For the last three decades, VA employees have been using the same software, database, and processes to review veterans interested in using their GI Bill benefits. While these tools might have been state-of-the-art during the era of walkman, pogs, and Kobe (RIP), they are painfully antiquated for the needs of today.
Fjord was brought in to use human-centered processes and creative problem solving to consolidate services, identify opportunities for automation, and make the process of going back to school as easy as possible for our veterans and their families.
Note: The DGIB project is a massive 10 year project with many overlapping pieces. For this portfolio piece, I'll be focusing on the Benefit Manager; a robust application that the VA will use to review and authorize requests to release educational funds.
The Problem:Old software, fractionalized databases, and outdated UI has caused headaches for schools, claims examiners, and—most importantly—Veterans who want to use their GI bill benefits.
The Opportunity:With a $500 million contract and a young, talented, humen-centered team, the VA has the funds, the skill, and the experience to completely reimagine the GI process.
The Solution:Build a custom application that simplifies the application process and streamlines how Veteran Claim Examiners evaluate and approve, and release educational benefits.
Over two weeks we interviewed 50+ VA employees, veterans, and educational staff, each with their own specific needs and responsibilities within the GI Bill process. We talked about the procedures they follow, the tools they use, and what they would like to see in a new application.
What we got was hundreds of windows into the struggles and opportunities of the current GI Bill process; a wealth of notes and verbatims for us to analyze and build from.
To better visualize the different steps, systems, and roles that make up the GI Bill process, we needed to map them out. Clustering and defining the notes we collected into specific actions and outcomes, we could visual track the journey of a GI Bill claim and map out the specific steps in the process.
Once we had a better understanding of the GI Bill approval process, we started identifying areas of automation in the and started creating low-fi mockups a new Veteran application system.
After blueprinting a new GI Bull application approval process, we started putting together hi-fidelity wires. Using the VA's design systems (VA design system), we mocked up the individual steps and actions a claims examiner will take when reviewing a veteran's claim for benefits.
Once approved, we handed the wires to the development team and provided support and quality assurance as the developers turned our designs into a working application.
As certain steps and features of the Benefit Application was designed, we would schedule, organize, and facilitate user testing sessions. In these sessions we asked user to find certain information and perform common task using the new application.
We then plotted our findings in an impact vs effort matrix and worked with our client to determine what we should fix now, what we should fix later, and what can be solved through training.
