Government Healthcare Usability

Dave Haft was a key member of the program management team for TRICARE.mil. Improving the site’s usability and IA over a three-year period was stifled by red tape, however, he contributed significantly to its progress by fostering change in the organization. In 2011, they launched the fresh look-and-feel you see today.

To announce the new design and help users adjust to re-organized navigation, Mr. Haft produced a “Video Tour.” This video highlights many of the site’s usability improvements. Design changes were founded in research such as pop-up surveys for site visitors.

You’ll notice there are three questions on the home page. The previous site dedicated three separate pages, each with submit buttons, to answer these questions. This hindered users from reaching important content in a reasonable number of clicks. Based on Mr. Haft’s suggestion, the technical team developed an improved, accessible user interface seen above. These user inputs are required to be Section 508 compliant, which limited our use of JavaScript (it can interfere with screen readers). The page now refreshes automatically during the process of answering these questions.

WebTrends statistics indicated users are now more likely to complete the three questions. More advanced user-session tracking cookies and heat-maps were unavailable and we always look forward to using such data to empower our decision-making.