[CAIA Intake] Debt Resolution: VBA Payment History

[mgleo]

Content, accessibility, information architecture (CAIA) new initiative collaboration request

Use this ticket to request collaboration on a new initiative with the sitewide content, accessibility, and information architecture (CAIA) team.

About your team

• Team name: Debt Resolution
• OCTO product owner: Denise Coveyduc
• Product name: Debt Portal
• Product manager: Tom Davis
• Slack channel: [#debt-resolution](https://join.slack.com/share/enQtNzM5MTE3ODIwMDQ4My1hYTY3OGIyZGYzMGYwZjkyYWYyMzg5OTE4MDhiODRiOTU5ZGQ3ZGIzOTMyNTRjMzcwMjA4ZGZkZTE5MjNjY2Fm)
• Dedicated content writer on your team (if you have one): writer
• Dedicated a11y specialist on your team (if you have one): a11y

About your initiative

Which of these descriptions best fits the work we’ll partner on?

Select all that apply.

• [ ] Digitizing a new form
• [ ] Creating a new digital tool
• [x] Updating an existing form or tool
• [ ] Translating a form or tool into Spanish
• [x] Adding new unauthenticated content to VA.gov
• [ ] Updating existing unauthenticated content on VA.gov
• [ ] Something else: insert description

What's the nature of your initiative and desired outcomes?

Provide Veterans with timely and accurate information on their payment history for VBA overpayments

Outcome summary:

• Improved clarity
• Provides confirmation and reassurance that their debt has been resolved once they have made a payment
• Reduced confusion and anger that Veterans feel (as seen in Medallia feedback)
• Reduced possibility of inaccurate information or outdated information (as seen in Medallia feedback)

Collaboration timeframe

Note: We work on nearly every OCTO product and manage all unauthenticated content on VA.gov, so we will need to prioritize intake requests based on overall workload and VA and OCTO priorities.

Is this work tied to a Congressional mandate, change in law or policy, or upcoming event with a specific deadline?

• [ ] Yes
• [x] No
• [ ] I’m not sure

Where are you at in your timeline?

Tell us briefly about what you're working on now (such as initial discovery, wireframing, or usability research planning) and add any known dates for upcoming milestones or deadlines.

• Prototype has been created
• Research begins 07/16/24

Will you release this new product incrementally (for example, release to 25% of users to start)?

• [x] Yes

• [ ] No

  Note If you checked yes: Incremental launches require dynamic content. You'll need to ask your developer to build a React widget and provide CAIA with the ID code. CAIA will provide widget content and add the widget to your product’s static page. Please refer to this GitHub page for more information.

• [x] I acknowledge that if I change the launch to be incremental, or change it from incremental to 100%, I must notify CAIA of this change as these additional steps will impact deadlines.

Collaboration cycle

Which phases of the collaboration cycle have you completed?

Select all that apply.

• [x] Design intent
• [x] Midpoint review
• [ ] Staging
• [ ] None. This initiative isn’t going through the collaboration cycle.

Collaboration cycle ticket

If you’re going through the collaboration cycle, provide your ticket number and link:

• Ticket Number: #85533

Supporting artifacts

Provide links to any supporting artifacts that can help us better understand your initiative and begin collaboration. Include artifacts like your product outline, user flows, mockups and prototypes, or any draft content.

• User flow: https://www.figma.com/design/OiiDTTVTCf8j0GngRg0xxD/VA-Debt-Portal?node-id=2486-55061&t=mb6vsRJ8X0PSn4yg-11
• Mockups: https://www.figma.com/design/OiiDTTVTCf8j0GngRg0xxD/VA-Debt-Portal?node-id=2080-18754&t=mb6vsRJ8X0PSn4yg-11
• Prototype: https://codepen.io/collection/gYJrvO
• Research plan: https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/va.gov-team/blob/master/products/combined_va_debt_portal/payment-history/research/usability-study-6-2024/research-plan.md
• Conversation guide: https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/va.gov-team/blob/master/products/combined_va_debt_portal/payment-history/research/usability-study-6-2024/conversation-guide.md

Next steps

• [ ] Post a link to this issue in the #sitewide-content-sitewide-content-accessibility-ia slack channel and tag @Naomi Eke, and we’ll then acknowledge receipt. We'll then review the artifacts in more detail and work with you to determine timing for collaboration. Depending on the work, we may schedule a kickoff meeting to better understand how we'll partner together.
• [ ] Review the remaining next steps in the VFS team tasks section here.
• [ ] If you also need engineering support from the public websites team, fill out their intake request form as well: Open a public websites intake request
• [ ] If you're requesting a page/URL redirect, a URL change, or a vanity URL, submit an additional request for this work: Open a redirect, URL change, or vanity URL request
• [ ] If you're creating an experimental design, also contact the design system team: Read more about experimental designs
  Suggest an addition or update to the design system team
• [ ] If you're requesting a11y support for usability research, submit a research support request next: Open an a11y research support request
• [ ] If you are requesting content support, please share your content source of truth (preferably as a SharePoint document).

[kristinoletmuskat]

Hey team! Thanks so much for submitting this ticket. I'm the Information Architect from CAIA assigned to this work. I wanted to confirm a couple things from design intent -- I'm trying to determine what the IA work might be for this. Let me know if these assumptions are true/false!

1. We aren't adding or changing any URLs (except then I saw the Debt Res hub in figma -- are we doing that?)
2. The user flow isn't changing with this new work -- we're just enhancing the functionality of the debt detail page
3. The main entry points to these detail pages are the link "check details" on each debt card. These entry points are not changing. Are there any other entry points that lead to these debt detail pages? And would those be changing?
4. According to your veteran feedback, findability of the debt portal is not a problem.

FYI I am going on PTO tomorrow 7/12-monday 7/22. If you need any urgent IA support in the meantime, feel free to reach out to my CAIA colleague @jennymayoco !

@Tom-Davis

[mgleo]

Hi @kristinoletmuskat and @jennymayoco, looking forward to working with you again. We made some updates after Design Intent and next week we will be running a study on "One thing per page" concept where we would be adding a page for Debt Letters and a page for Resolving Debt. So we may move forward on this concept if it tests well.

In addition to splitting up the content of the Debt Detail page (into Debt letters and Resolve pages), we are also adding payment history on the Debt Detail page. And to answer your question, we aren't working on a hub currently. cc @denisecoveyduc @Tom-Davis @charlottecesana @josephrlee

[kristinoletmuskat]

Thanks so much! I added a few questions to the figma and tagged @josephrlee -- it sounds like we'll just have to determine URLs for these new pages if ya'll decide after research to move forward with this concept. I don't think that's an urgent need!

[strelichl]

Hi @mgleo, since we weren't able to work on content with you before testing, could you let us know when you have findings and we can collaborate with you on content for the next iteration?

[josephrlee]

@kristinoletmuskat, I left you a comment about the new page URLs!

@strelichl, we'll follow up after user testing on content!

cc: @mgleo @charlottecesana

[mgleo]

Hi @kristinoletmuskat and @strelichl We just completed all of our research sessions and compiled a Topline Summary document. There is some information on terms and language used on the prototype. Also, as a reminder, here is the VA content brief for VA payments, debts, and copay bills.

We are still in the middle of creating the full Research Findings document. We will invite you to the Readout when it is scheduled.

[mgleo]

Hi @kristinoletmuskat and @strelichl, We published the full findings report on Github Our Readout will be next week on the 14th at 3pm ET. An invite has been sent to you both as well as @DanielleThierryUSDSVA.

[mgleo]

Hi @kristinoletmuskat and @strelichl,

We just spoke about refinements we want to make post-study. We looking for specific guidance on refining the Additional Info components. Some participants asked for more information on the account numbers needed to pay their debt. Here is the Resolve page with text that describes each field:

We received Midpoint Review feedback that this Additional Info component should be shortened. Some participants also mentioned wanting more targeted information. We were thinking the information could be more targeted towards the type of overpayment debt they have rather than general (Ch 33 vs general education debt). Debt Detail page:

As for next steps in refining this, would scheduling a meeting be best or would you prefer to work async?

cc @josephrlee @charlottecesana

[strelichl]

Hi @mgleo, looks like there's just a content review remaining on this- maybe you can join us at office hours next week to wrap that up? You can sign up for an office hours timeslot in this Canvas.

[josephrlee]

Hi @strelichl, I just signed our team up for next week!

cc: @mgleo @charlottecesana

[josephrlee]

@strelichl, @laurwill, as promised, I've gone ahead and pulled together the different variations of the Why do I have this debt? additional-info component is shown on the Debt Detail page.

Upon digging further we discovered that we have two versions in the codebase, and the simpler, more generic version is being used currently, while the more specific, broken-down version isn't being used.

Can y'all please review both versions (Figma Link) recommend which version we should use and provide any edits/updates that need to be made as well?

Here's a screenshot too of them side by side:

Thanks!

cc: @mgleo @charlottecesana

[mgleo]

Hi @strelichl @laurwill,

@denisecoveyduc responded that this is the version we should be using: The simple language that is currently used is correct. It should read "we make separate payments for..."

We've heard from Platform that this text should be shortened. Several Veterans also noted that they felt the text was too long. Do you have any additional recommendations for this text? Thanks!

[josephrlee]

@laurwill @strelichl, bringing this back up again. I wanted to get y'all's feedback on this additional info component regarding the amount of copy in it and whether it can be simplified at all. Please see @mgleo comment above. Thank you!

[laurwill]

Hi @josephrlee , apologies for losing track of this one — I'll update today!

[laurwill]

I added 2 suggested versions in Figma — one for pension/disability and one for education. See what you think!

[josephrlee]

@laurwill, thank you! Will take a look now!