A web coordinator at a mid-sized municipality called me with a question I hear often: “We can see that people are dropping off on our parking permit page. But we don’t know where exactly, and we don’t understand why.”
She had the page visits, the bounce rates, the time on page. What she didn’t have was context: how did visitors get there, what were they trying to do, and did the page match that expectation?
That’s exactly what the FTG model is built for.
More data is not the same as better questions
Most government websites already send page views to an analytics tool. The problem isn’t a shortage of data. The problem is that the data doesn’t answer the question that actually matters for service delivery: does our parking permit page reach the people who want to act, or the people who are still looking for information?
That sounds like a detail. It’s the foundation of everything.
A page with lots of traffic reached via expandable information blocks at the moment someone wants to take action sends a different signal than that same page reached by visitors using a direct action button. In the first case, something in the navigation fails to reach people in time. In the second case, the path works.
Without knowing how someone arrived at a page, you can’t tell the difference.
What the FTG model adds
The FTG framework (Function-Task-Behaviour) was developed by Toon Vuursteen and operates on three levels: performance per page, quality of the digital user journey, and contribution to strategic objectives.
In practice that means two things you record with every page view:
How did the visitor get here? Via the main menu, an expandable information block, the search function, a shortcut on the homepage, or a banner? Those six categories are called the navigation component.
What is the function of the page? Is it a landing page that routes visitors onward, an overview page that organises, an information page, a page that prepares for an action, a CTA page, or a form? Those six types are called the page type.
The combination of the two is where it gets interesting.
The friction signals that matter
Govanalytics stores the FTG parameters with every visit. The AI assistant uses those combinations to recognise friction. There are four patterns that are immediately useful:
Expandable block on a CTA page or form. This is the most important signal. A visitor is at the point of taking action and opens an accordion to find information. That means: at this moment of action, something is unclear. The threshold to continue is too high. Many of these visitors drop off.
Search on an overview page. The overview page isn’t helping enough. People can’t find the service or answer through the structure and reach for the search bar. That’s a signal for the navigation, not for the content itself.
Expandable block on a preparation page. Normal behaviour. A preparation page is designed to ready people for an action, and expanding it is part of that.
Quick link on the homepage. Positive signal. Visitors know what they want and take the shortest route.
Questions that work with the AI assistant
With FTG data in your analytics, you can ask the AI assistant questions that give direct answers about navigation problems. These are the questions that yield the most in practice:
About friction in the application process:
“What percentage of visitors to our parking permit page reached it via an expandable block? And how many of them clicked through to the form?”
About the quality of your navigation structure:
“On which overview pages is search used most? And what are the top 5 search terms people use to move on from those pages?”
About a specific service:
“Show the navigation paths visitors use to reach the environmental permit application page, sorted by volume.”
About trends:
“Are there CTA pages where the use of expandable blocks has increased over the past four weeks?”
About the difference between logged-in and non-logged-in users:
“Do logged-in users use different navigation components than non-logged-in users on our form pages?”
Each of these questions produces an answer that is directly usable for a web editor or navigation owner. No report to build, no export to run.
What you need to get started
The FTG parameters are sent via your tag manager with every page visit. What you configure is limited: the navigation component, the text of the click, the page type of the destination, and the login status.
Once the data is in place, the first AI session takes half an hour. The friction signals are visible as soon as you have a week of traffic.
