Designing new user flows for USAGOV’s Scams and Fraud wizard
GSA—Public Experience Portfolio
Year: 2023-2024
Due to the nature of government work, certain information may be redacted, names changed and/or technical information withheld.
We have all been victims of a scam or fraud attempt.
Have you received any of the following scenarios within the last year?
- A call from your local police, fire or state department requesting donation support, all they need is your name, address and banking information.
- A text message from UPS | USPS | Postal service claiming a package arrived at a customs agency. They suspect contraband has been inserted and are requesting your information to process an investigation. You have no knowledge of any pending packages.
- You received a call from a strange number claiming a family member has been kidnapped. They voice on the phone sounds just like him/her. You call your family member—the are watching tv in the comfort of their home.
- You received a check in the mail and decided to cash it. Now all your savings are gone.
- The IRS sends you a message claiming you owe them money and will arrest you if you do not pay.
Congrats! You just experienced a scam or fraud attempt. In fact, every year, millions of Americans fall victims to some variation of a scam. From the famous Nigerian prince to the never-ending “can you hear me” calls…we can only expect these attempts to grow as technology continues to improve.
If you received a scam attempt, know that you are not alone.
USA.gov created a scams and fraud wizard to help address, guide and protect people from deceitful practices that tries to rob you of your money and peace-of-mind.
If you are unfamiliar with USA.gov, they are a guide to government information services. A where-to on various topics and government agencies that may help you through all stages of life, as well as contact information for various state and federal departments.
The Scam Wizard
As part of USA.gov’s commitment to people, the scams and fraud wizard proved to be an invaluable asset. However, satisfaction scores showed there were still areas requiring improvement.
Throughout this presentation, you will notice the word “we”. To clarify, this was a year-long project involving multiple divisions—Content team, Analytics team, UX team, GSA Board of Directors (among others)—by whose contributions and insights shaped the tool into a new, more accessible product for everyone.
Initial user research
Overall impressions—Very positive
- Multiple participants claimed they would like more descriptive information in the wizard. They almost didn’t believe that reporting a scam with the wizard could be this easy. (comparing April 2023 scam wizard to previous USA.gov website(circa 2022))
- Participants highlighted the emotional stage and the stress experienced during a scam. Also, it would be stressful not knowing how long the report process would take.
- By removing unnecessary wording and creating a clear path, the participants felt calmer and confident.
- Most participants prefer the scams wizard because is intuitive, clear, simple, and useful.
Test users vs. data*—Who do we trust?
While we knew users where interracting better with the new 2023 tool, we also saw our helpfulness score in the low 50’s and a big audience drop on the initial page. We knew we were in the right direction, yet still missing the mark.
01
Did users find this page useful?
The scam wizard scored in the low 50’s for page helpfulness, significantly lower than the average for content pages across the site.
02
Did people find the right options?
70 % of page views on wizard results pages have “other” or “otro” in the URL. This suggests many people are aren’t connecting with the more specific choices in the questionnaire pages.
03
Is this what users were expecting?
A big audience drop happens on the start page in that about 1/3 don’t make it to the first questionnaire page.
- Based on March 2023 (excluding the 31st) with 80,805 unique page views. 47 k were non-bounces
Time to improve
- Restructure the initial page to include more information. Our aim was to make sure there was language that clearly defined this wizard as a guide and not a reporting agency. We also wanted to make sure they understood what were the requirements of a scam vs. a complaint and provide guidance to users.
- Since most people who are reaching this page may be distressed or frustrated by the scam, we decided to maintain this similar to the content pages—ensuring they do not need to learn where things are.
- We added a secondary navigation (sidebar) to reinforce additional links to relevant topics and guide users thru the current stage of the wizard.
- There was confusion regarding certain terms, such as imposter scam vs identity theft scams. Our initial attempt was to add a brief description to help guide users in selecting the appropriate choices.
- Based on the research, we noticed people would also associate the scams with how they received them—phone, text, email, etc. To accommodate these mental models, we decided to include them as points of entry to help users.
- Final results pages would have a card (or multiple cards) component detailing steps and directions to report the scam.
- We also decided to include a process indicator within the wizard so our users could know where they were in the process and how many steps were left.
Feedback from initial improvements
While most of the changes went in the right directions, there were a few changes required. Since we also knew what was working we decided to shift focus onto the mobile experience. Here are some of the changes we noticed.
- At the time, there was a plan to connect the wizard with a VUI application. The initial proposal did not address the “other” category entry points needed to support development.
- There was no consistent path, making it difficult to place a step indicator. A new IA had to be introduced.
- Accessibility review revealed there would be some complications creating the cards components. Since most of the cards also pointed to the FTC site, it seemed more trouble than what it was worth.
- Card sorting and tree-jack tests also revealed that while the descriptions helped, people were still confused on certain terms.
End results and future plans
After another revision, involving accordions on the end screens we opted to simplify the content.
Lessons learned and moving forward
- The government is very interested in “designing for everyone”. This makes accessibility very important and the need to understand it even more so. This project led to be much more knowledgeable on how people may not only view the design but how they will interact with it (be it with assistive technologies or in gray scale) and how they will actually read/skim thru the information.
- I learned that the government moves purposefully. This involves a lot testing, reviewing, and confirming hypothesis before implementing, creating better products in the long-run.