Facility Locator research: draft a strategy

[jilladams]

Description

Based on the review and subsequent FE tickets from #14798 and on a scheduled research discussion meeting (9/27), determine which areas will need research and draft a plan.

Typeahead search functionality

• Purpose: initially to support expanded VA health, plus Vet Center services and new benefit taxonomy in the future (because the current dropdown list cannot support ~100 services)
• Strategy: Examine feasibility of testing with live prototype. Has this interaction been tested by other teams? What's the lift? Initial spike to explore complexity / options before committing to developing prototype or research plan
• Questions
  • Are Vet Center service searches in or out of scope?
  • Will this use a prototype, and if so, how will the prototype work? Will we ask them to search for particular type(s) of care?
• Hypotheses to consider
  • Veterans are not confused by the use of typeahead search for some facility types but not all.
    • between VA health and Community care
    • between VA facility types with plain language service search and those with dropdown service selection
  • Veterans understand how to select a suggested term
  • By presenting "popular suggestions", we can help Veterans understand what sort of entry is expected.
  • Veterans can find another way to successfully search for a facility when their search terms do not match the words from the taxonomy
• FE issues
  • #14993 Update Facility Locator search by service to allow plain language search

Improved mobile map experience

• Purpose: to make the relationship between search results and indicators on the map more implicit
• Strategy: Testable with static prototype, feature has clear Veteran value and is a unique interaction. Develop tickets for building prototype and developing research plan.
• Hypotheses to consider
  • Veterans will understand how to get information about a particular location from the map.
• FE issues
  • Update Facility Locator results to show location number, name, distance, and TTY #14912
  • Update Facility Locator results mobile map for location number, name, distance, and TTY #15304

State level search

• Purpose: to fulfill NCA request
• Strategy: Not high priority feature for testing, could be built and shipped with a staging review. Could be incorporated as an optional task in a research plan if timing is right.
• Hypotheses to consider
  • Veterans want to search for different types of VA locations using something larger than the current radius limitation
  • Veterans will understand how to filter the list of search results to be more meaningful for them
• FE issues:
  • Update Facility Locator API to search by state #14915
  • Build new Facility Locator search by state page #14916
  • UI for new Facility Locator search by state results #15300

Search result filter

• Purpose: initially to support Community care provider training, home health and telehealth designations, but designed for expansion in the future
• Strategy: Community care provider training filter alone is not a high priority. Wait until more filters options are ready and then test filters
• Question: What information do you need about the Provider training to provide context for research or in the UX?
• Hypotheses to consider
  • Veterans will understand how to apply the filter to search results.
  • Veterans will understand how to remove the filter to see more results.
  • Veterans find value in using this type of filter to narrow search results.
  • Veterans find the filter category labels meaningful.
• FE issues
  • Update Facility Locator search with filters for training and types of care #14913

Acceptance Criteria

• Research strategy is discussed
• Tickets are created for research plan steps

[davidmpickett]

Meeting has been rescheduled to 9/27

[xiongjaneg]

Michelle on research priorities:
High priority but higher effort: typeahead search
Mobile map: no brainer
Low priority: provider search
State search: Analytics will give us feedback about the State search

[xiongjaneg]

Amanda: technical feasibility of how to research typeahead is an unknown

[xiongjaneg]

Michelle and Alexis: At what point is something needed to be built before you can research.

[xiongjaneg]

Dave on next steps:
Typeahead search: ask other teams about past/existing typeahead functions
Mobile map: research valuable and worth putting in the time in Q4
State-level search: could be built and shipped with a staging review
Provider filter: not at place where research would be helpful

[aklausmeier]

@davidmpickett @thejordanwood @ALogsdon3

Typeahead search functionality is part of the Search Input component in the VA Design System.

The Search input component lives in the global header of VA.gov and on search results pages, and can be paired with type-ahead functionality. Type-ahead displays up to five suggested search terms in a dropdown below the Search input field while the user is typing a query. The goal of type-ahead is to help Veterans navigate to relevant content more quickly by providing them with suggestions that match the characters they type.

There was a previous effort with past research (link) done for adding as an experimental design component process which included research and it was approved.

Slack thread on typeahead error / system messaging.

[davidmpickett]

Re type-ahead

• This research study that included typeahead was conducting on Staging as opposed to a prototype.
• The Financial Status Report is another product listed as using typeahead search in the Experimental Design System Request. They also generally conduct their research on staging
  • https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/va.gov-team/blob/master/products/streamlined_waiver/accessibility_research/research-plan.md
  • https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/va.gov-team/blob/master/products/combined_fsr/research/enhanced_fsr/research-findings.md
• Mural of existing examples of products using type ahead - https://app.mural.co/t/adhoccorporateworkspace2583/m/adhoccorporateworkspace2583/1643656901054/5ee29419d81a2191df3934d148d5e6804b92d1d3?sender=u9c899abc4fe36c9a698b1647

[davidmpickett]

Output update:

• Created spike ticket for exploring type ahead search research: SPIKE: How to conduct research in a coded environment #15543
• Created a new epic for consolidating FL tickets related to the Search Type field: [EPIC] Facility Locator: AutoSuggest for "Service type" #15541

[davidmpickett]

Created new epic for mobile map usability testing: #14518

[davidmpickett]

@xiongjaneg @mmiddaugh This ticket is complete from my perspective. We'll take a look at the follow up tickets I created during UX refinement right noooow

[xiongjaneg]

Tickets stubbed and discussed in UX refinement. Questions documented. Closing.