Telling your users
Users who access your service on GOV.UK
The vast majority of people who use your service will begin and end their journeys on GOV.UK.
As soon as you know that your service is likely to be retired you should email the GOV.UK team at govuk-enquiries@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk to make sure that those journeys are amended and appropriate information is supplied.
You need to tell the GOV.UK team why you’re retiring the service and how its user needs will be met, so that they can help users with information and links.
Users who access your service directly
Retiring the service means a significant change for users, but you should try to minimise it by telling them:
- what’s changing and why
- what they’ll have to do to continue to have their needs met in future
- what will happen to their data, whether you’re passing it on to another service and the rights they have under your organisation’s data protection policy
You can tell people using a notification system if your service has one, otherwise use a GOV.UK content page.
Users who access your service using APIs
You need to give users who access your service via an application programming interface (API) the time to update their software to use the replacement service’s APIs or make other adjustments.
Contact these users as soon as possible. Keep in mind that they may have significant lead times for making and distributing changes.
Users who access your service with assisted digital support
You must tell users who don’t use the digital service or use it with assisted digital support that the service is being retired.
To do this, use your service’s assisted digital channel and assisted digital support organisations.
You may need to carry out user research to decide the best way to tell users the service is retiring.
You could use existing research or talk to teams who’ve retired other services that have similar users and use their research.
You may need to make sure that contact centres used by your users tell them the service has been retired and about any replacement service.
You could also put up posters in places that users are likely to visit (for example, in airports for visa or passport services).
Work in Progress!
This site is a work in progress and any opinions contained here are intended to spark discussion within each discipline's community of practice.
Created: 2023-07-26