Optimizing the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report's (MMWR's) Website Users' Experience through Analysis of Foresee's American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Web-Based Survey Data

Background: With the increased demand for easily accessible health information, scientific journals, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), must deliver accurate and easily located information on their websites to efficiently meet readers’ needs. To be responsive to readers’ needs and ensure that information reaches target populations (e.g. health communicators, clinicians, public health practitioners, and students), MMWR staff monitor the website’s effectiveness. One evaluation tool is the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) administered by ForeSee. ACSI survey data provide real-time information regarding user experience and website performance. 

Program background: MMWR is known as the “Voice of the CDC” and publishes timely, credible public health information and recommendations. The MMWR website has 23 million page views and 14 million unique visitors per year. MMWR is currently focused on expanding its reach among students and younger health professionals.  ForeSee’s ACSI survey data can be used to inform MMWR health communication and marketing strategies and evaluate the expansion of reach among subsets of their target populations.

Evaluation Methods and Results: ForeSee’s ACSI survey consists of 20 questions used to assess 8 categories: functionality, look and feel, navigation, site performance, site information, return rates, information browsing,  and overall customer satisfaction score (CSS). These questions are scored using a 10-point scale and an overall weighted score is produced for each category. A score of 80 out of 100 is considered an excellent rating by ForeSee. The survey also consists of 12 custom CDC questions assessing user demographics, purpose of the site visit, and recommendations for site improvements. Users are invited to participate after three clicks while browsing the site. September 2015-February 2017 data were analyzed (N=1,938). Key findings show respondents were primarily women (63%), many respondents were aged 50-64 years (45%), and most respondents had advanced degrees (58%). The majority of respondents (66%) were among MMWR’s target audience: health care providers (36%), employees of public health agencies (11%), students (10%), and researchers (9%). The overall CSS was 80. Users reported that they were very likely to return to the website (CSS=92) and also recommend the site to someone else (CSS=88). Users were highly satisfied with site performance (CSS=89), site information (CSS=84), along with look and feel (CSS=83). Areas for potential improvement included information browsing (CSS=76) and navigation (CSS=79).

Conclusions: While overall satisfaction with the site was excellent, analysis showed areas for potential improvement, especially in navigation, browsing, and increasing reach among certain demographics. Recognizing that only a small fraction of MMWR’s website users responded to the survey, these data remain helpful in providing rich contextual information and may be used in tandem with additional evaluation activities to identify website modifications.

Implications for research and/or practice:  ForeSee’s ACSI survey data provide information that health communications and marketing programs can use to inform quality improvements of their websites and increase user satisfaction.  Implementation of changes based on these findings might boost website usability, appeal, and reach.