The U.S. Government’s free at-home COVID-19 test kit ordering process was highly successful and lauded as an exemplar for how government websites should be. The simplicity of COVIDtests.gov (now COVID.gov/tests/), and especially the test kit ordering experience (special.USPS.com), belies the complex (and seemingly insurmountable) organizational, informational, and logistical challenges that had to be tackled and continue to be addressed.
Join Jeff Pass, the UX/Design and Usability Team lead for the test kit ordering process, for a tour of the test kit ordering information environment and tactical discussion of the lessons learned designing, developing, deploying, and maintaining the online ordering process that helped deliver 755 million free COVID test kits to American households in its first 2 years and will deliver many millions more in winter 2023/2024.
The session will cover: the history of COVIDtests.gov; its information environment (Arango 2018); the iterative, inclusive, and accessible usability testing approach; the IA, UX, and CX considerations the team had to work through and the solutions we deployed; and the lessons learned from the larger COVID.gov experience and how they can be applied to any large-scale or complex project, especially within the public sphere.