The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has published new guidance that will help Federal agencies conduct usability testing more quickly and effectively.
Being able to conduct that testing more effectively has practical implications for customer experience (CX) improvements, and according to OIRA, will allow agencies to improve their forms and provide better service to their customers, make iterative changes, and deploy final revisions to a form, website, or other service without unnecessary delay.
Usability testing is an important tool that agencies can use to understand how real-world users interact with paper and digital forms, websites, or other services in order to identify issues and then address them.
“By listening to user feedback, agencies can better understand users’ experiences, which helps agencies improve collections and reduce unnecessary burdens on the public,” OIRA Administrator Richard Revesz wrote in a Nov. 21 blog.
Revesz explained that agencies often ask how they can conduct usability testing while complying with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), and how they can quickly implement the improvements that they discover through usability testing.
OIRA new guidance will help agencies understand how to conduct usability testing in a timely and effective manner consistent with the PRA, Revesz said.
In the guidance, OIRA clarifies that usability testing can often be conducted without the need for PRA clearance. In many cases agencies are free to engage in usability testing without OIRA clearance.
The guidance also discusses how agencies can quickly make changes that address problems identified during their testing. OIRA reemphasizes existing flexibilities that allow agencies to swiftly receive approval to update forms, websites, and other services when those needs are identified through usability testing.
Finally, OIRA encourages agencies to think ahead when launching a new or updated form. If an agency plans to conduct usability testing on an item subject to PRA clearance, it should proactively discuss its plans during that process. While not required, doing so will allow for speedier deployment of improvements identified through usability testing.
OIRA’s new guidance “will not only reduce paperwork burdens on the public, but also ensure that the public can more easily access the government resources to which they are entitled,” Revesz said.
