Discuss reporting of bugs in gov.uk services by the public

Topic Suggestion

I think that it would be great and beneficial to the public if Cross Government Software Engineering Community discussed ways to enable adding the public's voice to the discussion. One area the public would greatly benefit from is bug reporting. It might be a good one to kick start the software engineering meetings, which seem to have died in 2022.

Problem

The current implementation of reporting problems with services seem to be aimed at making it as difficult and off-putting for the public to engage as possible. The engagement includes reporting issues interfering with the end user's experience with the services.

Let's look at an example. Apply for a passport is supposedly a BETA (=new) service that doesn't need much explaining. Any comments from the public are gathered through this feedback form. That form is a one way route that offers no acknowledgement of the receipt of the feedback, no reference number, no nothing. Its use is actively discouraged through a banner stating:

We can’t reply to your message, but feedback helps improve the service

The user has no idea what happens to their feedback, whether it's been read by anyone or even reached anyone.

However, this is probably meant for general comments or maybe things like enhancement requests, although submitting the latter is kind of pointless since no transparent conversation of any sort follows.

What is then available to the user if something goes wrong with the service? Nothing really. The only other way to reach someone is to use the contacts listed on the Help page. The contacts there are not meant for technical support though, they are to "Get help with my application.". We will still try to use it later, though.

Example Issue

Here is an example issue that's been affecting the service since at least 6th of July 2024 (at the time of writing is 9th of July), that's when I first encountered it. It's possible the issue has been around for much longer than that since there is no way to report it and as a result no engineer is probably aware of it. If they were the service may have been taken offline or a warning displayed, one would expect so anyway.

The issue happens when the user chooses the "I’ll take or upload a digital photo" option during the passport application process. On the "Upload your photo" form they select a picture to be uploaded and after "Processing image" runs the service fails with the following error:

Something went wrong

To keep this service secure, any information you’ve entered hasn’t been saved.

You’ll need to start again.

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The message leaves the user non the wiser as to what went wrong. The UX here is particularly bad, with the long form getting cleared and the user forced to start from scratch. Digging deeper, not something a regular user of the service would do, reveals 504 Gateway Timeout error code and also x-cache Error from cloudfront response header which may or may not have something to do with the failure.

Selection_745

Calling the helpline is of no use, the operator is adamant that the service works and suggest using a photo booth instead.

That's it when it comes to the assistance available to the user. Meanwhile the service remains broken. Or so it appears as it could be that the service is running so no one gets alerted to the problem and the actual issue is a poor input validation feedback. Who knows, it doesn't matter since none of that is communicated to the user, only that "something went wrong".

For the user it's a dead end. They can fall back on the inconvenient options such as using the photo booth, with no guarantee that the photo will be accepted despite such claims made in those booths, or pay extra and use a paper form instead. There is also an option to complain but (a) it doesn't solve anything, (b) it takes up to 3 weeks for the initial response. That's a pretty poor SLA imposed on the customer and they have no other choice than to put up with it since the arrangement is basically a monopoly as they cannot go and have a passport issued by a different provider.

Those fallback options wouldn't be necessary if there was a way to report the problem to the right person but either through the lack of foresight or a deliberate introduction of barriers this is not offered.

Incidentally, jokes like the x-clacks-overhead GNU Terry Pratchett response header are only funny when the software works. When it doesn't they become jarring, as in, shouldn't the effort have been put into the actual software that's now broken rather than making silly jokes?

Final Thoughts

A bug reporting facility that is open to the public is a powerful and free resource that can be very effective in improving software and as a result the end user experience and satisfaction. Yet, gov.uk brand doesn't take advantage of it without offering any good alternative.

Why is that and can it be done in a more user friendly way?
These are services that everyone will use at one point or another, how are the engineers who implemented the services are planning to report problems when they themselves become the end users? Have they put any thought into that? Are they happy with the options that are available?
Can the barriers to discussion be removed and a lightweight solution that offers bi-directional communication put in place instead?
Should the existing helpline operators have access to the technical people in charge of maintenance of the product they help with?
Could a 'public request' category be created in the existing ticketing system with the ticket id's that can be shared with the public reporting the issues for future reference?

These are some questions to kick start the discussion. It would be great to learn the outcome of it once it happens. Also, if anyone from the passport application service could look into the problem given as an example here that would be great.

uk-x-gov-software-community / uk-x-gov-software-community.github.io