Faithful readers know that we write many Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grants for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). This is Service Area Competition (SAC) season, so we’ve been writing some. Any grant writer who’s worked for FQHCs is familiar with HRSA’s UDS Mapper Tool, which has been around since 2010 and is needed to generate required data for many HRSA proposals. Much to our surprise, it turns out that HRSA replaced the UDS Mapper tool with the GeoCare Navigator last year.
Even though we’ve used the UDS Mapper Tool for almost 15 years, it remained so inscrutable to the user that we created a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for new team members. Initially we were delighted to learn about the transition to the GeoCare Navigator. Unfortunately, we soon learned that instead of being inscrutable like the UDS Mapper tool, the GeoCare Navigator is merely incomprehensible. Thanks, HRSA.
One of the challenges is that, like it’s predecessor, GeoCare Navigator is used for multiple purposes—a jack of all trades, a master of none (I just made this up). S + A, however, is only interested in using it as a data engine, so I can’t speak to its other functions. Follow the link above, and you’ll see that the home screen is a US map with a few buttons. It’s the definition of a bad user interface/use experience (“UI/UE,” a little coder lingo for you). For fun, click on the “Get Started” button and give it a try. When you get frustrated in about two minutes, click on the “Ask Questions” button. After about five minutes, you’ll be in need of strong drink.
We use lots of typical business software, along with some more esoteric programs. If any of our software was as hard to understand as GeoCare Navigator, we’d ditch in a heartbeat. But those of us who slave in the HRSA grant writing salt mines have no choice. Which begs the question: why is government generally so lousy? We all know why, but every now and again a rhetorical question is appropriate.
I’m pretty sure that one of Elon’s DOGE whiz kids could have solved the GeoCare Navigator UI/UE issue in an afternoon, but DOGE came and went like a summer breeze, so we’re back to standard federal software challenges. There’s nothing to be done about this except whine in our blog and create a new SOP for GeoCare Navigator. Who knows, maybe by next SAC season, HRSA will have attempted yet another upgrade.
And why do upgrades of federal software usually make it worse? Another recent case in point is a significant change to grants.gov . Like GeoCare Navigator, grants.gov is used for several purposes. Since S + A is never a grant applicant, the only function we use is searching for currently open RFPs, which we’ve been doing since grants.gov was created in 2002. Until a few months ago, and to quote the Talking Heads Once in a Lifetime, the grants.gov RFP search tool was the “same as it ever was.”
Recently I noticed, however, that when I clicked on the familiar Seach Grants button, I got two choices, “Classic Search” and “New Simpler Search.” Wait for it . . . the Simpler is not simpler and if anything is more complex as one must drill through a “filters” tab, unlike the Classic Search which shows filters on the home screen. This is beyond dumb as only a rank amateur would attempt a search without filtering results in some manner. Even better, there’s this warning at the top of the home screen: “This site is a work in progress, with new features and updates based on your feedback.” In other words, we’re all beta testers for grants.gov! Try to imagine Amazon replacing its home screen with a new version that hadn’t been fully beta tested? I can’t either.