I worked as a data analyst for Humana Health Insurance for 11 years. There were numerous complaints about Physician Finder Plus from not only external customers, but from our own associates as well. This was a clue that there was a problem with the site. I performed a usability study on Humana’s physician finder tool on the Internet.
A focus group was conducted of Humana associates to discuss issues with on-line websites in general. This was a forum to collect thoughts and opinions from users. It shows us that people in general are favorable towards on-line tools, which is different from 10 years ago. Many favorable comments were made about WebMD, online banking, and even the Humana website itself. People are open to using online tools.
What I discovered during the testing of Humana’s Physician Finder Plus was that even the Humana associates were unable to navigate certain portions of the website. Supporting video footage confirms that many of the Humana associates had trouble performing the tasks outlined.
Findings and recommendations to improve the site were to limit the number of fields on the search criteria because users were unknowingly narrowing their searches by entering too much demographic information. (See task #1). Users also failed to locate the refine search option on the search results page, so it is recommended that option be moved to the front of the search criteria; this is where users expect to see it. (See task #2). Users failed to locate mammography services because it is located in a specialty category called “Other Services”. (See task #6) It is recommended to add an indicator for mammography services on the imaging center record because this is where the user looked for it. Despite a complete video tutorial, users were unable to locate the Hospital Comparison Tool. Recommendations are to clearly indicate in writing that the user must logon to the secured portal to access it. (See task #5).
Users say they love the Humana website. They have trouble, though, extracting specific pieces of information and often resort to calling the customer service department. Regarding the tasks they were asked to perform, overall on a scale of 1 (satisfied) to 4 (most dissatisfied) users were generally dissatisfied with a score of 2.86. (See Post Survery and Demographic Results)