Making identity verification work across government
A reusable, inclusive identity service adopted by more than 30 government services.
The challenge
The existing process was slow, costly and difficult for some people to complete. The new service needed to be secure, accessible and reusable across government, while meeting fraud, policy and operational requirements that did not always point in the same direction. Each adopting service also needed to fit identity verification into its own journey without solving the problem again.
What I did
- Led a multidisciplinary design team of two UX designers, a content designer and a researcher. We reviewed existing research, fraud evidence and service constraints with policy, security and operational teams.
- Interviewed self-employed users and migrants, tested with people who had access needs, added new security questions, worked with DVLA to support driving licences and with the passport service to include UK passports. Recommended research with young adults which was still under way when I left.
- Used analytics and research to simplify identity matching, then translated the evidence into cross-service journeys, information architecture, interaction patterns and prototypes aligned with the Government Design System.
- Worked with customer service, fraud and security teams, as well as DWP, DEFRA and other departments, to understand what users and services needed from identity verification.
- Made the service easier to reuse through regular demos, peer reviews, fortnightly usability testing and a prototype that other teams could integrate into their own journeys.
What I took from it
I learnt how to work on highly secure and regulated services, and how to collaborate across departments with conflicting requirements, goals and constraints. Bringing policy, fraud, accessibility, operations and delivery evidence into the same design conversations helped us make decisions without leaving security or reuse until the end.
“Experienced and capable… able to work across multiple stakeholders, mediate conflicting requirements and not afraid to ask questions.”
Simon Da Silva, Digital Business Analyst, HMRC