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No, your janky website is not “fine”
Friday, Jul 14, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller * Tom Bowen couldn’t access the Illinois State Board of Elections’ website yesterday and tweeted at them. The response…
Um, no. That website never operates “fine.” C’mon. The server often can’t handle simple tasks like seeing all House election results on the same page or putting contributions in the order of highest to lowest. When it glitches, which is just about constantly, you get sent to the main page and have to try again. It’s totally ridiculous. No other state website is that flawed. Also, while we’re at it, why does it give me lowest to highest contributions when I first try to sort them? Who cares about $1 contributions? If I’m sorting by amount, I want to see the highest contributions first. It makes no sense. And then when you try to re-sort them, chances are good that you’ll be sent to the home page again. * And as long as I’m venting, what’s with the weird, decades-long commitment to javascript on links? The board did finally move away from pure javascript, but it’s still pervasive. I’ll give you an example. Click here for the election results page. Now, use the pull-down menu to access the 2022 results. Now, try to open the categories in a new tab. Doesn’t work. This is what comes up for the “Judicial” link: javascript:__doPostBack(’ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$lnkSenate’,'’) *facepalm* I have been complaining about that website since the 1990s. It’s always been janky and is too-often offline. Stop telling us that things are fine. * And just in case somebody wants to make snarky comments about the construction of this ol’ Capitol Fax blog, I’d point out that, while it may not be the prettiest, most ultra-modern site on the planet, it works.
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- George Ryan Reynolds - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:09 am:
Believe Snarky Janky Blog is on the second stage at Pitchfork next weekend.
- James - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:17 am:
The “new” Capital Fax will never be forgotten.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:22 am:
===The “new”===
And I killed it almost immediately. The ISBE woulda tried for years to save it lol
- Huh? - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:24 am:
The IDOT website is a mess. Has been for more than 10 years. Undergoing a revision that isn’t making it any better.
- very old soil - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:27 am:
This website is the best (banned punctuation).
- Someone You Should Know - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:29 am:
Even Coca Cola, knew to Kill the new coke
- Rudy’s teeth - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:32 am:
Did tech averse Michael Madigan have a hand in the design and implementation of the Illinois SBE website?
Would be curious to learn if the ISBE Board members are active users of the site.
- Amalis - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:33 am:
I don’t care if it is pretty. It is hard to figure out how to find things. the thought should be can the average person…not in politics…find things. the answer is no. Maybe that is baked into the design.
- Amalia - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:36 am:
Janky, the elections website?
- James - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:40 am:
“new” Capital Fax last about 48 hours if I recall. I appreciate this blog remaining in the current format.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:42 am:
===“new” Capital Fax last about 48 hours if I recall===
I don’t think it was ever fully rolled out. I gave people a sneak preview and it crashed and people just hated it.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
- JS Mill - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:46 am:
None of you has experienced true frustration until you log in to the ISBE IWAS system. It has never been confirmed, but I assume it is a Soviet era relic that they got a “deal” on.
- TheInvisibleMan - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:50 am:
The ISBE site is so terrible, I often just default to the Illinois Sunshine site instead when I want to look up past political contributions.
Illinois Sunshine doesn’t create the data, they just take the data from ISBE and provide it in a much more useable and functional format.
That Illinois Sunshine exists at all, is pretty good proof that the ISBE site is indeed not ‘fine’.
– Now, try to open the categories in a new tab. Doesn’t work.–
This is just terrible website design, and it pretty much ensures I’ll stop using said website.
ISBE *obviously* has never even heard of a UX specialist. Much less listened to one. That would be a good place for them to start.
- Big Dipper - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:53 am:
I read something recently that “fine” is now considered a mild dis.
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 10:58 am:
The ISBE website makes me miss microfiche.
- Cool Papa Bell - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:02 am:
Not that I track these things super close but how many really good government websites are there?
Web services, design and hosting seem to be something pubic bodies struggle with. A lot.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:03 am:
===how many really good government websites are there? ===
I’m not arguing for “good,” I just want “working.”
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:05 am:
Function over fashion should be how these websites should work.
Having both fail makes neither acceptable, and function not working is far worse than having any fashion.
- Ryan - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:07 am:
Government entities really need to invest money in UX designers. I don’t recall ever going to government website that wasn’t a heaping pile of dog poo.
- state problems - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:13 am:
It’s because the state can’t recruit good IT people so they have to settle for hiring people that do not even know how to write code, therefore you get basic websites that only occasionally work. No good IT student would choose to work at the state over a private company. There’s no incentive to lure good tech people to the state. What’s going to happen is they’ll eventually have to farm out all IT
- TheInvisibleMan - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:18 am:
–how many really good government websites are there?–
Most govt sites in DuPage county are good. Some are even excellent.
Will County for all their faults, has a few good ones and a few closer to just being fine. The GIS portal is excellent and collates a lot of data from other county agencies all in one useable and functional spot, at least as it relates to property.
The Assessor website is even open to suggestions and has then implemented those suggestions.
Request - “Hey, it would be cool if I could search for this field in assessments. Can you add that to the website”
Contact at county - “That’s not an option now, but we will look into what would need to be done.”
6 weeks later, that new field is now searchable.
Those are absolutely the exceptions though, and many counties and small towns have websites that have the functionality of something on Geocities from 30 years ago. Basically a ‘web page’ with a bunch of department phone numbers listed - and not much else. I’ve even seen the ‘under construction’ animated icon on some of the worst ones.
What I would love to see more of in govt sites is an API function. If they don’t want to create a functional site around the data they have, then at least open up the data and let others create something useful with it. But I know it’s going to be a long time before that happens.
- Interim Retiree - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:22 am:
===None of you has experienced true frustration until you log in to the ISBE IWAS system.===
7 years after I retired, I began receiving messages as if I was still working. Took weeks to get it straightened out. It must be the letters ISBE that IT hates(banned punctuation)
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:35 am:
I learned very early in my career never to believe the IT guy and never repeat what they tell you. ISBE hasn’t figured that out yet.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:43 am:
===It’s because the state can’t recruit good IT people===
Meh. That website has been messed up for more than 20 years.
And other websites appear to function without all the glitches. Stop making excuses for them. This is a choice.
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:46 am:
- It’s because the state can’t recruit good IT people -
Hire a third party, this isn’t rocket science.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:48 am:
===This is a choice.===
They rolled this out. This is their work product. It’s how they want it seen.
No argument exists that “this is the best they can do” either.
- vern - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:48 am:
=== while it may not be the prettiest, most ultra-modern site on the planet, it works ===
I actually use CapFax as a home page when I want to run other applications but not quit out of the browser, just because your site runs so much less code than most others. I wish the internet would trend back towards lean, simple and functional. Right now everyone errs on the side of infinite data collection, and they don’t care about crashes. It’s annoying.
- Sangamo Girl - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 11:50 am:
==Government entities really need to invest money in UX designers.==
The state/DoIT won’t let us hire IT consultants who make this process their business. So it is non-technical agency staff putting sites together. DoIT’s only part is slapping the content in the software. And, bless their hearts, agency staff may be highly effective SMEs in their field, but they use 2002 as their design benchmark.
- Moe Berg - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 12:12 pm:
When is ISBE going to get around to posting the 2024 candidate’s guide and election calendars in the “Running for Office” section of the website?
We’re only a couple of months away from petition circulation. This is basic.
If you go to the “Press Room Menu” section, you will see posted on the bottom left a PDF link for the “2020 Campaign Disclosure Calendar.”
It’s a little sleepy over on S. MacArthur Blvd.
- JC - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 12:17 pm:
You have my sword in this righteous crusade.
- Anyone Remember - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 12:23 pm:
“… it is a Soviet era relic that they got a “deal” on.”
Actually, it is a surplus East German “relic” … .
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 12:34 pm:
===Right now everyone errs on the side of infinite data collection===
Yeah, I don’t do that.
- Frida's boss - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 12:49 pm:
What happened to DOIT I thought they were the tech wizards of the State?
- Stephanie Kollmann - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 12:51 pm:
free plug for Illinois Sunshine dot org made by the lovely folks at DataMade for Reform for IL
IDK how frequently it updates but I’ve never once had a problem with it working
- thisjustinagain - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 12:53 pm:
ISBE techs sitting in their burning server room: “This is fine” (also an Internet meme). As someone who went to the ISBE site a while back looking for some info, it’s a mess, and isn’t ‘fine’.
- Stephanie Kollmann - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 12:54 pm:
(this is not an excuse for, and in fact underscores, the jankiness of the actual state site)
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 1:11 pm:
===What happened to DOIT===
The board is quasi-independent. Try to keep up.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 1:31 pm:
===involved with totaling votes===
It’s not an adding machine.
People, and the jurisdictions total votes, not a website.
Love of Pete.
- ArchPundit - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 1:35 pm:
===And other websites appear to function without all the glitches. Stop making excuses for them. This is a choice.
Exactly. There are challenges in government to creating quality websites, but nothing they are doing is that complex (and yes, I have worked on implementing websites for government agencies). It’s a matter of caring about it and holding IT staff and/or contractors to account.
- ArchPundit - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 1:38 pm:
===Is this website involved with totaling votes and reporting them?
The simple answer is no. The site probably is having results uploaded from a database–likely a one way communication from the database to the web system. I believe every state has moved to separate counting and results from being directly tied to the internet. At one time Louisiana was fully networked with the voting machines, but I believe someone realized how bad of an idea that was finally.
- Give Us Barabbas - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 1:41 pm:
I’m not saying the the site architecture is old, but maybe the dancing baby gifs and flying toasters could go…
- ArchPundit - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 1:50 pm:
==Are you saying that other entities, besides the State Board Of Elections, tabulates all jurisdictions for the non-local races?
Essentially all voting jurisdictions (counties and a few cities) tabulate their totals and then report them to SBE. Those tabulations are done or should be done on non-networked computers and then the sent to the SBE which then uses it to put together the totals.
- Dotnonymous x - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 2:13 pm:
I’ll take function over form…every time.
- Leslie K - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 4:03 pm:
===Not that I track these things super close but how many really good government websites are there?===
I’m surprised no one has mentioned ilga.gov yet. I’ve been to a lot of state legislative sites for various projects (as I’m sure many many of us have), and I’m always grateful when all I need to do is check ilga.gov for something. Simple, easy to navigate, occasional problems tend to be fixed quickly.
- NorthSideNoMore - Friday, Jul 14, 23 @ 4:18 pm:
Remember when the State had WANG mail ? ISBE site reminds me of that. Ya never know what your gonna get when you try to log on?