DAKSH Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Law & Technology, IIT Delhi Releases Report on Six High Court Websites

New Delhi: The DAKSH Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Law & Technology at IIT Delhi has released a report on six High Court websites i.e. Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Madras on 26th August after evaluating their UI/UX design. The report was based on a first-of-its-kind study, and it was launched by the Chief Guest of the event, Hon’ble Justice S. Ravindra Bhat of the Supreme Court of India.
The report includes an analysis of and suggestions for different aspects of the usability and functionality of the High Court websites. Key highlights of the report include several low hanging fruits such as appropriate placement of contact and RTI based information as well as the need for and detailed analysis of navigation efficiency and aesthetics. The report also highlights some positive points about the UI/UX of the High Court websites such as their speed and good performance on some Interaction Design Principles.
Speaking on the occasion of launching the report, Justice S. Ravindra Bhat said, “It is important we involved in court administration should realize the full potential of the court websites and one of the methods should be this kind of reports. This can lead to the involvement of a larger general public. Ultimately people who are getting the benefits are the users of these court websites. From a service angle we are the service providers, and they are the service recipients, and it is important to involve them and on that note this kind of report is very important. I congratulate the team for this report and wish all the best for future endeavors of IIT Delhi in collaboration with DAKSH.”

A well-designed UI/UX of various websites has more scope than being only used by various companies to serve their clients and customers. This has immense potential to be leveraged by public institutions to make life easier for citizens they are serving, and its importance is amplified when the issue is around ensuring access to justice.
Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi, in his welcome address said, “At IIT Delhi we are now getting into areas at the intersection of law and technology and we have also signed an MoU with NLU Delhi on that note.” He also addressed to Justice Bhat that “the initiatives we take ultimately need to be useful to people like you. Under your guidance and leadership, if we are able to carry out activities, which the community can make use of, we will consider our efforts fruitful.”

Prof. Aneesha Sharma from the Department of Design, IIT Delhi, who was part of the panel discussion for the launch of the report said, “Any design or UI/UX of any website should be very intuitive and it should not be required to instruct the user on how to use it. We do not ask for site maps to use Amazon; we navigate through the website without getting stuck anywhere. An extensive and in-depth user research is required for this and the insights derived of it would be very rich in representing the user’s voice. Only when we comprehensively understand the user and his/her needs can we then design user-friendly websites/apps, thereby ensuring a delightful experience for the user. We need to conduct such research and designs for improving our court and government websites.”
Prof. Nomesh Bolia, Co-ordinator, DAKSH CoE, IIT Delhi said, “Court websites are more often than not complex to navigate for not only the citizens and litigants but also for legal representatives and researchers across the globe. This inspired the Daksh Centre of Excellence at IIT Delhi to conduct a study of the UI/UX of the websites of the six High Courts across India. The CoE would be happy to engage with the judiciary in taking this specific study forward as well as conduct other research at the intersection of Law and Technology.”
The DAKSH Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Law & Technology at IIT Delhi was set up in October 2020 with a vision to:
• Conduct research on problems of the law and the justice system, and create new knowledge, by using methods, tools, and techniques from various disciplines.
• Build models and tools for application in the law and justice system; and
• Build a community of practice that will bring together members of the judiciary, civil servants, legal practitioners, researchers across disciplines, and industry.
For the detailed report and launch event, pl click here: https://daksh-lawtech-iitd.org/events/

About DAKSH Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Law & Technology, IIT Delhi- https://daksh-lawtech-iitd.org/