Abstract
Altinn is a Norwegian portal for public reporting over the internet. The application can be seen as the “flagship” for how the use of IT is supposed to ease reporting to the government for businesses, organizations, and regular citizens in Norway. The Altinn platform is considered an important step on the way to around-the-clock governance and is the result of cooperation between the Norwegian Directorate for
Taxes, Statistics Norway and The Brønnøysund Register Centre amongst others.
As a flagship Altinn has been a visible target and the system has endured a lot of criticism – especially for a frustrating use experience and the lack of ease of use. This thesis is an attempt at analyzing problems in the user experience and finding improvements for these problems. This is done from several angles; I look for
improvements in findability, usability and accessibility.
I have conducted a heuristic evaluation and conducted a WAI preliminary review of the user interface. The heuristic evaluation revealed a range of points to improve. The thesis presents possible solutions for better finding and administration of forms; use of attachments; improvements in the help-system, error handling; and saving of forms. In addition there have been suggested improvements in the information architecture of the forms.
After analysis of the Altinn-system it is clear that the application does not comply with guidelines for web accessibility. Even basic guidelines are not met, and the system does therefore not pass the WCAG-test to receive even an “A”-rating. When the system fails at this level it means that many people will not be able to use Altinn. People with disabilities, such as blindness, will for example not be able to use the application. The thesis presents a comprehensive list of errors and possible solutions to the problems so that Altinn may comply with WCAG guidelines.