From July to September 2012, over 600 Clicklaw visitors completed an online survey. For Clicklaw visitors who reported that they found some information related to their legal issue, we asked if we could send them a follow-up survey and offered them a chance to win a $100 Chapters gift card. We received over 100 entries for the draw and last month we picked the winner using a random number generator. Congrats to Tim from West Vancouver! We hope you enjoy your prize …

A word cloud generated from comments submitted by Clicklaw visitors to the website survey

Thanks to everyone who participated. We learned a great deal about visitors to our website and their thoughts about Clicklaw. We learned, for example, that:

• 60% of survey respondents were people with a legal question
• 15% were people assisting a friend or family member with a legal question
• 10% were intermediaries, such as family justice counsellors, community workers, and librarians assisting a client

We asked them if they found information on Clicklaw they would use – 65% of them reported that they did.

In the follow-up survey, we also learned that:

• respondents rated the information they found through Clicklaw as 4.3 out of 5 in terms of being helpful and 4.4 out of 5 in terms of being understandable
• respondents provided a 4 out of 5 rating to the question: did the information you found through Clicklaw help you take next steps relating to the legal issue

Kudos to Clicklaw contributors for making quality legal information available to British Columbians!

In other positive Clicklaw news, the number of visits to the Clicklaw site continues to grow. Visits in October 2012 were close to 70% higher than October the previous year.

The findings from the surveys, together with information we gathered from Google Analytics, a survey of Clicklaw contributors, and surveys of Clicklaw training participants, are summarized in the newly published Clicklaw Project Evaluation Report. We are excited about this evaluation as it allows us to set benchmarks and to use the information gathered for planning future enhancements.

Tags: evaluation of a website project for non-profits, PLEI

Over the next few weeks, we’re asking Clicklaw visitors to take a very short survey after they’ve used our site. We want to learn more about who’s using Clicklaw, why people are coming to our site, and whether or not they’re finding information that relates to their legal issue.

Our survey is a little different than the traditional 4 questions that you may get when you visit a website. For Clicklaw visitors who report that they have found some information that relates to their legal issue, we ask if we can send them a follow up survey a few days after their visit. Our goal is to give visitors time to read and digest the legal information found through Clicklaw, and see if it has helped them to take next steps with their legal issue. Participants who complete the second survey will have the opportunity to have their name entered in a draw for a $100 Chapters gift card.

We’re running the survey for the next few weeks. Both the pop-up and follow-up surveys are very short and take only a few moments to complete. So we would really appreciate it if you could take a moment to fill out our survey! And if you refer clients to the Clicklaw website, please encourage them to do the same. We’ll report back at the end of the summer on what we learn!

Are you an advocate, paralegal or lawyer who uses the Consumer Law and Credit/Debt Law Manual? Are you interested in volunteering an hour of your time to help make sure this resource meets the needs of its intended audience (that’s you!)?

The Legal Services Society (LSS) is looking for volunteers to do “usability testing” on this important resource. Usability testing is a way to make sure that a product, in this case the manual, is working well and meets the needs of its audience. You’re not being tested – you’re helping to test the resource. (Makes sense?)

If you’re interested or would like more information, please contact LSS by emailing publications@lss.bc.ca.

Now available on Clicklaw: check out the final conference report recently released by Just a Click Away!

Coordinated by Courthouse Libraries BC, and supported with funding from the Access to Justice Fund (administered by the Law Foundation of Ontario), Just a Click Away, is an initiative to enhance how technology can be used to deliver legal education and information to the public in Canada.

As part of the second stage in the initiative, the Clicklaw public legal education and information (PLEI) portal website was featured in a webinar that explains how it provides access to PLEI to British Columbians. To access the webinars, click here.

The final stage of the initiative was the two-day intensive national conference in Vancouver held this past February. The conference was aimed at those who provide and support public legal education and information, and want to improve how the Internet and emerging technologies can be used to deliver PLEI. The conference featured such themes as best practices for PLEI websites, evaluation of online PLEI, and using social media and web 2.0 technologies.

Clicklaw recently launched a new look that makes it easier to find the legal information and help you’re looking for. We asked for your feedback, we listened, and we’ve made changes to improve the site for you.

Information in many languages

You now have easier access to legal information in many languages. On the header of each page, we’ve added quick links to resources and services in Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Punjabi, Korean and Farsi (Persian), as well as a list of all languages available through Clicklaw. Our Clicklaw contributors produce hundreds of resources in many languages – now it’s easier for you to find them.

Keyword search improvements!

Try out the keyword search and we think you’ll notice a big difference – the search is far more flexible, and you’ll be much more satisfied with the search results. You’ll even find that if you make a spelling mistake, our search engine will notice that and offer you alternatives to choose from.

Search results include HelpMap services

When you look for information on Clicklaw, your search results now include some quick suggestions from our HelpMap. Also, the display for the results is cleaner, easier to read, and includes all resources from three sections: Solve Problems, Learn & Teach, and Reform & Research. You can still  narrow down your search using these sections - just use the “Refine your search” box on the left of the search results screen.

We hope that all of these enhancements will make the site more intuitive and easier for you to find the legal information you need.

Comments? We’d love to hear from you! Post a response on our blog, go to our FaceBook page, contact us via Twitter, or send us an email to editor@clicklaw.bc.ca.

We’ve been working on improving Clicklaw! Drawing on usability testing and feedback, we’ve been working on making Clicklaw easier to use & more helpful. Here are six things we’ve done:

• Additional resources: We added over 200 new resources to the Solve Problems section to fill gaps in the legal information available.
• Clicklaw subtopics: We added subtopics to resources to improve the experience of browsing on Clicklaw.   
• Common questions: There are now over 100 “common questions” on the site, featuring resources that are good starting points for information on common legal problems.
• Resources in languages other than English: We made it easier to find resources on Clicklaw that are in languages other than English.
• What’s new: A blog highlighting new resources is now featured on the Clicklaw homepage.
• Facebook & Twitter: Clicklaw has arrived on Facebook and Twitter!

Oh, and we’ve taken off the “Beta” label. Clicklaw is now all grown up. Of course, we will continue to evolve and make improvements to the site to meet the needs of Clicklaw users. Visit www.clicklaw.bc.ca and let us know what you think, either by filling out this short survey, posting a comment on this blog posting, or sending us an email at editor@clicklaw.bc.ca.

And spread the word!