SSA Redesinged Home Page Description

DOCUMENTATION FOR THE GENERIC CLEARANCE

OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEYS

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: SSA Redesigned Home Page (www.socialsecurity.gov) Redesign – Electronic Bulletin Boards and Focus Group Discussions

SSA SUB-NUMBER: A-02

BACKGROUND:

In April 2009, President Obama announced the SAVE award initiative inviting Federal employees nationwide to submit suggestions to the White House on ways Federal agencies could save money. An SSA employee from Alabama, Christie Dickson, was one of the finalists for the President’s SAVE Award. Ms. Dixon’s suggestion was to increase efficiency by adding an appointment-scheduling tool to the agency website so that members of the public can schedule appointments online. Additionally, OMB issued a memorandum on December 21, 2009, requiring all agencies to submit a written plan for implementing initiatives that expand citizens’ access to services through the Internet. The suggestion from Ms. Dickson was the first of those required initiatives.

We developed the Internet Service Channeling Guide in response to the White House directive related to the Presidential “SAVE” award contest. In developing and testing the Service Channeling Guide (OMB Number: 0960-0526), we realized we needed to modify the SSA website home page so that we could properly accommodate the changes resulting from the Guide.

Therefore, we developed a new home page we believe works well with the Guide. We have slated the launch of the home page containing the Service Channeling Guide for November 1, 2010. Since there is not time to test the home page before the release, we would like to conduct post-release testing in both bulletin board and focus group formats.

Our objective is to provide the public with an Internet site that is easy to understand, navigate, and helps users quickly and efficiently find the information and services they are seeking. For this particular research project, we will elicit input from the public via focus groups and electronic bulletin boards (EBB). In particular, we wish to:

• Determine if our newly redesigned home page improves the ease with which users are able to find information and services on the SSA website; and,

• Obtain recommendations for making the SSA home page easier to navigate and understand.

We are proposing to conduct four focus group sessions and two EBB sessions. Similar to focus groups, EBBs are online discussions, typically 20 to 25 individuals (per session), representative of a given population. EBBs bring together participants to discuss their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes about specific products, programs, or services.

We will recruit the participants for both the focus groups and bulletin boards via a contractor. The participant selection criterion for this research is as follows:

• Ages 25-64;

• Small business owners;

• Website visitors who are comfortable using the Internet;

• Mix of race/ethnicity, sex/gender, income and education; and,

• Not a retired or current Social Security Administration employee, state Disability Determination Services employee, contractor or family member of an employee or contractor.

The methodologies:

• Four In-Person Focus Groups – Recruit 40 for 32 to show.

• Two Electronic Bulletin Boards - Recruit to 50 for 40 to show.

We will compile the results from the EBBs and focus groups and prepare a written report that we will post on our Intranet site at: http://ssahost.ba.ssa.gov/pip.

See attached copy of the proposed Focus Group/Bulletin Board Discussion Guide Questions

IF FOCUS GROUP/BULLETIN BOARD MEMBERS WILL RECEIVE A PAYMENT, INDICATE AMOUNT: Payment amount will not exceed $75

USE OF FOCUS GROUP/BULLETIN BOARD RESULTS:

SSA will use the results of these focus groups and bulletin boards to assess the level of satisfaction users have with the redesigned page, as well as their level of ease with which to find information and services on the SSA website. Ultimately, these results will enable SSA to determine if the website provides sufficient information, optimally presented and organized. The findings will also help SSA improve its online services to the public.

BURDEN HOUR COMPUTATION (Number of responses (X) estimated response time

(/60) = annual burden hours):

Number of Respondents: 90

Estimated Response Time: 120 minutes

Annual Burden Hours: 180 hours

NAME OF CONTACT PERSON: Deb Larwood

PHONE NUMBER: 410-966-6135