The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the form American students are required to complete if they wish to apply for federal financial aid for their college or career school. The program provides $120 billion in educational grants, loans, and work-study funds each year to more than 13 million students.
Results from this study were discussed during a U.S. Senate hearing about simplifying FAFSA in November 2017.
As part of a larger effort to increase FAFSA completion rates among specific under-represented demographics, the National College Access Network (NCAN) wanted to improve the user experience and simplify the design of the application form. To this end, we compared the existing FAFSA form to an alternative streamlined version, with two specific goals in mind:
To assess the completion time, error rates, and overall satisfaction with the existing 2016-2017 FAFSA form and compare it to a new streamlined version.
To evaluate the usability of both the existing 2016-2017 FAFSA form and streamlined versions.
I co-led this project. My specific responsibilities included:
Maintaining constant communication with the client throughout the project
Developing the study design
Communicating with recruiters in three cities (Bethesda, MD; Houston, TX, and Los Angeles, CA) about our target audience specifications as well as all other related logistics
Preparing all research materials, such as:
moderator guides for five possible paths in two conditions
participant vignettes and dummy tax forms for 10 possible scenarios
Conducting 45 usability tests, including 30 tests in three days in Los Angeles, CA
Managing, cleaning, and analyzing the data with Morae
Writing and presenting the final usability report to the client