[Sigia-l] top level navigation by user type

[stephanie hornung]

hello,

i'm doing a consulting project for a government agency, and am dealing
with several specific sets of user groups -- people who receive services
from the agency, community members, other gov't officials, etc.  i've
found that a lot of government websites are organized by these user
groups, and the person i'm working under at the agency wants to design it
this way, but i'm not sure its the best idea.  does anyone have any
information/opinions regarding how well this type of navigation works?

here's some examples:
http://www.myflorida.com/
http://www.ncgov.com/
http://portal.sfusd.edu/template/index.cfm?page=about

thanks for your help!
stephanie hornung