Mobile first public services
The missed opportunity in online benefits applications
Imagine trying to get directions to your friend’s house without using your smartphone. You might handwrite notes on the complicated journey ahead or print out detailed maps to get to your destination. Once you begin, it would be painful to start over, but you would have little recourse without other assistance. Every month, millions of Americans are trying to navigate a more complicated and more consequential journey: applying for or maintaining critical government benefits. And most states are effectively blocking what is, for many, the easiest and perhaps only means of accessing the internet: a smartphone.
People have come to expect a seamless user experience on their mobile devices. That expectation is not limited to online shopping or communicating with friends; it extends to any interaction with government agencies and services.
Code for America analyzed all 50 states’ online benefits applications for five common social safety net programs:
- Medicaid, the national health insurance program for low income people
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), sometimes known as food stamps or food assistance - Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), sometimes known as cash assistance
- Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), a nutrition and health program for pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and young children
- Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a program to assist families with energy costs
Our goal was to assess their functionality and ease of use. Usability and accessibility were the most critical criteria that we used to analyze the online benefits applications. The results are eye-opening, and beyond what even we expected (and we work at the intersection of technology and government every day). A person trying to apply for Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, WIC or LIHEAP has only a 1 in 3 chance of using an online application that is mobile responsive, let alone one designed with a mobile device as the primary access channel.
State health and human services agencies must design and implement online benefits applications that are mobile first and mobile responsive.
Through Code for America’s work in the Integrated Benefits Initiative and running GetCalFresh, our digital assister that processes 10,000s of California food stamps applications each month, we have seen firsthand how much people who need government assistance rely on mobile devices. For instance, more than half of Google searches for food assistance in California are from a mobile device. One client in Colorado put it quite simply: “My phone is my computer.”
2018 was a historic tipping point in the way Americans use the internet. For the first time, more American adults own smartphones (78 %) than desktop and laptop computers combined (73 %). Even more critical for a state agency perspective is the emergence of smartphone-dependent households. The percentage of households who do not use broadband internet at home but own smartphones has increased from 8% in 2013 to 20% in 2018. Perhaps most striking, two out of every three adults with income below $30,000 per year own a smartphone, and 31% of them exclusively rely on a smartphone for access to the internet.
“I kind of hate computers. They break when I touch them … I just have my phone — that’s it.”
Mobile first is the idea that websites should be built with the insight that users will access them primarily from a smartphone (rather than a desktop computer). When you open a webpage on your phone and it automatically resizes to fit your screen and navigates in a way that feels intuitive to the touchscreen in your hand, that’s often described as mobile responsive. Designing safety net benefits applications to be mobile first and mobile responsive is simply a way to put users and their needs first. At Code for America, we consider this a prerequisite when building any client or consumer facing digital experience, and state agencies should too.
Desktop layouts become unreadable on mobile devices
Online applications are unreadable on a mobile screen when they aren’t properly formatted for the screen size and dimensions. Prompts can either shrink to miniscule, indecipherable fonts or extend far off the edges of the screen. They need deft fingers to scroll and navigate the maze of fields and input boxes. When users have to input information the experience gets even worse. These websites struggle to accommodate on-screen keyboards and create seemingly endless vertical or horizontal scroll.
The most challenging online benefits applications feel like a chart from a caseworkers’ clipboard pasted into a web browser and viewed one square inch at time.
Desktop interactions often don’t translate to mobile
Many websites use design features that may help guide a user on a desktop computer. These features can become barriers to completion on a phone, where users interact differently with the screen. For instance, pop-up windows, links to new pages, and text that appears when links are clicked can create confusion when using a mobile phone. They often do not display properly, and even if well-executed, can be a jarring experience for users. It’s the visual equivalent of being put on hold without warning during a customer service call, again and again.
Form design is one of the most critical interactions to get right. Long drop-down menus, especially those that allow the user to select multiple options become unmanageable on mobile phones. It’s better to limit the number of options per question, put potential answers in radio buttons, and use auto-complete to help users fill in their answers.
During one of our user research sessions, it became obvious that applying by phone is often not a choice but a necessity: “Applying online would be so much easier … I don’t have internet in my house. I have internet on my phone. I’d probably do it there.”
Users will try to apply for online benefits applications with the device they have at hand. Without mobile first, mobile responsive online benefits applications, user interactions break down and services fail to reach those who need them most. We believe that users should have an effective, simplified application experience to get the benefits they need. Cumbersome and confusing desktop websites are the digital equivalent of a WIC clinic closure — people are denied services. When online applications are broken from a user perspective, real people lose needed sources of support.
Native mobile applications are not the answer
It is tempting to think that native mobile applications, like those you download from the App Store or Google Play, would be a good solution to some of the usability challenges outlined above. At least nine states have invested significant time and resources to develop and launch native applications related to benefits programs. But having worked in this space for 9 years, we have several reasons to believe this strategy is inferior to simply building mobile first state online applications. Consider:
- Development and Maintenance: States are ill-equipped to deal with maintaining native applications in multiple operating systems.
- Use: Native applications make sense if you’re using the service daily or weekly, but not for single use interactions like applying for benefits (or annual renewals).
- Trust: Native applications require a range of permissions and access, which implies a level of trust that many users simply don’t hold for health and human services agencies.
- Cost: Downloading a native mobile application (and updates) can take significant data to download and store for users who may have limited data plans and limited phone storage space.
- Portability: Native applications require a user to start and finish an application on the same device, but users access the internet through a range of devices, including borrowed and public devices. Forcing them to re-download a native application may not work in these dynamic environments, and it can heighten privacy concerns.
Charting a better path forward
Our analysis of online benefits applications revealed what many people who access safety net benefits already know: in most states, it is either impossible or deeply frustrating to apply or maintain benefits using a mobile device. For state administrators, it can feel daunting to know how to channel the mission of the agency into products that meet the needs of users. But it’s not impossible. We recently concluded a pilot in partnership with Civilla, a design studio in Detroit, and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to streamline a mobile first online application for SNAP and Medicaid.
After extensive user-testing and iterative updates, our mobile-first application offered a significantly better user experience. Some of the principles we implemented in the application based on user feedback included:
- Require minimal typing: Tapping is the easiest mobile interaction, so limit switching between tapping and typing as much as possible.
- Provide a sense of place and time: show progress made on the application using broad sections and transition pages
- Design for accessibility: use large tap targets, wide buttons, and large dropdown inputs to make it easy to share information
- Use plain, friendly language: use a conversational tone that feels warm and inviting, rather than opaque or judgmental
One Michigan case worker shared her reflection: “That was amazing! I did the app on the resident’s phone and he finished in 5 minutes. He was so ecstatic that he could do that.”
More than 1,500 applications serving more than 2,700 residents were submitted over nine months in Genesee County, the home of Flint, Michigan. The results illustrate the potential of mobile first, user-centered online applications:
- Median time to apply decreased from 45 minutes to less than 10 minutes
- Days to determination decreased from 13 days to 11 days
- Approval rates for applications increased from 53% to 71%
User expectations for simple, responsive interfaces with government services are only going to grow, as will smartphone-dependent households, especially in lower income families. State agencies that adopt mobile first, mobile responsive services as a default will be in a better position to deliver effective, efficient experiences.
“Go digital! I mean really, everybody is getting into it. It’s easier … I could [apply for benefits] on my phone. I’ve done so many job applications that took a long time from my phone.”
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Dustin Palmer is a Program Manager for the Integrated Benefits Initiative at Code for America, working to improve access to social safety net programs.
