A Quick Review of
Emirates ID
Website
In 2009, the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs issued the “UAE Fed-
eral Government Web Guidelines” in order to help federal
entities meet a defined level of information quality and to
ensure that all federal government websites are in line with
international standards, making them easy to access, use
and understand. Since their release, the Guidelines have
significantly contributed to the improvement of the federal
government websites and portals.
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The homepage Emirates ID Website
In each issue of the “Smart Govern-
ment” magazine, we’ll review one of
the federal government websites to
highlight its main strengths as well as
areas for improvement. Our common
goal is for the user to be able to ac-
cess government services easily and
conveniently anytime anywhere in
line with the UAE Vision 2021.
We start in this issue by reviewing
the website of the Emirates Identity
Authority (Emirates ID). It is one of
the largest federal entities that is
keen to provide its cutstomers with
high quality e-Services. Emirates ID
launched its website in the current
improved format last June as one of
the most important axes of its Stra-
tegic Plan 2010-2013 and its coming
Plan 2014-2016. The website attract-
ed around 5.9 million visits during the
first half of this year.
Accessibility:
Accessibility refers to providing a
website that is comaptible with a
wide range of web browsers. The
URL should be easy to remember
and the website easily accessed
through search engines. People with
special needs should be able to use
the website with no difficulty.
Following are a few remarks on
Emirates ID website in this regard:
Emirates ID website is characterized
by an easy to remember URL (www.
emiratesid.gov.ae). Typing (eida.gov.
ae) or even (id.ae) also redirects the
user to the website.
The website offers Text-to-Speech
facility. However,It would be a good
idea to highlight the part being read
to make it easier for the user to follow
and click on the desired section.
The website gives the option to send
the pages “to a friend”.
The website offers the option to in-
crease and decrease the font size of
the pages. However, when tested on
the homepage, some texts got mixed
up (screenshot 1).
Usability and Design:
Usability refers to “The extent to
which a product can be used by
specified users to achieve specified
goals with effectiveness, efficiency
and satisfaction in a specified con-
text.” For websites, it could be de-
fined as the process of measuring
and managing ease of use for us-
ers interacting with a website. A key
methodology for assessing usability
is User-centred Design (UCD) which
is defined as “The active involvement
of users, and a clear understanding
of user and task requirements.”
Following are a few remarks on
Emirates ID website in this regard:
Emirates ID website is characterized
by a simple and attractive design that
is user-centred. All the services that
a user might need are accessible
from the homepage withough hav-
ing to navigate through the website
(screenshot 2).
The new E-Form that Emirates ID
launched recently is simple and easy
yo use. An Applicant can fill in the on-
line form to get a new ID card or re-
new his/her card in 10 simple steps,
thereby saving the AED 30 fee that
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