Project #
Aetna is an American-managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer-directed health care insurance and related services.
In the winter of 2019, I conducted in-person usability tests on the Aetna website and Android/iOS native apps, utilizing moderated observational testing along with video/audio recording transcripts.
Objective #
The goal was to determine if people with visual and motor disabilities could use key functionality. The pathways tested were:
- View Claims (desktop)
- Find a Doctor (desktop)
- See My Coverage and Benefits (desktop)
- Edit Account (desktop)
- View ID Cards (desktop and app)
Work #
I used moderated observational testing and video/audio recording transcripts in this study. This usability study focused on people with various disabilities. Recruitment primarily happened through personal channels and social media call-outs. The testers included people with the following disability types: Low vision (3) and ADHD (3).
Unfortunately, due to issues with the stability of the Aetna QA website, only two testers fully completed this user study. The documentation was based on the two completed user tests only.
Data recorded for each tester included:
- General demographics
- Type(s) of disability
- Assistive technology used (if any)
- Task completed successfully or abandoned
- Rating of how easy it was to complete each task
- Suggestions for improving usability
- General feedback on the overall user experience
End Result #
The deliverable report included:
- Quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
- Highlights of usability barriers.
- Quotes from the testers.
- Recommendations on how to resolve some of the observed user experience issues.
Highlighted recommendations:
- Update the font families and meet color contrast ratios for all text.
- Low contrast areas also existed in the data tables, making them difficult to read.
- Test for keyboard traps by using only your keyboard to navigate.
- Add a consistent and ever-present focus indicator for all pages.
Team #
The team for this project included one representative from Aetna who reviewed and suggested small updates to the user study and a project manager from Deque. I was primarily responsible for setting up the user tasks, video recordings, tester recruitment, qualitative/quantitative data analysis, and producing the summary reports.
Reflection #
This client was one of the toughest I have ever had to work with. What made this project even worse was the QA site the client provided for testing was not stable. The website would fail or not load throughout the user testing. It was frustrating for all who were involved, but it taught me a lot of valuable lessons around trusting your instinct, being flexible about deadlines, and knowing when to convince a client to hold off on spending time and money until the conditions are better.
