Federal Provincial Territorial COVID-19 web management working group/June 23 2020

Agenda

Introductions - new additions to the group
Updates on collaboration spaces
Round table discussion, forward agenda building
Federal usability research and top task study
Next steps

Introductions of new members

Alf Blanchard, PEI
David Tallan, ON

Update on collaboration spaces

We’ve created a GCwiki presence

Meeting invitations, agendas, notes and resources will be posted there

We have also created a Slack channel in the canadiandiggov.slack.com workspace: #fpt-covid

It’s a closed channel where we can discuss topics outside of our regular meetings

Overview of the federal COVID response

Susan Harper - Health Canada January - first COVID-19 case: Federal web content had a mostly health focus, with some travel info
March: desperate need to increase the number of staff on the file, and a more structured approach to content management on Canada.ca

Created a digital strategy
Built partnership between Digital Transformation Office, Privy Council Office, Principal Publisher at Service Canada, Health Canada
Recognized need for a more flexible design for content
Tried to strengthen awareness of web writing standards
Looked at better meta tagging of content
Moved to current design for canada.ca/coronavirus - Simplified content by removing descriptive text and opting for more links

Very difficult to keep ahead of content, so focussed more on improvements and evidence-based recommendations for improvements

Federal usability research and top task study

Presentation: Covid-19 Top Task Labels

Presentation: Covid-19 Top Task Identification

Since March our work has focused on rapid prototyping and usability research.
We worked with Gerry McGovern and the WHO on an international top task study to help identify trends in COVID-19 related top tasks
We then worked with Gerry McGovern to run a Canada-specific study to focus primarily on the needs of Canadians
Similar studies were run by Norway, Ireland and New Zealand
This helps us identify where there are gaps in our current content, so we can plan for the content we need to develop
Key differences in the Canadian study were the tasks related to financial support as that wasn’t relevant in the WHO study
90% English respondents, 10% French
We recruited participants on Canada.ca
It’s been interesting to see how anxious people are to help out during this time by participating in our studies
Interesting to see common top tasks across different audiences
We’d like to run the study again in a month or two, to track how needs are changing
We’d also be interested in running studies with individual provinces/territories to help identify needs at that level of government
Lisa will put together a “What’s involved” summary that we can share so that any provinces/territories that are interested in doing a study with us can get a sense of what’s required.

Forward agenda

Central page with info about travel restrictions within Canada
Popular app for close contact (exposure app)
Understand how people are dealing with search - how to improve search and tagging to manage expanding content
Reopening of businesses

Manitoba has an engagement piece they could share

How to handle the balance between a main COVID site and a re-opening site, for anyone who has them separated, and IA challenges for those keeping them together
Strategies for linking between jurisdictions
Personal protective equipment
Strategies for handling specialist v generalist content, e.g. dividing content with a focus on health professionals
How are people handling plain language for products (NWT has a literacy rate of about grade 5 and 11 languages)

Mary Beth Baker (PCO) has some resources for print materials

How people are doing data integration and visualization

Rob Weibe (Health Canada) has a presentation he could share