You do understand that, don’t you? : How websites from official bodies can be made easier to read and understand

Are the websites of official bodies easy to read and understand? Swedish legislation states that the language of the public sector is to be cultivated, simple and comprehensible. This study investigates which factors within information architecture (IA) can contribute to making websites easy to read and understand. What role can IA play to increase comprehensibility? We have used a pragmatic approach in our research, which consisted of a case study and a sequential combination of two methods: qualitative content analysis and questionnaires. The case study was conducted on the webpage on krisinformation.se giving information about the coronavirus, Covid-19. With a starting point in the usability theories of the Nielsen Norman Group, an analysis tool was developed to list IA factors within the categories structure, content and graphics. The result shows that 67 % of the 50 respondents to the questionnaire found that the websites of official bodies were in general easy to read and understand. Several of the IA factors we had listed were described by respondents as contributing to the ease of reading and understanding of krisinformation.se. However, less than half of the advisory principles from the Nielsen Norman Group are included in Klarspråksreglerna (general rules drawn up by the Institute for Language and Folklore for writing in plain Swedish). We conclude that it would be an advantage to supplement the section entitled “Att skriva för webben” in Klarspråksreglerna with IA factors to make it more complete and give it a firm grounding in research. In extension, this may help to make the websites of official bodies easier to read and understand