Ask HN: Recommendation as to how often UX analysis of sites should be done

I guess I'm going to be fighting city hall, figuratively. One of the governmental web sites I have to deal with for my business has abysmal UX, and they wanted me to provide some data. I interpreted the bad UX as meaning they had a bug, and I also thought 'oh but I have provided that data therefore they are all sorts of messed up hah hah'.

So they started a proceeding to close down my company, using a law evidently only established for closing companies due to bankruptcy. In order to stop this process, according to the governmental agency, I have to:

1. give them the data (done)

2. pay fee for misunderstanding their site and not giving them the data earlier (done)

3. get an accountant to write a detailed report as to why I am not bankrupt and pay an extra fee for them to accept this report (required by bankruptcy law not pertinent to my case)

I'm trying to appeal against step 3 as being way too much. And as part of my case I would like to have guidelines as to how often UX analysis of sites should be done because

a.) I believe this problem with their site has existed for a while

b.) the caseworkers dealing with my case immediately understood the mistaken assumption I had made when talking about it over the phone, leading me to assume it is something they all know sucks about their site but according to them it was just the way it was and nothing was going to be done. So I think it might turn out there actually hasn't been any UX analysis of the site and its usage or any recommendations to fix things for the last few years, because governmental work - our clients have to use us!

6 points | by bryanrasmussen 1922 days ago

1 comments

  • ASpring 1922 days ago
    I don't think there are really guidelines on 'how often' UX research should happen. Ideally it is integrated in the development cycle and something like this is found in a usability test and fixed before deployment. Usability testing and UX research are a continual process.
    [-]
    • bryanrasmussen 1922 days ago
      right, unfortunately in dealing with governmental bodies it is best to point to something in a document written by someone with some apparent expertise in a matter that would say something like 'Usability is something to be continually evaluated, in order to have get the best and most accurate view of an application's usability for its target group it is best to have a semi-annual testing regimen based on analytics of the actual application usage in between the last system improvements...yadda,yadda,yadda'