The Government Digital Service has published findings of research that identifies technical and data challenges faced by users of the new cross-department login tool, including endemic barriers for young people
The Government Digital Service has undertaken a major piece of research which has identified “a small but significant margin of users” of the new cross-department One Login system that currently struggle to verify their identity.
GDS last year commissioned a “user-segmentation survey” in which 2,000 people took part, with the aim of helping the digital unit better understand how and where different groups of users face barriers in using the new government-wide login tool. This covered challenges that could be caused by an absence of sufficient identity documentation and government or financial records, as well as users’ lack of technology devices and skills.
The data reveals that 8% of respondents do not have photo identification that could verify their identity to a level of ‘medium confidence’, while 9% do not have non-photo ID for the same purpose.
More than half of survey participants could not provide the necessary two or more reference points to prove their identity via credit history. Two thirds cannot achieve verification via two HMRC sources, and three quarters of users are unable to do so through DWP records.
A total of 9% of users do not have any applicable data sets at all from government or financial services, while 12% have only one source in total.
In its assessment of potential technical issues, the findings show that only 63% can currently complete the registration and verification process via a web browser. This figure falls to 49% that can successfully use the GOV.UK ID Check app – although 92% were able to successfully verify their identity through an in-person visit to a Post Office.
About one in five survey participants lack a “stable internet connection”, while the same proportion do not have a phone number.
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Some 14% of users require some form of assistive technology. A quarter of respondents “reported difficulty carrying out online tasks, such as filling in forms, shopping online or paying bills on their own” – although 71% of these indicated that they can access support from family or friends.
An accompanying blog post authored by two GDS officials – lead user researcher for digital identity Pablo Romero, and head of user-centred design for One Login Helena Trippe – says that children and young people face particular challenges in using the sign-in service.
They wrote: “The most surprising finding from those surveyed, were the barriers for users under the age of 17: only 4% have enough financial or government footprint for identification; 46% don’t have a phone number (they have a mobile but without a phone number); 20% don’t have an email address; 42% have difficulty completing online tasks and therefore need help from friends and family; [and] users in the 13-17 year old group are between 20% and 33% less likely to be able to prove their identity through our service compared to the average potential user.”
The research also found that those in the 18-24 age bracket “have similar barriers but experience them less acutely”.
Overlapping challenges
Romero and Trippe said that the research demonstrates that many individual challenges “not only exist for various user groups, but they are overlapping in nature and not easy to overcome”. GDS will now use the findings of the study to inform its work to address One Login’s inclusion challenges, and ensure that as many people as possible can successfully use the new service.
“As a result of our findings, GOV.UK One Login is actively exploring how best to respond to these findings in terms of how they might shape our product roadmap in future,” they wrote. “Specifically, we’re focused on access to identification, mobile usage, lack of email, and increasing digital confidence. We know this is just the start. When it comes to using the user segmentation data across GOV.UK One Login there are a number of pieces of work underway to combine this data with live service data, performance analytics, our own user research insights and that of other government services. We have also produced a characterisation of a set of user groups identified from our segmentation work, and are using it to inform our day-to-day design practice and user research participant recruitment and to seed inclusion insights at scale, in all our practice.”
Since its small-scale launch in 2021, One Login has grown gradually and has now verified the identity of 3.9 million users, the research indicates. The aim is for tens of millions of citizens to adopt the technology over the coming months, with all government departments expected to at least begin rolling out the system as the means of accessing their services by March 2025.
Once One Login has been ubiquitously implemented, it is intended to provide a single, cohesive replacement what was previously an inconsistent patchwork of 191 separate accounts systems previously used by government agencies, incorporating 44 different login methods.
