Retirement

Services do not last forever. Even though it is possible to continue upgrading and improving a service while it is live (and this may go on for a long time!) there will come a point when it is no longer fit for purpose.

There can be many reasons for this – policy changes, new technologies, or a change in user needs can all lead to a service being retired.

Some services have a natural lifespan and are retired without replacement, because there is no longer a need for them. In other cases, a change of policy often means that services become redundant, but they cannot be retired until something else is in place to meet the user need. For example, when Universal Credit was introduced in 2013, it replaced a number of other benefits, all of which would have had an individual service supporting the users applying for them.

These services were then retired, but only after the teams were sure that the new service, which was intended to simplify and streamline the benefits process, was fit for purpose and would meet all user needs.

New services often run at the same time as the legacy services during the beta phase. This is because a smooth transition between services is vital for the user, so that there is no disruption to them and they can still access the service when they need to.

For user researchers and the rest of the team, retirement of one service is often part of the discovery phase for the next service. If it is identified that the current service no longer meets a user need, then identifying and understanding how the user need has changed leads into the process of building a new service to meet it.

You may not end up working in the new service team, so it is important for you as a user researcher to ensure that all relevant data about users and their needs is passed on to the new team. This will help them be more efficient as they move into the new discovery phase.

In some cases, the user need will no longer be met by government, but by organisations in the private or voluntary sectors. When this happens, it is vital to:

• share knowledge and insight with these organisations, like open source elements
• help the private or voluntary team use the knowledge or information you share
• make sure that users who would normally go to GOV.UK are sent to the new service in the best way possible

Teams need to ensure that users are supported through the transition. Clear communication and signposting users to more information and support is important, as well as ensuring that their data is protected through the transition.