Why:
I have employer provided healthcare. So I don't have to log in. Heard a lot of stories about how bad that site is and how slow it is, glitches etc etc. So decided to take a test drive.
My Setup
I am using a quite powerful three year old computer. (4 processors, 8 GB memory, Win7). I am using Chrome browser, flashblock, adblock installed. No other funny things like NoScript, disabled javascript, etc. Connection is quite good, normally 50 Mbps download, 25 Mbps upload, Verizon FiOS service. But I had logged into my work via VPN and that has crippled my bandwidth to 4 Mbps upload, 2Mbps download. Sort of like a run-of-the mill cable internet connection or very good DSL service. I am very familiar with internet and browsing etc. Would rate myself as an above average user.
First run
Easy to log in. Was able to get to browsing for plans without logging in. Was able to see the general premia for the plans. But won't give me details about deductibles, coinsurance, OOP Max etc. Was able to cut and paste the name of the plan and search for it in Google. Many thirdparty sites have sprung up, who provide concise summary of these plans. That is good. HC.G kept saying, "log in, create an account, see if you are eligible for subsidies" all the time. I know I am not eligible, so I did not care.
Actual enrollment
Decided to actually create a log-in and see what happens. User name is case sensitive, needs a capital letter, lower case letter and a symbol. What the hell? Then came password. Cap, lowercase, symbol and a numeral too. Need an email. Need to click from email to validate email address. Have to set up security questions.
Then came enrollment, addresses, phone numbers, identity verification etc. Identity verified by past addresses, and current credit cards. So it is clear HC.G is talking to credit reporting companies. It did not ask for SSN. But kept saying you must provide it to calculate subsidy. So it is clear they are cross checking with other agencies for it. That could slow down or freeze the session. But I skipped all that.
It did ask for affirmation that all people applying for coverage are US citizens and none of them have been incarcerated. I was like, come on, get on with it.
I clicked on "explain this" link and it opened help in a separate tab. I did not realize it. I spent some time trying to figure out why I am not finding anyway to continue the enrollment and why I was trapped in help and usability surveys. Then saw the new tab and went back to the old tab and resumed. This could confuse some users.
I had to click on the word "SET" in some place. But the cursor did not change to indicate that is a clickable link. That too could confuse some users. Live chat was available in every page. I did not use it.
Then names of people in the family, whether all are applying for the same group or some or going into different plans etc. They have thought about families enrolling their children in low cost plans and allowing elders to choose higher level plans. Good for them.
In full glory:
Then in full glory all the plans in all the levels, the premia, were shown in tabular columns. Can filter out the levels not desired. Summary of deductible, OOP max, coinsurance percentage in the table. Monthly premium in huge bold letters. Chokeful of pages explaining terms like co-insurance, deductible, OOPmax, etc etc. Links to provider directory. There is ability to save selected plans. And to compare selected plans. Gold plans were comparable to what my employer mentioned as healthcare cost in the last year's W2.
Logged in sessions seems to be archived and resumed. Site was not too slow. It did not crash.
Expectations vs reality:
I was quite depressed by all the reports about the glitches and universal condemnation of HC.G as irreparably broken and various estimates of complexity like 500 million lines of code, 56 contractors, blah blah blah. Was sad, such an important project has been screwed up by bad execution. Then there were liberal blogs reporting, "all problems will be fixed by end of November", but almost everyone else was saying, "that site is broken beyond repair". After actually taking a personal test drive, I think the estimate of all bugs being ironed out by end of November seems to be quite reasonable.
Verdict:Lots of good, some bad, nothing ugly.
Please do not blindly repeat, "HC.G is a mess, but the plan is good, the law is good etc". The law is good, the plan is good and the site is, at worst, mediocre. It will be acceptably good soon. Take a test drive yourself and then decide whether it is as bad as it looks.
What we can do to help.
The technology behind it is decent and they can fix it easily. What most techies don't get, I am talking as a techie myself, are user expectations and usability questions. So please help them by telling the user perspective, things that confuse the user, what they can do in the user interface. There is a usability survey in every help page. Take it, write comments and help them improve the help pages.