Homeland Security Department Reduces Paperwork Through Usability Testing

Dana Chisnell, the Department of Homeland Security’s customer experience lead, has stated that usability testing is aiding the organization in reducing paperwork.

Usability testing involves tracking how successfully people complete tasks on an application or website, Federal News Network reported. 

Speaking at a Human Centered Design Center of Excellence-hosted webinar in December, Chisnell said usability testing reduced by 20 million hours the combined 190 million hours the public spends annually to fill out DHS forms. She explained that the practice was required to test each form “that came through that initiative.”

Chisnell said that a publicly available usability testing kit used to teach DHS employees about the concept is generic enough to apply to other federal use cases.

For fiscal year 2024, DHS Chief Information Officer Eric Hysen has mandated that all the organization’s information collection requests undergo usability testing as part of a new goal to cut 10 million more hours of paperwork burdens on the public and redesign 75 percent of internal forms.