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If you’ve ever been frustrated at how difficult government web sites are to use, here’s your chance to help them improve (and make a little something for yourself while you’re at it). Sarah Schacht writes:

We’re trying to reach out to Wallingford residents and those in northeast Seattle to participate in a usability study of Seattle.gov. The mayor’s office and Seattle’s Department of Information Technology have committed to using our study to guide redesigning the site.

We’re in the first round of testing, and each resident who gives feedback on Seattle.gov (Seattle’s government and services site) will help shape the redesign and make it a more useful site for neighborhoods and individuals.  So far, we don’t have ANYONE from Wallingford signed up to test the site.

Each participant will get a thank-you gift of $20 to spend on anything at Tippr.com (a local Seattle business similar to Groupon, Living Social, etc.) to spend at local businesses.

The real benefit, though, is that everyone who shares their thoughts and feedback on the site will end up making Seattle.gov work better. Since there hasn’t been a major redesign of the site since the late ’90’s, resident’s feedback will dramatically shape the new site.

Here’s the link to the study’s application form: http://bit.ly/aFl1rM

You can find more about Knowledge As Power’s open government work here, at http://knowledgeaspower.org