[Pattern] Help users to... Understand their current benefits and eligibility (AKA "enrollment card")

[msbtterswrth]

Background

Product Outline

As part of VA’s commitment to improving the Veteran experience, the "Enrollment Card" pattern will empower authenticated users to quickly understand their current VA benefits and discover additional benefits they may qualify for.

This pattern is currently being developed and should provide a concise, visually intuitive way to display benefit information by surfacing personalized and actionable data that helps users make informed decisions about their benefits with ease.

This may be related to or an extension of an existing pattern, "Check personal information", which had some previous research conducted.

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Wireframes

Ryan Thurwell created some wireframes in his Bluesky presentation for this pattern., which could include a card that is divided into several sections. Each section summarizes a specific benefit, including but not limited to:

• VA Health Care
• Disability
• Education
• Burials
• Housing
• Pensions
• Careers

Each section could include the following types of information

• Title: Clearly labels the benefit type.
• Key Details: Critical information (e.g., dates, percentages, monetary amounts).
• Actions: Links to related actions or resources (e.g., "Go to your benefit letter").

This design promotes these design principles:

• Clarity: Each card focuses on concise, high-value information, reducing cognitive load.
• Personalization: Data is tailored to the user, increasing relevance and trust.
• Action-Oriented: Clear, accessible links enable Veterans to take immediate action.
• Hierarchy and Organization: Information is presented in a stacked format, prioritizing readability and scanability.
• Visual Indicators: Checkmarks signal completion or confirmation, enhancing clarity.

Hypothesis

We believe that by creating a design pattern that concisely displays current VA benefits and eligibility for additional benefits, Veterans will:

• Quickly find and understand their benefits information.
• Complete more actions related to benefits management and discovery.
• Be more aware of and engage more with VA benefits.

Scope

In-Scope

• Develop an "Enrollment Card" pattern that includes guidance on how to:
  • Display current VA benefits a Veteran receives
  • Display VA benefits a Veteran does not receive
  • Display status of benefits for Veterans who return to active duty (and a way to pause/unpause them)
  • Display links to detailed benefits pages for more information and/or actionable recommendations.
  • Determine how a group of cards may be displayed and ordered
• Design governance guidelines, including content recommendations and usage examples.
• Deliver example code, aligned with VA Design System (VADS) standards.
• Provide accessibility compliance adhering to Section 508 and WCAG guidelines.

Out-of-Scope

• Full redesigns of existing benefits pages or workflows outside the "Baseball Card" implementation.
• Complex eligibility determinations requiring significant back-end system integration beyond currently available data.
• Validate the pattern through usability testing with diverse Veteran personas (product teams will do this validation when they adopt our pattern).
• Decide how to access this benefits enrollment information on VA.gov (auth exp team will decide this)

ACs

• The team has a shared, documented understanding of this pattern:
  • Key assumptions and user needs are identified.
• High-fidelity designs are created and reviewed by stakeholders.
• The pattern is reviewed through Design System Council (DSC) and undergoes a collaboration cycle review.
• An "Enrollment Card" experimental pattern exists in VADS, including:
  • Example code for front-end implementation.
  • Design resources and accessibility considerations.
  • Governance guidelines for adoption by other teams.
• The pattern is submitted to USWDS for consideration.

Stretch Goals:

• At least two VA teams successfully implement the pattern.
• A research plan is submitted, and usability testing is conducted with diverse user groups.
  • Research and validation plans are in place.

[msbtterswrth]

We've got a meeting set with OCTO POs other relevant PMs to dive into this problem space a little bit more next week (Jan 7). We are going to review our product outline to make sure we understand the pain points, scope and expected outcomes.