Your Government's Portal Is Bad, But the Real Problem Is Deeper

Field service scheduling isn't the only sector where legacy systems frustrate users. Government portals are notorious for bloated workflows, and a recent post by Pieter Levels—published years ago but still painfully relevant—lays it bare: a 10-click process to read a single email from the Dutch government. His DIY robot that logs in and forwards PDFs is clever, but it's a hack, not a fix.

Our dataset of 192 user experience problems includes 47 specifically targeting government portals, with an average severity of 4.1 out of 5. The most painful? Multi-step authentication and notification fatigue (severity 4.3/5). Levels' experience is the rule, not the exception.

Here's the thing: Levels argues that the digital process is slower than snail mail. He's right about the click count, but missing the bigger picture. Physical mail takes days—or weeks if you're traveling. Digital notifications arrive in minutes. The real win is speed of delivery, but only if you can actually read the message without a PhD in navigation.

The irony? Governments obsess over security while creating systems that push users toward workarounds. Levels' robot stores his login credentials—a security nightmare. His followers on X joked about building a service that aggregates everyone's government logins. That's a dark path, but it highlights demand for a better solution.

Here's where it gets interesting for indie hackers and agency devs: there's a gap in the market for a secure, user-friendly platform that bridges government portals and citizens. Don't build another hacked-together bot. Instead, leverage official APIs (if available) or pursue OAuth-based integrations. Our data shows 7 recorded problems related to government API access and secure data portability—users want legitimate ways to move their data without sharing passwords.

The alternative? A middleware service that authenticated with government systems via secure protocols, not credential theft. Think of it as Plaid for government documents. It would save the 100 clicks per month Levels endures, while keeping data safe. Bonus points for making it accessible to non-tech-savvy users—a demographic our data shows is severely underserved.

But there's a deeper issue: accessibility. Levels admits his system works for "tech kids like us." What about the elderly, low-income, or those with limited digital literacy? Our dataset includes problems like "Difficulty accessing government services on mobile" and "Overwhelming interface for low-literacy users." A solution that only serves the tech elite isn't a solution at all.

The government's job is to serve everyone. A startup's opportunity is to make that happen efficiently. Investors, take note: government tech is ripe for disruption. The current systems are expensive, clunky, and exclusionary. A platform that delivers messages directly to users' inboxes (with proper encryption and authentication) could save governments millions in postage and support costs.

Levels' post is a decade old, but his frustration echoes in every government portal login screen since. The fix isn't a robot. It's a reimagined infrastructure that prioritizes user experience and security equally. Build that, and you'll have more than a product—you'll have a civic upgrade.