India is boasting about its growth towards an e-economy. More than anybody else it’s the Government who promote this so-called e-Governance. There is no doubt it will make our life easier. No more long queues to pay the bills, no more delays in getting the services done and so on. It sounds really nice but the bitter fact is, once you visit these government websites which are intended to provide you services, you will feel the traditional system was much better. These websites are cluttered with navigational issues, design, usability flaws and are hardly updated.
It is really shame to a country, which has uncountable number of technology talents and where even a 15 year old kid can develop websites which are far better in usability and design than these cluttered Government websites.
Here we list some of the most unfriendly websites owned by the Indian Government.
IRCTC
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation website might be the one, which is better compared to the rest of the list. It is supposedly the first government website that launched a mobile application for easy access through the phones. But as many say, the website is not free from problems. The first thing is the content load. It will eat a considerable amount of your time for logging in, especially in the morning time. The site is not optimized for all types of internet connections, so irrespective of your connection speed, it will be difficult to effectively ‘search,’ book or cancel tickets. By the time you clear the log-in hurdles and reach the final step to book a ticket, you will have probably missed out the available seats.
BSNL
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s website seems to be faster than the earlier one and is comparatively clutter free. But the content in the website is poorly sorted. So if you have to get particular information, be prepared to traverse through the entire site and the countless number of tabs which keeps on increasing as you go in. And nevertheless to say, the design of the website is so poor with a wide array of color schemes and distracting BSNL flashes, which runs on top.
Well, we know getting a passport is not an easy thing. But if you tried to apply for one through the Indian Passport website handled by the ministry of external affairs, you will feel it as the worst decision ever made. It is a herculean task to follow the countless instructions and fill the details so precisely. Consider the worst case scenario, if anything happens with your system during the process, you will have to repeat the lengthy process all over, whether it is for taking a new passport or renewing your old one.
Well, do not even try to access website of the State-run MTNL network. The site usually takes more than five minutes to load and even if it’s loaded, it will surprise you with the looks of a website coming from the early 90’s.
Even though the website contains almost all the needed information, it has got serious navigational problems. The advertisements running on the site hides information and links on the drop down menu.
Environment Ministry
The environment ministry’s website seems to be fine, except the un-aligned boxes of information in the home page. But once you go further inside the home page, you will get information which is more than five months old. It has got serious update issues, mainly the press and events section where the people usually look for information, were last updated more than a year ago.
This website probably is the most shameful one. The website is run under the ministry of health and family welfare and has more than 60 active links. But the problem is most of these links lead to pages which greets you with the information “coming soon,” or will redirect you to some files or links outside the network.
The Governments National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) website is itself a disaster. The website is an extreme example of poor design with the tabs and names overlapping with one other and the ill designed cursors. The top portion of the website is covered with blurry flash which has unrecognizable next and previous buttons. It looks like the government must have a disaster management authority, especially for all its websites.
Agricultural Marketing Information Network- Ministry
Of Agriculture
The website Agmarknet, of the agriculture ministry says “A step towards Globalization of Indian Agriculture.” The website allows you to check the daily prices for the anything from vegetables to cereals and also offer guidelines for agricultural projects and other information from the ministry. The interesting thing is that the website will give you same feel of entering a real market, with things spread all over the place.
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