As this article spells out, the failure of Obamacare to develop a proper website based on simple UX practices is deeply disheartening. Politics aside, if you are going to roll out a health care policy that mandates all individuals without health care must sign up for a plan you must ensure they have a way to do so. Underestimating demand, a fragmented design team, and lack of a logical website flow are some of the major problems that this system is experiencing. And with all the back and forth debate about this new policy you would think the administration would have gone above and beyond to ensure the website gets launched without any major glitches. Instead this poorly designed and operated site adds fuel to the fire for the discussion around whether Obamacare is good for our society or not.
This now poses as a major PR / Marketing issue for the Obama administration as they must address (ahem spin) these glitches and continue to assure the American public that this policy is in their best interest even if they cannot offer the means to deliver it to them. In my opinion they should have hired a marketing team to oversee the launch (or if they did, they should have hired a better one) as no credible team would have let a website with so many issues get launched in this state. A marketer would have thought through the user experience and asked the right questions along the way, while putting themself in the mind of the typical user. And a marketer would have been prepared to consider the impact of the launch on the brand of Obamacare, a crucial consideration for President Obama. All in all a major marketing failure, and Obamacare now needs rapid and over the top measures in order to resurrect its image in the minds of Americans.
http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/lessons-user-experience-healthcare-gov/244933/
~ Mallory Godwin
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