Naming your service

Service names are important. They can also be difficult and take time to define. Transactional services can be easier to name than bigger services. Do not worry if you cannot come up with a name in discovery. You will need to dedicate time to develop and test names at every stage of a project, especially alpha and beta. 

Service names are how users find your service and understand what it does. The name of your service also helps you to define the scope of your project. Picking the right name means users understand what your service does and can easily decide whether to use it. 

To meet the Digital Scotland Service Standard a service should help users succeed first time. A well named service helps you to meet this standard. Testing your service name allows you to understand if your service works in the way that your users would expect. 

Assessors for the Digital Scotland Service Standard need to see evidence that you tested the name of the service with users. An example of this evidence would be completed user research involving the service name. 

When to name your service 

Ideally, aim to have ideas for service names by the end of discovery. You can keep testing and refining the name throughout the alpha stage. By the end of discovery you should have: 

• defined the problem you’re trying to solve 

• learned more about what task your users are trying to complete 

How to name your service 

A good service name should: 

• meet the Service Manual readability standards 

• use the words users use 

• be based on analytics and user research 

• describe a task, not a technology 

• not need to change when policy or technology changes 

• be verbs, not nouns 

• not include government department or agency names 

• not be brand-driven or focused on marketing 

Examples of good service names 

• Register to vote 

• Get help with court fees 

• Renew your passport 

• Adult Disability Payment 

Before the Register to vote service was created, it was known internally as Individual Electoral Registration System. User centred names make it easier to understand what the service does and who it is for. 

Checking how good your service name is 

You should check how your service’s name performs both before and after going live. Examples of how you might test this to meet the Digital Scotland Service Standards are: 

• user research and testing: use this to check that the name of your service allows users to quickly recognise what it does 

• reviewing search terms: check the search data to find out what terms users search for relating to your service 

• using metrics: you can use metrics like page views and click-through rates to get an idea how the service name is performing