Introduction
When I first saw the MSU COVID-19 Vaccine Form, I was a bit dismayed by the UX on it. The University has had some time here between the mandate and launching the portal to create an experience that makes people feel safe (both about coming to campus and entering their data). After conversation with several colleagues about this form, I’ve decided to create this short post on ways to improve the experience and the trust in the process.
Before we get started, I think it’s important to check my own positionality. I am a pro-vaccine, pro-science, cisgendered woman who has worked at MSU for six years as both a postdoc and an academic specialist. I received the Pfizer vaccine as a result of volunteering with Ingham County Health Department through MSU; I served all four of my shifts at the MSU Ag Pavilion.
Also, we know that survey design is hard. You need to balance providing information, collecting information at the right granularity, providing an engagement experience, and making sure the length of the survey doesn’t create survey fatigue.
What are we trying to solve?
Collecting information on vaccine status of an entire university, including faculty, staff, and students.
Critiques and places for improvement:
These are not clean new mockups, rather, I’ve commented on screenshots of the app with some critiques and suggestions for change.
Questions to think about:
-Dearth of information: How is this information being verified (if it is)?
-Has MSU hired staff to do this verification?
-How could you actually verify this data? Especially as some of it will not just be Ingham County Health Department, but sites all over the world and multiple types of vaccines?
-Could the initiative working on this talk to the UX/XA scholars on campus to create a better experience for the MSU community?
Lessons learned/Suggestions:
-Finding a clear, non-onerous solution to collecting and verifying this information is hard problem to solve. However, across the board, this form needs more information, especially around data security, privacy, use, verification, community updates.
-I think starting with why MSU chose to do a vaccine mandate upfront would also be helpful, as well as when data is covered by HIPAA and when it is not.
-This may be the first time mandatory vaccines need to be recorded in this fashion. Now is the time to build a portal that builds trust in your community. This Qualtrics-esque portal did not do that for me.
-No email upon completion with a link back to updates is an easy fix that should be implemented ASAP, it could also include links to COVID-19 resources on campus
Takeaways/Final Comments
I was slightly nervous to post this critique, but I think it’s important that we open the discourse on surveys and forms in the University context and that we think, as a community, about the ways that information flows within the University (especially with respect to COVID-19 and decisions around campus safety.
