Why public websites fail their users
Public sector websites fail in predictable ways. They are organised by internal structure, so a citizen has to guess which department handles their situation. They are inaccessible — small text, unlabelled form fields, images of text — which excludes exactly the people who most depend on the service. And their forms are long, break on mobile and lose progress, so completion rates are a fraction of attempts, which is then misread as low demand.
What we build for a public body
First, task-first navigation with one page per service covering eligibility, documents, steps and timeframes, because that is how people arrive. Second, accessibility built to standard and tested, including keyboard and screen-reader use, which is a legal obligation and a usability floor. Third, short, resumable forms that work on a phone, since that is the only device many applicants have. Fourth, structured reporting and open data, which makes transparency usable rather than nominal.