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Directgov gets a huge number of ratings and comments through the 'comment on this article' feature at the bottom of its pages. The feature allows you to rate how useful each page is, and leave a comment. Find out how Directgov is using this information to improve its content.
During October, 46 per cent of people rated Directgov as 'very useful'
The comment on this article feature launched in April 2010. Since then, Directgov has received over one million ratings and more than 260,000 comments on pages across the website.
Each page can be given one of five ratings, ranging from 'very useful' to 'not at all useful'. About one quarter of people who rate a page also leave a comment.
The number of people rating Directgov as 'very useful' remained the same from September to October. This means there's been an overall increase of three per cent since comment on this article started in April.
People rating Directgov as 'not at all useful' went down by one per cent from September to October. This means there has been an overall decrease of three per cent from when the feature launched in April. You can see some overview results in the table below.
| Table showing overview of 'comment on this article' ratings | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very useful | Quite useful | Unsure | Not very useful | Not at all useful | |
| October | 46% | 21% | 6% | 8% | 19% |
| September | 46% | 21% | 6% | 7% | 20% |
| August | 47% | 21% | 6% | 7% | 19% |
| July | 46% | 21% | 6% | 7% | 20% |
| June | 45% | 20% | 6% | 8% | 21% |
| May | 45% | 21% | 6% | 7% | 21% |
| April | 43% | 21% | 6% | 8% | 22% |
Each month, all ratings and comments are collected and sent to editorial teams across government departments for review.
These editorial teams and a team based in Directgov then discuss how the ratings and comments can be used to improve content. Any changes made to content are logged and tracked to see if they have improved the usefulness of the site. Your ratings and comments will be used to track these changes.
Directgov has made changes to many pages following your comments
Your ratings and comments are being used to make improvements to Directgov content.
For example, the Environment and greener living team regularly received comments from people unable to find their nearest recycling centre. The team have now made this information much clearer and easier to find on relevant pages. Last month the number of comments received about this issue had dropped dramatically.
Environment and greener living also had a lot of comments about an article on greener cars and driving. The editorial team used these comments to inform a complete rewrite of the entire section of content, making sure all topics were covered.
There have been several changes to the Motoring section of the site too.
For example, a new medical A-Z has been created and tweaked according to comments left relating to navigation and simplifying wording.
Changes have also been made to the driver's transactions pages. These include:
Also, on the driver's entitlement page, analysis of your comments has directly informed work done to radically alter the wording and layout of this page. The new page will be available soon.
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