Pushing back

Sometimes you have to push back. It won't make you popular, but when business requirements and user needs clash you have to stand up for the user.

Let me give you two examples of this.

A service delivery team wanted a new digital service so that users could register for a permit. Most of the proposed questions were simple and straightforward, but two weren't. They were:

Upload a copy of a recent utility bill
Upload a copy of your vehicle's V5 certificate

Asking these questions assumes that the user has access to the technology to scan or take a picture of the documents required, and also the skills required to use the technology. We asked the team to research their service users' skills and their access to technology. At present the service is being created without these two questions.

The second example is where a new law and statutory requirement meant the creation of a new digital service. The service delivery team wanted the digital service to ask around 20 questions but when we researched the legislation it turned out only 10 were actually statutory.

Whilst the 10 additional questions were there to help the service delivery team deliver a better service to the user, we suggested to the team that making users answer them wasn't really fair, given by law people had to use the service to register something. They agreed and we made the non-statutory questions optional.

Standing up for user needs won't make you popular, but it will help you create a better service

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