A new survey shows the Utah.gov website is valuable to Utahns. According to a new statewide survey, 75 percent of respondents used the site in the past year. Of those that used Utah.gov, 87 percent found the services valuable.
Eighty five percent of Utahns indicated that access to state services via the website saves them time when conducting transactions and retrieving information, as opposed to phone, mail, or in-person methods. Users of the site also expect the official state website to be the same or better than other e-commerce, news and consumer-focused websites in terms of speed of service, convenience and security.
“Overall, Utahns appear to utilize Utah.gov on a wide scale and are very pleased with the services it provides,” said Dianne Meppen, research associate with the Center for Public Policy & Administration at the University of Utah. “These results show us that users of the site overwhelmingly deem it to be less of a hassle when needing to interact with government, and that the available digital services are very valuable.”
The data comes from a survey conducted by the Center for Public Policy & Administration and commissioned by NIC, a digital government service provider. Primary objectives of the research were to measure opinions and attitudes of residents regarding e-government services offered by the state of Utah.
Three-quarters of the users (75 percent) also expect the state to continue to improve the website by expanding access to additional services as well as information for the general population. Moreover, of those respondents that are infrequent or non-users of Utah.gov, over half report being simply unfamiliar with the site (61 percent) or that they prefer personal contact (53 percent) when accessing state government services. Thirty eight percent of those who did not access the website reported no need to access Utah.gov.
“Government should always look for the best ways to serve the people and today that means providing services and information online,” said Gov. Gary R. Herbert. “Utah.gov has received high praise for its services and accessibility, and we must be sure to continue to build upon that success.”
Telephone interviews were conducted with Utah residents from Dec. 2, 2014 through Dec. 16, 2014. A total of 611 interviews were completed by phone. Both landline and mobile phone numbers were included. The survey reports a margin of error of ±4.0 percent.
The complete report is available here.
| Approval Ratings for Digital Government Delivery | |
| Overall satisfaction with the state website and its online services | 80% |
| Time savings | 85% |
| Less hassle than offline methods | 82% |
| Reliability | 80% |
| Ease of use | 71% |
| Digital Government Perception and Satisfaction | |
| Utah.gov is a good service that government is providing | 87% |
| Utahns expect the state to continue to improve Utah.gov by providingmore services and information | 75% |