State Legislature Web Sites and Public Participation: Designing a Civic Resource

The chief information technology officers (CTOs) of the 50 state legislatures were surveyed to determine the volume of each of their legislature's Web site use, their preferences of design criteria, their methods of audience evaluation, and the structure of control over site design and content. CTOs reported receiving over 1½ million visitors each week when in session. Use was related to site quality. Content was ranked above interactivity as a design criterion, but there was confusion as to what made a site interactive. Staffs that made an effort to determine audience preferences and focused on external and internal audiences produced higher quality sites. The legislatures' structure of control appeared to be one of only modest centralization.