IDM Role request process

Identity Management (IDM) is leveraged by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) business applications across the agency. IDM allows users of CMS’ integrated applications to sign in with one set of credentials. If you’re familiar with Workday’s application process, this is the opposite of that.

➷ User Experience (UX) Designer on the HCD team working directly with developers to implement.

Users need to be granted access to specific CMS applications as members of a certain role or group. To do this, they must fill out a role request form through their account dashboard.

Problem

"I don't know what to do on this page."— When progressing through the role request process, step indicators at the top of the page don’t give users an accurate preview of what the process will be like since the steps change dynamically depending on user selections (application, group, role, etc.)

“What happens when I’m done?” — Users are not informed of the next steps for approval nor given any sort of timeline. There is no way to follow up or check on what status a request is in.

User Feedback

  • ✓ Address issues with legacy IDM

    ✓ Take user complaints that CMS receives and find the right solution

  • ✓ Add informative text to screens

    ✓ Create and update copy and verbiage for error messages

  • ✓ Explain design decisions to stakeholders for approval

    ✓ Communicate directly with development teams to make changes and clarify validation

Form-Filling process

✓ Added context to each page

✓ Reformatted the Helpdesk Details button to be less prominent but still visible

✓ Improved the design of the step icons, highlighting which step is active

✓ Made required fields more notable

Post-Submission

✓ Updated content and improved the design of the post-submission message

✓ Added new columns to the My Requests page

Key factors and learnings in this process

  • With so many things changing relatively quickly, I must meet deadlines— even if that deadline is the next day

  • Having side tasks and projects where I’m able to create and iterate quickly has helped me build my design skillset

  • Being the go-to designer for legacy enhancements has helped me build a strong relationship with our stakeholders and developers

  • Our legacy application has no design system, meaning every change I make has to be built out or designed over

  • When given feedback about a specific feature or function of our application, the solution isn’t always obvious, but a little brain power goes a long way

  • I have to work directly with development to find a solution that solves the problems and doesn’t take them away from their other work

↯ These changes are currently being implemented to all development environments. Once the updates are fully available to our users, we will solicit feedback through weekly stakeholder syncs and quarterly user group meetings.