Iteration 4: Improving reusability

After running some usability tests to see how well people could reuse this tool as a template, we made the following improvements:

• Reordered the front matter settings in the question and config files so the more commonly used items were at the top.
• Added comments and instructions for better inline help in the question and config files.
• Updated almost all the How to content with more detailed, accurate instructions.
• Added animated gifs of key instructions to better orient people where to go to complete those tasks.
• Added a link to a GitHub glossary so newer people could better understand some of the terms.
• Renamed the repository to better reflect it's more general use purpose.

Iteration 3: Improving reusability

The goal for this release was to make this prototype a reusable tool for getting similar projects up and running quickly.

Here's what we did:

• Re-organized the content files, removed some redundancy, and used generic names so they can be edited or added to.
• Made sure all content was moved to markdown files so it could be edited without touching templates files (HTML and CSS).
• Added instructions for how to use in the README.

Iteration 2

Based on the themes we saw during usability testing of Iteration 1, these were our focus areas for this iteration:

Improve flow for determining whether issue is about access request

What we saw:

The violation about requesting access to medical records had different criteria than the privacy violations, which made the question potentially confusing in the original flow. People weren't blocked by it, but most took a long time to read it, process it, and realize it didn't apply to them.

What we did:

• Distinguished between access and privacy violations (but treated them all as violations).
• Added examples of violations so people could relate violations to their situation more easily.

Improve communication of where you are in the process

What we saw:

Some noted that the step indicator didn't move. They may have either thought it wasn't working or wasn't helpful in communicating their progress.

What we did:

We removed the numbered heading part of the step indicator component for several reasons:

• We thought it was more important for the steps to indicate the overall process, not the particular question number you were on.
• Because it wasn't tracking question progress, it remained static, causing uncertainty.
• Because of the logic, it was possible to have a different total number of questions in the section, so we couldn't say X of X questions.

Increase plain-language usage and reduce jargon

What we saw:

Although everyone completed the task fairly easily, they ended up reading a lot of information and taking longer than they probably needed to. There was also some jargon that didn't need to be there.

What we did:

• Reworded questions and reorganized exit page content to be more clear and streamlined.
• Hid additional information and links that people could open and read only if they needed it.

Iteration 1

As part of discovery, we ran a baseline usability test with the current Complaint Portal Assistant, which is a screener intended to make sure that people are filling out the right complaint form for the right reasons. For the first iteration, the main question we sought to answer was how might we get people to the complaint form as soon as possible with the least amount of confusion?

Below are some of the features we built into this iteration, both as a tool to address the Complaint Portal Assistant use case and as a reusable template for similar complaint form screener applications.

Content:

• Simplified screener logic structure and pathing (yes/no)
• Improved question and answer wording
• Narrowed focus to one type of complaint (health information privacy)
• Incorporation of screener questions into larger complaint form process

Template:

• Data file for questions, including question text, answer text, and paths
• Layouts for home, question, exit, and success pages
• Radio button template
• Gov header and footer
• Step indicator component