含「設計性」、「易用性」、「可靠性」、「資訊品質」、「有用性」與「回應性」六大構面，而六大構面下共包含三十項指標；(2).實際調查台灣網路民眾對政府網站服務品質評價，發現民眾對政府網站服務品質的「有用性」相對評價最高，而對政府網站「回應性」的服務品質則是相對最不肯定；(3).請專家透過層級分析法對政府網站服務品質指標做出重要性權重排序，整體而言，專家給予「資訊品質」相對最高的權重，後依序是「有用性」、「回應性」、「可靠性」、「易用性」，而「設計性」則是專家排序中相對最不重視的；(4).比較專家與民眾對政府網站服務品質指標重要性與評價的差異，發現就評估構面而言，「資訊品質」與「回應性」是專家認為相對重要，但民眾基於使用經驗相對不肯定的指標，應該列為政府提昇網站服務品質優先改善的構面 基於上述研究發現，作者提出了隨時檢視資訊更新程度、替使用者重新編寫資訊與強化政府網站的回應能力等三點研究建議，以期待徹底提昇政府網站的服務品質。 / As government organizations have increasingly provided services to the public via Internet, e-government websites have demanded acute understanding of how the users perceived the service quality. However concerning it is not clear how the e-service quality of e-government websites can be measured. This thesis aims to construct the indicators to evaluate e-service quality of e-government websites and propose management suggestions to government. The research methods of this thesis include an online survey and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). A survey was conducted with online users being asked to evaluate the e-service quality of e-government websites. Then AHP was applied to analysis and compute the weights of these indicators from the experts. The key findings are: First, Design, Usability, Reliability, Information Quality, Usefulness, and Responsiveness are key dimensions of e-service quality of e-government in Taiwan. Second, most of the online users are satisfied with the Usefulness of e-government websites in Taiwan, but they are not satisfied with the Responsiveness of e-government websites in Taiwan. Third, for the evaluation aspects, the sequence of importance for the e-service quality of e-government websites in Taiwan is Information Quality, Usefulness, Responsiveness, Reliability, Usability and Design. Among them, the domain experts think Information Quality and Responsiveness are relatively important aspects of e-service quality of e-government websites in Taiwan. However, general online users are not satisfied with these two aspects. So these two aspects should be listed on the top priority for improvement straight away. Based on the research findings, the author proposes three policy suggestions to improve the websites in Taiwan’s government. First, keep the information on the government websites most updated. Second, improve the information readability for online users. Finally enhance the responsiveness of government websites.