A form in need of user assistance

Medibank Private, one of Australia’s private health insurance companies, now allows you to claim payments for ‘Extras’ such as pharmaceutical products online.

I had my first experience of making an online claim over the weekend, and it was a little frustrating…

The initial screen is simple enough, but on the second screen I got stuck and got at least four error messages telling me I hadn’t filled in some information correctly. I was ready to give up, then took a guess on what they were asking me — fortunately, I answered correctly and got through the rest of the process.

The web form I filled out had NO Help/user assistance on screen that showed me how I had to complete certain fields, specifically those I’ve highlighted in yellow in the screen shot below.

Strength? Huh? I left this field blank initially (there was no red asterisk to tell me it was a required field, as there was for fields on the Step 1 screen). After being told (in red!) that I had entered the strength incorrectly, I eventually took a punt that the 50/500 on the ointment tube might be ‘strength’.

Pack size? Well, the tube said 30 g, so I entered 30 g. Nope. Got a red error messages telling me of my FAILURE AS A HUMAN BEING FOR BEING SO DUMB error for this one too. So I tried 30. Nope. I then put in 1 (there was only one tube after all), and this time Medibank Private thought I was a slightly intelligent human after all.

PBS or Private? Huh? What are these? I punted on Private, hoping I was right, and I was allowed to continue without further error.

How could Medibank Private improve this form? Here are two ways:

• Provide user assistance right up front on the form, either next to the relevant fields, or in a little popup that displays when the user hovers over a question mark symbol or similar. This is the best and most user-friendly option.
• Provide a Help link/button prominently on the form (above or below with the Continue button etc.) where each field is explained in enough detail to help a user complete it without having to guess what Medibank Private wants you to fill in. This is the least preferred option, but it’s better than nothing, which is what they have now.