E-Barangay A Framework For A Web-Based System For
E-Barangay A Framework For A Web-Based System For
Volume 18 • Issue 1
E-Barangay:
A Framework for a Web-Based System for
Local Communities and Its Usability
Rex Perez Bringula, University of the East, Philippines*
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1789-9601
ABSTRACT
Keywords
Community, E-Government, Governance, Services
1. INTRODUCTION
Different scholars have proposed e-government frameworks at the national level (Georgiadis &
Stiakakis 2010; Nguyen et al., 2014), city (Paskaleva, 2008), and municipal levels (Lee-Geiller &
Lee, 2019). However, despite the relevance of community-level services (Barbosa, Pozzebon, &
Diniz, 2013), a framework for e-government public services at the barangay level is still unavailable.
There are no frameworks that can guide e-government researchers to develop systems relevant at the
community level. Without such a framework, community-based systems may not directly address
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the needs of the residents. Furthermore, these community-based systems may not be consistent or
aligned to the mandate of the barangay and to the policies and programs of the country.
To address this gap, this study was conceived. The aim of the study is twofold. First, it developed
a framework for the community called e-barangay. The e-barangay framework could serve as a basis in
the development of a system pertinent to the needs of the local community. Second, a web-based system
was developed based on this framework. Subsequently, its usability was determined. Specifically, the
study aims to (1) discuss the development of a framework at the barangay level that could serve as
a basis for the development of a web-based system called e-barangay, (2) determine the perceptions
of the residents towards the design-related factors of e-barangay in terms of performance, reliability,
responsiveness, aesthetics, information quality, and ease of use, (3) determine the subjective measures
(frequency of use, satisfaction of use, intention to revisit the website, and overall user experience)
and objective measures (task duration, task accuracy, and completion) of usability, and (4) determine
if there is a significant relationship between design-related factors and the subjective measures of
usability. It is hypothesized that there is no significant relationship between design-related factors
and subjective measures of usability.
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. The next section is Literature Review, which
is divided into three sub-sections. The Methodology part, which is composed of the Qualitative and
Quantitative sections, discussed how the data were collected and analyzed. The findings were then
presented in the Results section and immediately followed by the Discussion section. Theoretical
and Practical Implications were then offered in the light of the research findings. Limitations and
future research directions were then discussed. The Conclusion section is the last part of the paper.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
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revealed that ease of use and satisfaction were two of the most frequently used variables. In Humphrey
and Mayoka (2016), a framework for the usability of e-government services in developing countries was
proposed. Design-related factors (e.g., functionality), system usability indicators (e.g., satisfaction),
and cost were the proposed factors of usability of e-government services.
In another study, Verkijika and De Wet (2018) assessed the usability of 217 e-government
websites in Sub-Sarahan Africa. The e-government websites were assessed using online services
and other factors (e.g., navigation). Online services are concerned with the value of information on
the website and the ability of the users to complete a required task. They found that none of the 217
websites adhered to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. In a recent similar study, Akgül (2019)
evaluated the accessibility, usability, quality, and readability of 77 state and 247 local e-government
websites. Overall design standards, compliance to conventions, navigation standards, findability,
and readability were shown as the components of usability. The overall usability of the websites was
shown to be poorly designed and seen as not performing well.
The aesthetic aspect of a website is a factor related to the usability (Bringula, 2016). Design
uniformity, appropriate graphics, organized patterns, suitable color combinations, and desirable font
sizes are the aesthetics qualities of a website (Wells, Valacich, & Hess, 2011). In a related study,
Pribeanu et al. (2010) evaluated four municipal websites and found that about 27% of these websites
are problematic in terms of aesthetics component.
2.3 Usability
Several studies identified the components of usability. One component is the performance, which
refers to the overall user preference rating considering the loading speed of a webpage (Schmidt et
al., 2009). Another component is reliability, which is the feeling that a product is dependable or fit to
be trusted (Baharuddin et al., 2013). Ho and Lee (2007) advocated the use of responsiveness (i.e., the
ability of the system or device to respond promptly to the actions invoked by users) as a component of
usability. In another study, Puthur, Mahadevan, and George (2015) disclosed that perceived usefulness
and perceived ease of use under the conditions of website and information qualities enhanced the
satisfaction and intention to re-use the system.
User experience is another variable investigated in the context of e-government. It refers to
the subjective measure of experience of individuals during or after using a product (Hassenzahl
& Tractinsky, 2006). Basri et al. (2019) evaluated the user experience on the use of Malaysian
e-government websites. Using validated questionnaires, it was shown that aesthetics was positively
correlated to user experience.
Usability and design factors are generally measured through subjective and objective measures to
determine the whole picture of the usability of the system (Hornbæk, 2006). The subjective measures
involve self-report rating of the frequency of use (Bringula, 2016), satisfaction of use (Weerakkody et
al., 2014), and intention to re-use the website (Puthur et al., 2015). Prior study showed that users may
find the system satisfies the needs of the users but the system is not frequently used (Bringula, 2016).
Different studies adopted subjective measures of usability. Weerakkody et al. (2014) reviewed
the literature that influenced the satisfaction of e-government services. It listed twelve statistical
(e.g., regression analysis) and non-statistical analyses (e.g., content analysis) of 147 papers published
from 2002 to 2012. A survey form that can be answered using a Likert-type scale was utilized to
measure usability and the factors that influenced it (Gulati & Dubey, 2012; Humphrey & Mayoka,
2016; Basri et al., 2019).
On the other hand, objective measures are the direct measures of the outcomes when completing
tasks. There are 19 indicators of objective measures. Some of these measures include task duration,
task accuracy, and completeness (Filippi & Barattin, 2012). To date, very little attention was allotted
to the usability of e-government websites that employed objective measures. Both subjective and
objective measures were employed in this study.
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3. METHODOLOGY
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was then pilot-tested on 50 residents who are not part of the study. The validity and reliability of the
questionnaire were determined through factor and Cronbach’s alpha analyses (Bringula, 2016). All
items are valid (factor loadings ≥ 0.50) and reliable (α ≥ 0.70) (Table 1) (Dancey & Reidy, 2007).
The survey form had two parts. The first part contains questions about the usability of the system.
The usability of the system was measured in terms of frequency of use, the satisfaction of use (e.g., “It
saves time when looking for specific information.”), intention to re-use (e.g., “I am looking forward
to using the system again.”), and overall experience (Table 1). The second part of the questionnaire
sought the perceptions of the respondents on the design-related factors of the software in terms of
performance (e.g., “The software is operating smoothly.”), reliability (e.g., “The information in the
system is correct.”), responsiveness (e.g., “The software can provide the information I needed.”),
aesthetics (e.g., “The overall design is appealing and consistent.”), information quality (e.g., “The
information provided by the software is up-to-date.”), and ease of use. Ease of Use and Overall User
Experience contained a single question “How do you rate the ease of use of the system?” and “How
do you rate the system overall?”, respectively.
A 5-point Likert scale was used to evaluate the system (Gulati & Dubey, 2012). The scale, mean
ranges, and verbal interpretation are given in Table 2. The objective measures were determined
through the completion time of tasks, issues found (task accuracy), and successful completion of the
tasks (completeness) (Table 4; Filippi & Barattin, 2012). The chairman, two staff, a tanod, and six
residents served as participants for the objective measures of usability.
The participants were given five minutes to complete each task. The experiment was conducted
at the barangay hall using a laptop with a mobile Internet connection. One of the researchers gave the
Verbal Interpretation
Mean Ease of Use/ Performance/Reliability/ Aesthetics/Satisfaction/
Scale
Range Overall User Responsiveness/ Intention to Re-use/
Experience Frequency of Use Information Quality
1 1.00 – 1.50 Very bad Never Strongly disagree
2 1.51 – 2.50 Bad Rarely Disagree
3 2.51 – 3.50 Average Sometimes Moderately agree
4 3.51 – 4.50 Good Most of the time Agree
5 4.51 – 5.00 Very good Always Strongly agree
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tasks to the participants while another researcher served as the observer. The observer recorded the
length of time the participants spent and whether the tasks were completed or not. The participants
were also asked if they found issues when completing the tasks. Data gathering lasted for one week.
4. RESULTS
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Figure 2. The proposed e-barangay framework supporting the services of the community
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Table 5. Spearman rank correlation between design-related factors and subjective measures of usability of e-barangay (n = 30)
quality was consistently associated with subjective measures of usability. Furthermore, the strongest
relationship was between information quality and satisfaction.
5. DISCUSSION
This study attempted to develop an e-government framework for the barangay. The developed
framework was then utilized to develop a web-based system called e-barangay. Subjective and
objective measures were then employed to determine the usability of the e-barangay. The framework of
e-barangay is consistent with the mandate of the barangay. E-government researchers in the Philippines
may utilize the e-barangay framework for system development and evaluation.
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The design of the software was deemed acceptable. The software performs its intended functions
and all of its modules or links are seen as complete and working properly. The design of the software
is visually appealing and respondents can easily navigate within the system. The information and
services the e-barangay offers are comprehensive. The task of each user can be accomplished with ease.
None of the testers reported errors in the system. All tasks were completed successfully and quickly.
The subjective and objective measures confirm that the e-barangay is built based on the
e-barangay framework and its functionalities are consistent with the needs of the residents. Therefore,
the e-barangay framework can be a helpful guide for the development of community-based systems
in the Philippines. However, the system is not used frequently despite the positive mean results
on satisfaction, intention to re-use, and overall user experience. The favorable results on the three
usability indicators could not be translated to the frequent use of the system. These findings agree
with the study of Bringula (2016).
6. THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS
The results of this study offer theoretical implications on community-level e-government usability
studies. The results imply that there is no single indicator that could fully reflect the subjective
usability of an e-barangay system (Hornbæk, 2006). A single usability indicator is not sufficient
to describe e-government usability. Therefore, the use of multiple usability indicators is needed to
fully understand e-government systems. The results of this study agree with reviewed studies (e.g.,
Bringula, 2016; Wells et al., 2011) that design-related factors do relate to the frequency of use. It
also extends the findings of prior works (e.g., Schmidt et al., 2009; Wells et al., 2011) by showing
that design-related factors could be associated with different indicators of usability. For instance,
information quality and responsiveness were related to the different usability indicators.
7. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
The results of this study reveal three practical implications. The first practical implication is the usage
of the developed framework in the subsequent development of the e-barangay-related systems. The
framework could be adopted in other barangays since it was developed based on the legal mandate
of the community. Other researchers may add some features to the e-barangay software but its main
functionalities will remain the same. In other words, the framework provides future e-barangay
developers minimum design considerations for e-barangay systems.
The second implication of the study is the implementation of the design-related factors in
the development of e-barangay systems. All design factors could be considered to ensure frequent
use of the e-barangay systems. Lastly, the community could benefit from this research. With the
implementation of the system, basic public services could be delivered seamlessly. Local officials
may perform their sworn duties (e.g., fast information dissemination) and the residents may partake
as concerned citizens (e.g., sending valid complaints) through the software.
The e-barangay system was only implemented in one barangay. It is recommended that other
communities utilized the software. Future research may include other factors (e.g., navigation,
readability; Akgül, 2019) that are not included in this study. An e-government system for community-
level health services can be initiated. International researchers are encouraged to follow suit in
developing frameworks appropriate to the smallest administrative division of the government of their
countries. Lastly, it is suggested that other forms of objective and subjective measures of usability
be employed in future e-government usability investigations.
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9. CONCLUSION
This study proposed a framework for the development of public services at the barangay level. Based
on this framework, an online system called e-barangay was developed. The usability of e-barangay
was evaluated in terms of subjective and objective measures. The framework suggests that any
system intended to be developed at the barangay level must have the capabilities of processing
complaints, receiving a request of documents, sending suggestions, and disseminating notifications/
announcements. The software received favorable ratings from the residents in terms of its subjective
measures. Furthermore, the objective measures show that all tasks can be completed conveniently and
flawlessly. Hence, the software met the needs of the users and its core functionalities could support
the services of other communities. Finally, multiple indicators are needed to fully understand the
nuances of usability of community-level systems.
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