After Beta UX Assessment

What is an After Beta UX Assessment?

This assessment builds on the After Alpha UX Assessment. We conduct it to make sure you meet the UX requirements in Beta and you're set to launch your digital service to the public.

Together these assessments ensure your digital service will meet the government's Digital Service Standards and best practices for designing and delivering online services.

Does my digital service need to be assessed?

Every project to design and deliver digital services is different. Check with the eServices project lead to find out if your digital service will undergo this assessment. You can also look in the SharePoint project folder to see if this assessment is part of your project bundle. 

How do I know when my digital service is ready for this assessment?

Your digital service is ready for this assessment once you have: 

• competed the Beta Service Compliance Check with the eServices project lead; 

• a fully functional version of the service that adequately meets user needs in the live environment; 

• a list of major bugs and usability issues that have been identified and fixed; 

• a prioritized backlog of features to investigate with users and to implement to improve the service; and 

• plans to ensure service compliance with the Digital Service Standards after launch by continuously monitoring, researching, testing and iterating the service for as long as it’s active. This includes: 
  • monitoring and tracking the status of the service and KPIs; 
  • plans to conduct user research and usability testing every 6 months; 
  • continuing to build features from the product backlog and releasing improvements to the service.

How to schedule an After Beta UX Assessment

You can take one of the following approaches to schedule your assessment.

1. When you are planning out your project or creating your project timeline. We can get these assessments in the calendar. You can reassess your service's rediness for the assessment closer to the session date and we can move it if needed.
2. Once you're able to demonstrate the digital service is at the state of readiness indicated in the section above this one. In these cases it can take up to two weeks to find a time that works for all meeting participants. 

Let the eServices project lead know which approach you plan to take and who we should invite to the session. They will work with the User Experience Manager to get the session scheduled.

Who should attend a UX assessment session?

Required for assessment meeting: Department service owners (subject matter experts, director responsible for the service)

Optional for assessment meeting:

• people from your team to answer questions about your service;
• an employee who interacts with the public on a regular basis;
• the manager of your existing offline service; and
• a functional analyst.

How to prepare for an After Beta UX Assessment

Look at the scoring criteria we use for this assessment. This is a document in the project SharePoint folder. It lays out exactly what we're looking for so you can work toward it.

What happens during an After Beta UX Assessment session?

The eServices User Experience Manager will facilitate a call or in-person session with the project team. They will lead the team through a series of questions and document the status.

A good way to think about these sessions is they are an opportunity to talk about all the work you've done to get to where you are. They are also a good time to talk about options for meeting certain criteria.

These sessions are scheduled for 1 hour. We can schedule the After Beta UX Assessment for 1.5 hours if your team would like to walk us through your digital service. 

What happens after the assessment session?