Justification for Navigation Model Test for the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration Website Redesign

Request for Approval under the “DOL Departmental Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”

(OMB Control Number: 1225-0088)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

Navigation Model Test for the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration Website Redesign Effort

PURPOSE:

The Employee Benefits Security Administration website is being redesigned in a more user-friendly format to provide better service to its users. Part of the redesign effort includes restructuring the information and redesigning the navigation. In order to determine the effectiveness of the redesigned navigational structure, the usability team will test up to three different navigation models on users. Based on qualitative feedback from testing, the usability team can determine which navigation model is best suited for the redesign or if any adjustments are necessary.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Participants in this activity will be representative of typical site users. For this activity 39 participants will be recruited. All participants should have gone to a Federal government Department of Labor website to find information related to employee benefits. All participants should have at least five employees in the company they are employed by (or work with) and all should be proficient web users.

These users fall into three overall segments: consumer, compliance assistants, and access professionals.

• Consumers (18 participants) are private sector employees that receive or have received benefits from their company including health insurance and a retirement plan.

• Compliance assistants (12 participants) are defined as those who work professionally with benefits issues in any of the following roles: people who deal with benefits in the private sector including plan administrators (particularly of small businesses) and health savings account (HAS) administrators; Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) attorneys or other attorneys; and CPAs, actuaries, financial advisors, and investment managers. Participants will also be a mix of those dealing with both small (<100 employees) and larger businesses (>250 employees).

• Access professionals (9 participants) are those individuals whose profession is to locate and obtain Federal government information as researchers, press, congressional oversight/review/evaluation, state and local government, advocacy groups, and professional bloggers.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ X ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[] Focus Group [ ] Other: ______________________

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name:

Terri Thomas

Supervisor, Program Administration Unit

Office of Outreach, Education and Assistance

Employee Benefits Security Administration

U. S. Department of Labor

Phone: 202.693.8655

Fax: 202.219.8141

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ X ] Yes [ ] No

Participants will receive an incentive of either $50 or $75 each to compensate for their time, which is two separate, 20-minute sessions occurring over two, non-consecutive days (40 min. total). Consumer participants will receive $50 each for completing the activity. Compliance assistant and access professional participants will receive $75 each, since a $50 incentive was low for industry professionals. The incentive will help encourage participants to complete both sessions.

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Individuals	39	.67 hours (40 min)	.44
Totals	39	.67 hours (40 min)	.44

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $16,841.28

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [ X ] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

UserWorks, Inc. will be recruiting participants for the activity. They will use a screener to find the participants that reflect the target audience. (Screener is included with this document.)

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ X ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

The activity will use Optimal Workshop’s Treejack software to collect information. Treejack is a Web-based usability tool used to test information architecture by evaluating the findability of topics. The activity will be done over the Internet, where the users will participate using their own computer. There will not be a facilitator, instead Treejack will provide instructions and present a number of tasks to participants. Participants will click through a proposed model of the site organization to show where they would expect to find particular information. The entire study will be conducted from June 24, 2013 to July 29, 2013.

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

Attached to this is a test plan, which provides an overview of the activity and includes the following documents:

• Screener – used to find participants for the activity

• Informed consent form – the consent form provided to the participant prior to them participating in the activity

• Treejack script and tasks – instructions and tasks presented to the participant for the activity

• Navigation models – the navigation models that will be in Treejack for the study

Instructions for completing Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Provide the name of the collection that is the subject of the request. (e.g. Comment card for soliciting feedback on xxxx)

PURPOSE: Provide a brief description of the purpose of this collection and how it will be used. If this is part of a larger study or effort, please include this in your explanation.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: Provide a brief description of the targeted group or groups for this collection of information. These groups must have experience with the program.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: Check one box. If you are requesting approval of other instruments under the generic, you must complete a form for each instrument.

CERTIFICATION: Please read the certification carefully. If you incorrectly certify, the collection will be returned as improperly submitted or it will be disapproved.

Personally Identifiable Information: Provide answers to the questions.

Gifts or Payments: If you answer yes to the question, please describe the incentive and provide a justification for the amount.

BURDEN HOURS:

Category of Respondents: Identify who you expect the respondents to be in terms of the following categories: (1) Individuals or Households;(2) Private Sector; (3) State, local, or tribal governments; or (4) Federal Government. Only one type of respondent can be selected.

No. of Respondents: Provide an estimate of the Number of respondents.

Participation Time: Provide an estimate of the amount of time required for a respondent to participate (e.g. fill out a survey or participate in a focus group)

Burden: Provide the Annual burden hours: Multiply the Number of responses and the participation time and divide by 60.

FEDERAL COST: Provide an estimate of the annual cost to the Federal government.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents. Please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them. If the answer is yes, to the first question, you may provide the sampling plan in an attachment.

Administration of the Instrument: Identify how the information will be collected. More than one box may be checked. Indicate whether there will be interviewers (e.g. for surveys) or facilitators (e.g., for focus groups) used.

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

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