AHCCCS Re-Design

BACKGROUND

AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System) is Arizona’s Medicaid agency that offers health care programs to serve Arizona Residents. Residents must meet certain income requirements to obtain services. However, just like most medicaid programs, AHCCCS has a reputation of being extremely hard deal with as seen through many negative comments and reviews online about the program.

MY ROLE

I conducted the whole research and design process from secondary research to prototype creation.

Some important activities included usability testing, data synthesis, ideation, design

TIME SPAN

3 weeks

TOOLS

Figma, FigJam, Google Sheets, Zoom

Problem

Users are overwhelmed by the amount of information on the site and are confused about going to a different website to sign up for healthcare.

When conducting usability testing, I discovered that users were intimidated by the amount of information on the site and had a hard time sifting through the info to find what they need. Users were also confused about going to a different website healthearizona.com to complete the sign up process.

Jump to solution

The Process

Secondary research

Quotes gathered from 60+ reviews from Google, Reddit, and Yelp helped paint a high level picture of stuggles AHCCCS users face.

“I tried to start my application but I wasnt sure if it was for food stamps or for health insurance, I resorted to calling them and was on hold for what seemed like 2 hours”

“Not sure which is worse, the website or phone help. It is impossible to find anything you are looking for on the site and the phone service takes you into endless loops and runarounds.”

“The insurance is fine, but the website to make a payment for AHCCCS Kids Care is horrible...I always have to recreate a password after getting locked out of the site.”

Findings

“The website is a mess, I could not figure out how to get the application proccess even started. I called to get help and the lady on the line was super rude.”

“It is nearly impossible to get through their phone tree if any of your information happens to be incorrect in their system and their wait times are already often very long”

“Literally the rudest people working on customer service!”

Customer service

  • Majority of comments were about rude customer service and phone wait times while signing up for, or maintaining ahcccs
  • Users are confused about uploading and sending in documents

Website issues

  • Making payments
  • Finding information
  • How to apply
  • Requirements
  • Contact info

Defining the user

After checking the demographics for AHCCCS there are about a million members between the ages of 18 and 64. There are many types of people who would be using AHCCCS, but I broke up  the personas into 3 major groups based off secondary research and demographic data. I will refer to these personas when testing and redesigning to keep my research and design user focused.

Testing the current AHCCCS site

I conducted usability tests with 6 participants over zoom.

The test included 2 tasks and started from google. The goal was to see how users interact with the site, what pain points they encounter as a new user looking to receive Ahcccs benefits.

Limitations - It was originally intended be able to have the user fully go through the process of signing up for AHCCCS but that required sharing and verifying personal information, so that had to be removed. However one of the main themes in the reviews of AHCCCS is that users have a hard time finding information on the site as well as getting the application process started. This is why I focused the questions and tasks to signing up.

Participants: 5 Jim Personas, 1 Josh Persona

Do you have healthcare coverage if so what type do you have?

If you do, how did you go about signing up for healthcare?

If you remember, was there anything you struggled with while signing up for healthcare?

1

Find out if you qualify for AHCCCS insurance.

You are 21, make 11,000 and you are an Arizona Resident

2

Find out where to apply for ahccss.

Once you feel you have gotten to where you start the application proccess you can stop

How was your experience with ahcccs?

Was there anything that did not work as expected?

Was there anything that did not work as expected?

Synthesizing insights

I took notes while users were completing tasks and answering pre and post test questions on Google Sheets. I then looked back on the videos to see if there was anything I missed in my notes. I then put the notes onto stickies and put them into fig jam to group them according to common trends.

Link to diagram

Insights and pain points

Here is a visual representation of pain points and thoughts users encountered while completing tasks on the AHCCCS website.

Generating Solutions

Forming “How Might We” questions to spawn ideas to improve the AHCCCS site

Insight

  • Particpants overwhelmed by the amount of text on the AHCCCS site.
  • Participants were confused by terminology used on the site.

HMW reduce overwhelm for users?

Insight

  • Users struggled to find out qualification info on the site and all users went to different locations to find info
  • Participants were confused by seeing cash assistance and nutrition assistance in close proximity to health coverage options.

HMW make information on AHCCCS more easy to find?

Insight

  • Many participants were confused by having to go to  a different site than AHCCCS , Health E Arizona, to sign up and were confused if it was the right place to sign up

HMW increase user confidence that they are in the right place?

Ideation

Now that we had formed HMW questions it was time to break them down into ideas to implement into ahcccs to improve the experience. These activities helped form ideas for changes to the site in a structured way.

Brainstorming solutions and breaking them down into actionable chunks

Priortizing those  actionable chunks

Brainstorming solutions and breaking them down into actionable chunks

Ideation

Now that we had formed HMW questions it was time to break them down into ideas to implement into ahcccs to improve the experience. These activities helped form ideas for changes to the site in a structured way.

Old user flow

New user flow

Link to sitemap

The Redesign

Implementing solutions into a user centered design

Low fidelity wireframes

I created low fidelity wireframes at first to make iterations to the early stage of the design easy. I looked to to other successful health websites such as the mayo clinic and banner health for inspiration.

High fidelity prototype

View prototype

Implemented changes

HMW increase user confidence that they are in the right place?

Ability to apply added to ahcccs website. Apply call to action placed in hero image
This will enable providers and community assistors to be able to find information, without it taking up realistate on the homepage confusing the average user of the site

HMW make information on AHCCCS more easy to find?

More clear search bar with prompted instructions
To increase confidence in search. The old ahcccs website search was placed awkwardly and nobody clicked on it.
Ability to apply added to ahcccs website. Apply call to action placed in hero image
This saves the user from digging through information in the previous nav menu

HMW reduce information overload?

Only have necessary text and links exposed. Put all Niche Navbar content into a topics tab.
This will shield users from unnecessary information that will cause overwhelm, while still making it available for the niche users who need it.

HMW increase user confidence that they are in the right place?

Put two separate cards explaining not sure if you qualify and ready to apply.
This is to give users freedom while also making sure they are on track and knowing where they are at in the website.

HMW reduce information overload?

Check if qualified through a form
Going through a form will help users to find out if they themselves are qualified without having to search and sift through qualification information and find what applies to them.

HMW increase user confidence that they are in the right place?

Create clear separate areas for community assisters and providers
This will enable providers and community assisters to be able to find information, without it taking up real-estate on the homepage confusing the average user of the site.

Testing the redesign

I conducted usability tests with  5 new participants over zoom to compare to the old site and to see if any new pain points arose
The test was conducted with the same tasks as the original test and was moderated on Zoom. There was a different set of participants tested.
Limitations - Prototype is limited is limited doesn't allow a user to fully explore pages of the site. The prototype also caters directly to the tasks which may create bias and make tasks easier than they would be otherwise.
Participants - The test was conducted with the same tasks as the original test and was moderated on Zoom. There was a different set of participants tested.

Testing results at a glance

Current site
2 out of 6 users were not able to find out if they qualify.
2 out of 6 users were not completely sure they found the right place to apply even though the were in right location.
Every participant experienced frustration and voiced dozens of specific pain points.
Redesign
5 out of 5 users were able to find out if they qualify.
5 out of 5 were sure that they were in the right place.
Participants displayed 2 pain points.
Prototype pain points
  • Some users got confused by the providers being in the drop down menu for topics
  • Some users were confused by the success message stating, you may qualify for health insurance

Next steps

  • Iterate prototype based on test data and test again with new changes
  • Create mobile responsiveness
  • Focus on other areas of improvement in the users journey besides signing up

Takeaways

  • It is important to not have a solution in mind before doing research. Let the research form the solutions.
  • I first started by writing down the gut level insights from the excel document testing data and videos, but grouping similar issues on stickies helped me solidify themes
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