The Veteran-centered purpose:

"I want to quickly learn the most critical information about this VA medical center without the alert blocking the rest of the web page." 

Keep it brief

Alerts are meant to be short  and easy to understand. Lengthy banner alerts make it harder for Veterans to understand critical information.

• Use as few words as possible.
• Use language that is as plain and simple as possible.
• Remember that up to 50% of your site visitors use mobile devices. A long banner will mean endless scrolling (and endless frustration) for them. Suggestion: look at your banner on a mobile device after it's published.

Use links

If the message you need to convey is long or complex, use these strategies to keep the alert brief:

• Summarize the main points of the message in a series of no more than 5 brief bullet points. Then create one or more separate detail pages with more in-depth information. Link out to those pages from the bullets.
• Consider putting extended information on the Operating Status page, if appropriate. Link to the operating status page by checking the "Get updates on affected facilities and services" call to action option in the edit form.

Make it dismissible

Except for emergency alerts, we strongly encourage you to make your banners dismissible. Do this by checking the "Alert dismissible" box when building your banner. Many visitors will prefer to read the banner, absorb the message, and be done with it. They'll likely get annoyed if they have to scroll past it each time they visit your site. 

Note: This is even more important for visitors who use screen readers. If they can't dismiss the banner, they'll have to listen to the screen reader announce the banner each time they come back to visit.

Example 

XYZ Medical Center is closed today (June 4, 2022) due to a power outage.

• If you have an appointment, don’t come in. Your care team will contact you to reschedule.
• If you need care right away, go to the nearest hospital.