Government website recognised for user experience

The Department of Internal Affairs is recognising its staff for the Govt.nz website, which won the Best Plain English website award for the public sector at the WriteMark Plain English Awards.

The awards are the industry benchmark for high standards in plain English. They help raise the bar for clear communication in both the public and private sector.

"We are committed to speaking the language of our users. All of the information on the site has been written in plain English and is organised around our users' needs," says Peter Murray, deputy chief executive, Department of Internal Affairs.

"Winning this award is a credit to all the hard work our team has put in to making Govt.nz easy to use," he says. "A huge amount of effort goes in to making government language easy to read and understand and the team really deserves this award.

Govt.nz was launched in July 2014. Information on the site has been pulled together from 44 different government departments. It is written and presented in the way people search for information, rather than by government structure, Murray explains.

"There is long standing evidence that plain language improves understanding, so we've designed the site so people of all literacy levels can find what they need," he says. "Our goal is to provide information that's easy to find, access and use. The user experience is at the centre of everything we do.

This award follows on from Govt.nz winning the 'Information' category at the 2015 Australia and New Zealand Internet Awards.