Page 34 - FCW, May/June 2020

Digital Experience
Executive Viewpoint
A conversation with
CHARLES WORTHINGTON
CTO, Department of Veterans Affairs
This conversation is adapted from a presentation at an FCW event.
Ten million unique users per month visit a VA website. The online component of citizen experience, which is what I’m most passionate about, is a huge opportunity for agencies like the VA to
make a good impression.
When I joined the agency in 2017, we
asked ourselves: How are we doing for these 10 million people? We talked to 5,000 veterans, service members and family members, and through a series
of qualitative and quantitative research studies, we asked them how we were doing.
There were three consistent points of criticism. One, it was too hard to find what they were looking for on a VA website. Two, they felt our websites were disjointed and hard to navigate. And three, they
were frustrated that they had to work to navigate the VA.
Decision-making is usually delegated down to the program level, and as a result, we had built up a fragmented ecosystem. People don’t think of the VA as a collection of brands. They think of the VA as a single entity, and so it’s very frustrating when they talk to one part of the VA but that part can’t help them with another part of the VA.
Another consistent piece of feedback
we got from veterans was that there was one place they would expect to find what they were looking for, and that was VA.gov. Before November 2018, VA.gov looked
like many other agency websites. There was a lot of information, but it was not designed for the user.
The first thing we did was commit to some North Star objectives. Our first goal was to increase the use of our self-service
tools. The second was to decrease the time that users spend waiting for an outcome from the VA. The first and second go hand in hand because in a lot of cases, if you use a self-service tool, the VA can get you an answer faster. The third goal was to consistently deliver a satisfying experience.
The new VA.gov homepage was the result of six months of iterating on designs, starting with low-fidelity wireframes
that we would test in in-person usability sessions in regional offices and medical centers. From there, we worked it up into
a slightly higher fidelity — still not full graphics but testing the designs to see how quickly people could complete a task and find information that we know a lot of veterans are looking for.
VA.gov is now focused on the 20 things that represent over 80% of what veterans are coming to a VA website to do. They’re very action oriented, with lots of verbs: check your status, apply for health care.
Also, VA.gov used to have descriptions about how to do something, but the actual interaction took you to a different portal. Today, if you click on one of these links, it takes you right to the place where you can do what you need to do, all on the same platform.
Disability compensation benefits submitted online are up over 20%. Profile updates — updating an email or mailing address — are up over 400%. And, importantly, among the areas that were touched by the redesign, we saw a 25% increase in customer satisfaction scores.
This interview continues at Carah. io/Worthington-VA.
CHARLES WORTHINGTON
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