Interior ministry recruits 360 public mobile service evaluators

The interior ministry said Wednesday it will recruit 360 people to assess public mobile services, shifting the annual Citizen Evaluation Group toward mobile use as people increasingly access public services on mobile devices.

Applications will be open from Aug. 13 to Aug. 28 to South Korean citizens aged 19 or older who can use the internet and a smartphone. Age-group quotas and the detailed assessment timetable are posted in notices on the ministry and National Information Society Agency websites. The selected panel will work from September through November, evaluating the ease of use and design of mobile applications run by 49 central government agencies, with mobile websites assessed for agencies without standalone applications.

The Citizen Evaluation Group has operated annually since 2023 to expand public participation in improving public services. The ministry said it will balance the panel to reflect experiences across age groups and the access conditions of digitally vulnerable groups. It will split the existing 60-and-over category into people in their 60s and those aged 70 and above, and expand the proportion of evaluators with visual impairments, including those who are blind or have low vision.

"The Citizen Evaluation Group is a valuable opportunity for people to candidly convey the inconveniences they experience while using public mobile services and participate in improving them," Hwang Gyu-cheol, the interior ministry's director general for AI government, said.

Some participants who take part diligently will be separately selected for an in-depth evaluation panel. The ministry will conduct interviews to hear about specific causes of service difficulties and potential improvements.

Feedback from the review will be provided to each agency for design improvements and functional upgrades to public mobile services.