CMS.gov redesign was launched in Fall 2022 - check it out at www.cms.gov
🙋🏼♀️ My Role
I was the Design Lead responsible for planning and implementing the redesign activities with 3 designers. I coordinated our work with the client (CMS Program Director), and the team's Product Manager and Tech Lead.
Redesign activities included user research, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, ideation, designing solutions, and implementing with software engineers.
🩺 Who
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website, CMS.gov, primarily served healthcare administrators and clinicians searching for necessary information about medical fees and policy changes.
🤨 Why
CMS.gov is a government run website under the Health and Human Services Agency. They provide essential information for healthcare providers in relation to Medicare and Medicaid. The agency was prioritizing digital transformation to improve provider experience.
Problem Discovery
✏️ Process
We used Google Analytics, survey feedback, and an heuristic audit of the Search user journey to understand the major pain points. Example of the flow analysis:
⚡️ Pain Points
CMS.gov had a very outdated information architecture (17 years old!) and the homepage did not help users find the content that they were desperately looking for.
⚡️ 30% of survey respondents said that searching the site was a very poor experience and they couldn't find the information they needed to successfully run their healthcare practices.
⚡️ Analytics showed that only 7% of site visitors were using the search function. Most users were abandoning their search in frustration. The search box was not prominent and the most visited pages on the website were 6 pages deep in the information architecture.
⚡️ Users had a very difficult time finding the most important page, the Physician Fee Look Up Tool.
Ideation Process
I facilitated brainstorming sessions with the design team to discover the opportunities and inspiration for a solution, see below: example of user flow analysis, brainstorming, and evaluation with development team for impact and effort of implementation.
Prototypes & Testing
💡 Solutions
Transform the search experience to help healthcare administrators more efficiently find content they need from the homepage. Additionally, an overhaul of the visual design to modernize the look and feel.
This included making the search box more prominent on the homepage, offering popular search terms and autocomplete suggested terms, and recommended search results most likely to be associated with the information the user was seeking.
Analytics showed us that the majority of site visitors were on desktop/laptop; however, mobile usage was growing so we made sure our designs were mobile-friendly.
🖥 Usability Testing
The team conducted usability testing via 1:1 moderated interviews to focus on user comprehension of new features and interaction patterns.
💫 Outcome
CMS.gov redesign is live! It successfully launched in fall 2022, a little after my departure from the CMS.gov project to join Saildrone. Feedback from the CMS Program Director was very positive and analytics showed that users were using the search function much more.
The team continued to iterate on the visual design of the site, but the main foundation of transforming the search experience, creating a new information architecture and navigation structure, and accessibility upgrades won the January 2024 Web Excellence Award for Government 🏆
Kind Words from my Teammate, Michelle (Designer)
