An Exploratory Study of Government Websites Usability in Jordan

The level of usability of the current eGovernment infrastructure in Jordan was investigated by soliciting the views of the management, i.e. the professionals in charge of managing eGovernment projects. The management was addressed in order to gain an understanding of the root causes of the existing usability problems. The study was based on questionnaire which distributed to 37 managers from different institutions providing eGovernment services. The findings show that the main problems undermining the Jordanian eGovernment usability are: 1) the lack of the general usability awareness amongst the management, 2) the lack of clear usability standards and guidelines, 3) the insufficient level of end-user involvement in the process of design and maintenance of eGovernment services, 4) limited budgets and 5) the lack of expert web-designers. Unearthing the views of those in the position to make a change, these findings are useful not only in the context of redefining the strategy for improving eGovernment in Jordan, but also in other developing countries.