The Web and Mobile Technology (WMT) Program Management Office's Defense Health Agency Usability Lab recently concluded a thorough user experience review of the DHA Mobility Site. This site provides a listing of available DHA-developed mobile applications as well as ways to access the apps themselves.
The DHA Usability Lab is a comprehensive program that evaluates digital health technologies across the Department of Defense by observing and collecting feedback from Service members, veterans, beneficiaries and health care providers.
Usability testing dissects product behavior to reveal things we may not immediately see like strengths, pain points, natural interactions with the product, where people struggle to complete tasks and the overall severity of issues.
"Usability is understanding user goals, heavily infusing product requirements and designs with those goals in mind and evaluating the product to verify its overall usefulness from the intended audience's point of view," explained Liz Holder, visual information specialist.
The goal of the Usability Lab's services is to ensure products help users achieve usability goals easily and efficiently. The lab's services can be used at any stage of a product's life cycle. According to WMT developers, implementing usability lab testing early and often not only saves time, resources and funding, but also ensures you keep the crucial perspectives of the end users at the forefront.
The WMT usability team has worked on various products across the DOD that affect millions of users, including major projects such as the streamlined DS Logon, website usability and card sorting functionality for Military OneSource, usability evaluation of the My MilLife Guide, the Provider Resilience application and navigation revamp for Launchpad.