Surabaya is one of the smart cities in Indonesia that implements e-governance as an interactive-transactional presence stage according to UN ranking criteria. The Surabaya government itself has a portal (surabaya.go.id) which has various interactivetransactional services for its users. Surabaya.go.id has an unusual homepage appearance, in the form of the Surabaya city landscape, using flat design style. An ideal homepage design should be suggestive of the website’s contents for the users. This design style is already trending for UI but this article uses qualitative-descriptive analysis to determine whether the website’s homepage design is able to reflect the egovernment stage that has been achieved by the Surabaya city government. The study compares the Surabaya design to ideal interactive homepage design criteria. This study was meant to help the Surabaya city government develop its website. Results show that some improvements are needed, particularly in the identity section. In addition, more appropriate use of flat design to strengthen visibility and present illustrations showing the city government readiness to serve users interactively-transactionally, together with a search tool and add supporting features allowing communication with users.
Keywords: interactive, transactional, design, homepage