The Delaware Economic Development Office is a State agency which is intended to be run as if it were a private company. Its goal is to attract new businesses to the State of Delaware, and to help existing businesses grow and thrive. I visited their web site recently after hearing some news about the agency, and left very disappointed. First, a little about the news.

Surprise firings at the Delaware Economic Development Office

This last week, the office went through some drastic changes as one in five of its employees were fired without notice. The employees were given two weeks severance, and an offer of some assistance in locating new jobs.

Says the Wilmington News Journal, in an article titled Delaware economic office fires 10 without warning:

Propes described the other nine fired workers as veterans who had an average of more than 15 years of experience. At least two were with the office for more than 20 years. The displaced workers had strong performance records and were a major part of the state’s business community, Propes said.

In a followup article on Friday, House speaker calls firings ‘callous’, a News Journal reporter tells of the Legislative response to the firings, which doesn’t appear to have been very positive:

A top state lawmaker on Friday scheduled a committee hearing to investigate the firing of several top officials at the agency charged with helping business in Delaware.

Ten employees of the Delaware Economic Development Office, nearly one in five of its work force, were summarily dismissed Thursday, including the agency’s chief operating officer and four top executives.

“To be dismissed without cause and without warning is inexcusable,” House Speaker Terry R. Spence, R-Stratford, said in a statement. “The callous manner in which these people were fired was just plain wrong.”

After reading about this, I decided that I wanted to know more about this agency, and about how they reach out to businesses that might come to Delaware, and how they assist businesses within Delaware. I don’t know whether to be angry or sad, after visiting their site. I’ll explain why.

The Delaware Economic Development Office’s Online Presence

In light of the recent firings within the agency, I thought that it might be interesting to take a closer look at the Delaware Economic Development Office, to see how they present themselves to the public and the audience that they target with their efforts. I will preface this by saying that when it comes to their web site, and how they appear online, I am less than overwhelmed. It is not the work of an agency that I would listen to if they wanted me to seriously consider locating my business in Delaware.

I will also say that I have no idea if the people who were fired were in anyway responsible for the web site. By all reports they seem to have been knowledgeable, and well respected in the business community.

The web site of the Delaware Economic Development Office will not be winning any awards for design or usability, or for its ability to draw searchers to the site from search engines. It is one of the worst state government sites I have seen online, and I’ve looked at quite a few, from all fifty states.

What Face does the Office Present Online?

Not a credible one. Not one to be bothered with the nuances of design, or usability or presenting information in an easy to follow, easy to understand, and easy to use manner.

Here are some resources that they may want to consider reviewing carefully:

• From Stanford University, the Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility clearly and succinctly describe ten areas where a web site can display a sense of the expertise and trustworthiness behind the site. I think that it is safe to say that the Development Office doesn’t follow a single one of those guidelines.
• The Stanford team that put together those guidelines also worked with Consumer Web Watch on a very large report, How Do People Evaluate a Web Site’s Credibility?, which shows how design can influence the credibility one associates with a web site, and how that credibility can influence the effectiveness of a site:
  

  The data showed that the average consumer paid far more attention to the superficial aspects of a site, such as visual cues, than to its content. For example, nearly half of all consumers (or 46.1%) in the study assessed the credibility of sites based in part on the appeal of the overall visual design of a site, including layout, typography, font size and color schemes.

• The US Department of Health and Social Services proves that it is possible to have a government agency build a world class web site, and offers plenty of suggestions on how other government agencies (and web sites of all types) can do the same with their pages at Usability.gov. It’s worth printing out a copy of their 128 page long Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines for every single remaining employee of the Economic Development Office.

The web is filled with other sites on designing web pages. The Development Office’s site has the look of being built by an amateur, and that is the impression that is no doubt left in the minds of visitors to its pages. Considering relocating your business to the State of Delaware? A look at the web site of the State Economic Development Office might persuade you otherwise.

Can People Even Find the Web Site?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question might be yes. But only because they followed a link from the other State of Delaware web pages. The pages are decidedly not search engine friendly, and would likely not show up well in search engines for many searches which it likely should.

This is partially because most of the pages are in frames. Framed pages do not do well in search engines, and exist as part of the unidexable “invisble web” as far as those engines are concerned. It’s also because the pages are poorly written, and need the help of a copywriter.

Here are a couple of suggestions for the Office that they should consider:

• Remove the frames
• Spend the time to write engaging, interesting, and helpful content for your pages, or hire someone who can.

Can People Use the Site Once they Find It?

There are a couple of popular sites on the web I thought about which show off examples of bad design and poor usability, on my tour of the Economic Development pages. Those sites exist to help people learn more about design and usability. Both sites take nominations from visitors on which sites to showcase. I’m torn between nominating the Delaware Economic Development Office site to either of them. One is them is Web Pages that Suck, and the other is This is Broken.

(I felt like I was being a little harsh writing that, until I remembered that it’s my tax dollars that are helping to fund the Economic Development Office.)

Here’s a breakdown of some specific issues I see on the site that need to be addressed:

Navigation, and the Lack of It

The Development Office’s site has a weak navigational structure on some pages, and none at all on others, and makes it very difficult for visitors to find information that might influence them to come to Delaware, or information that might help their existing Delaware business.

Framed Content and the Problems it causes

The frames that the site uses display a hodge podge of styles, and hastily thrown together content. This is no way to try to convince large employers, or anyone at all to come to Delaware, and bring their business with them.

Frames make it impossible to link to any pages within the frames directly. So, if I wanted to send a link to someone about different locations in Delaware where they could locate their business, I couldn’t send them a direct link to that page. Frames are not search engine friendly, and content on pages within the frames will not be found by people searching for the information on those pages. For an office filled with marketers in this age of the internet, that seems especially problematic.

Dead Pages, and the Impression Those Give Off

The site isn’t that large. It should be easy for people to check to see if there are broken links and missing pages. The existence of dead pages leaves the impression that there is no one at the agency who cares about fulfilling the mission of the Office.

There are a number of dead pages on topics that seem essential and important, such as the second page of a FAQ on “Starting a Small Business,” a “business license form,” a page on “Employers by size,” and more.

What Does the Economic Development Office Site Say About Delaware?

Back in 2001, the State spent $250,000 coming up with a slogan that many aren’t happy with (“It’s good being first”). Less than a tenth of that amount should be enough to enable the Economic Development Office to come up with a site that people of the State could take some pride in. We are told in one of the News Journal articles above that the Agency spent a nice sum at a single conference recently, to attract new biotechnology jobs to Delaware:

The agency is also engaged in a push to attract biotechnology jobs, spending $300,000 last month at a national biotech conference in Philadelphia.

That’s a significant amount of money. None of it was spent on their web site, or if it was, someone has some explaining to do. I would be interested in hearing more on how some of that $300,000 was actually spent.

I’d love to see a world class site for the Delaware Economic Development Office. Some large employers, like Dupont and MBNA have been proud to call the State their home for years.

I would even appreciate a decently designed web site from the Office.

But what the Delaware Economic Development Office has online now is embarassing. There are 49 other states in the country that are doing a better job with their Economic Development sites. Here are five at random:

New York Loves Business

NewPa

West Virginia Development Office

Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development

New Jersey Economic Development Office

Delaware, when it comes to economic development, and the Economic Development Office site, the State is a long way from being able to claim that “It’s good being first.”

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