Accurate. Overwhelming.
743 claims cut to 79 facts, on one 6,000-word page.
Own project · myid.ie · October 2026
The facts were right. People still couldn't use them.
I built a tracker of all 27 EU states and their digital identity wallets. Then I reviewed it like a client's service.
76
Problems found. No blockers, 25 major.
8
That mattered most. All fixed and retested on the live site.
4 → 6
Scenario runs passed, out of six, after the fixes.
0
Data mismatches across about 2,500 cross-checked values.
01 / The question
Can people get the right answer fast, and trust it?
Six audiences, each with one narrow question. None of them wants to read 27 country essays.
The six audiences
| Who | What they need to know |
|---|---|
| Identity vendor | Which countries are buying, and who already has the contract? |
| Irish bank | When do we have to accept the wallet? |
| Journalist | How does Ireland compare, and where's the source? |
| Public sector, another state | Where do we rank, and who supplies countries like us? |
| Investor | Who runs this, is it independent, and is it current? |
| Citizen | When do I get it, and does MyGovID change? |
02 / What I did
Four ways in, one evening.
AI agents ran every stream from a method I set, working only from what was on screen. Real participants come next.
2
Expert reviews against usability heuristics.
6
Task walkthroughs, one per audience, one click at a time.
132
Accessibility scans, plus 800 keyboard stops and 528 links.
66
Public pages, on a phone and a laptop.
Method detail
Run on 17 October 2026, 18:37 to 19:06 UTC. No forms were submitted, and optional analytics were declined.
Every finding records what was seen, how severe it is, the fix, and a check that proves the fix. Nothing counts as fixed until it works on the live site.
Walkthrough times are machine time, so they aren't shown. Technical QA also ran 15 Lighthouse tests and compared about 2,500 values across the data files and pages.
03 / How it got here
Six versions in twelve days.
Each one fixed the last one's blind spot.
Lots of companies. No answer.
254 records, but "who's ready?" was blank in 25 of 27 countries.
Progress first.
One board, 27 states, 217 dated milestones.
Grades, A to E.
Five pillars. Two wrong headlines, fixed the same evening.
Fewer words.
Click a company's flag, land in that country.
A real map, by grade.
Hover, click, compare. Pattern borrowed from iGrant.io.
04 / What already worked
The honest parts held up.
Under the surface
Measured 17 Oct, 19:00 UTC: 0 script errors in 132 page loads. No sideways scrolling on 65 pages at 320 px. A visible focus ring on all 800 keyboard stops. Mobile Lighthouse performance 0.92 to 0.99.
05 / What I found
76 problems. Eight that mattered.
The big ones were about trust, not layout. All eight are fixed and retested live.
01 · TrustFixed
"Every point sourced" wasn't true.
Fix: only real sources score. Three countries dropped a grade.
Detail
- Seen
- 27 scored inputs cited the site's own correction link as their source, under "100% evidence coverage".
- Check
- No point-earning input links to an internal page. Coverage counts only sourced inputs, so Ireland's wallet pillar now reads 50%, not 100%.
02 · TrustFixed
Reporting a mistake led nowhere.
Fix: one working corrections section per country, linked from every claim.
Detail
- Seen
- Every "suggest a correction" link went to a form that no longer existed, and always opened Ireland. On the scorecard it was a bare "?".
- Check
- Austria's link opens Austria's corrections section.
03 · ReleaseFixed
The checks passed. The flags were broken.
Fix: every release now proves each image actually rendered.
Detail
- Seen
- The rebuilt explorer passed 7 of 7 tests and an accessibility scan. Every flag still showed a broken-image icon, plus 1,114 more on the static country pages. One missing SVG attribute.
- Check
- 0 images with zero rendered width, on any page.
04 · NavigationFixed
Two pages per country that never met.
Fix: each pair links to its twin, in the first screen.
Detail
- Seen
- One page per country for progress and grade, one for companies. None of the 54 linked to its twin.
- Check
- All 54 pages link to their twin above the fold.
05 · DataFixed
Companies looked like they came from wherever you stood.
Fix: a home country only where a registry confirms it, printed as text.
Detail
- Seen
- No company had a headquarters recorded, so the ringed "home" flag was always the country you were viewing. From Belgium, an Estonian company looked Belgian.
- Check
- SK ID Solutions, viewed from Belgium, reads "HQ: Estonia".
06 · ContentFixed
The bank deadline was on the site. Just not on the bank's route.
Fix: 24 Dec 2027 now sits on the business guide, Ireland's page and the hub.
Detail
- Seen
- The bank walkthrough on a phone took 26 actions and never found the date. The business guide declined to give it.
- Check
- The date is reachable within four actions from the business section, on a phone.
07 · DataFixed
Tender status said two things at once.
Fix: three plain states. Open until a date, closed and pending, or awarded.
Detail
- Seen
- Cyprus said "none announced" beside a 13 November deadline. Estonia said "open", months after bids closed.
- Check
- Cyprus shows 13 Nov 2026 (unconfirmed). Estonia reads "bids closed, award not confirmed".
08 · ClarityFixed
A "D" with no key.
Fix: a grade key above the table, and a bolder letter.
Detail
- Seen
- The grade bands lived only on the method page. The hub said Ireland was nearly live. The scorecard said D, 25th of 27. Nothing explained the gap.
- Check
- On a phone, the key is within one screen of the table.
All 76 findings, by stream
MajorMinor
Hub and scorecard8 + 14
Explorer10 + 14
Walkthroughs6 + 9
Technical1 + 14
Many overlap across streams. The eight above are the ones that changed what a reader could do or believe.
06 / What changed
Six for six on the second run.
Same six scenarios, run again on the fixed site. The second run knew what failed first, so read it as a regression check.
| Scenario | Before | After | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank | Partial | Passed | The 24 Dec 2027 date and small-firm exemption, on the route. |
| Investor | Partial | Passed | "Built and maintained by Raven Design", plus a funding register. |
| Public sector | Passed | Passed | Rank on the page. 19 actions down to 10. |
| Vendor | Passed | Passed | Estonia reads "bids closed, award not confirmed". |
| Journalist | Passed | Passed | A shareable map link for every country. |
| Citizen | Passed | Passed | "Does MyGovID change? No." |
First-run detail
| Scenario | Device | Actions | Wrong turns | What got in the way |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Laptop | 15 | 2 | The stage legend looked like filters but did nothing. |
| Bank | Phone | 26 | 2 | The acceptance date wasn't on the business route. |
| Journalist | Laptop | 14 | 1 | A bare "?" link. Nothing to share but a URL. |
| Public sector | Laptop | 19 | 4 | No rank column. Search failed silently. |
| Investor | Laptop | 13 | 1 | No named publisher. A funding link went to the wrong page. |
| Citizen | Phone | 5 | 0 | Jargon in the status box. |
07 / The principle
A test only checks what you thought to ask. Look at the live page.
Next: five or six real people per audience, an hour each. Bank compliance leads first.
What I'll ask them
Can a compliance lead explain, in their own words, what Ireland's grade means for them, and when they need to be ready?
Does a vendor trust a flag enough to act on it? What would they need to see first?
When a journalist quotes the scorecard, do they carry the "Limited" caveat with it?