Booz | Allen | Hamilton
The Veterans Affairs (VA) internal cloud server purchase site
Duration
2013-2014
Type
#VA, #Consulting, #Commerce
Responsibilities
personas, sitemaps, wire-framing
What is the VA?
The VA, or the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, is a government agency that provides a wide range of services and benefits to veterans, their families, and survivors. The VA is responsible for administering various programs related to healthcare, disability compensation, education and training, home loans, life insurance, vocational rehabilitation, and employment assistance.
The VA operates a network of medical centers, clinics, and nursing homes across the country, offering comprehensive medical services to eligible veterans. They also provide mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and counseling services to help veterans cope with the challenges they may face after leaving military service.
In addition to healthcare services, the VA offers financial assistance to veterans through disability compensation and pension programs, education and training benefits, and home loan programs. The VA also provides support to veterans seeking employment, job training, and small business assistance.
Overall, the VA plays a vital role in providing critical support and services to veterans, ensuring that they receive the care and assistance they need to successfully transition back into civilian life.
The Problem
The Veterans Affairs (VA) faced a challenge in purchasing cloud servers internally and required an intuitive interface design to facilitate this process. It was crucial for the interface to allow the VA to select and price out individual servers, as well as add them to a shopping cart for streamlined purchasing. The focus of this problem statement is solely on the process of selecting and pricing servers, while the removal of servers from the cart will be handled separately in another interface and does not need to be addressed here.
The Solution
A responsive site that allows internal members of the Veterans Affairs to self-serve cloud hosting plans for their internal projects.
Understanding the User
I started the research process by interviewing the client and gathering requirements. This helped me better understand how the VA was hoping to be able to purchase cloud server by going over ideal scenarios, and talking over particular data points that would be relevant in the selection procress.
Research Insight
Here were some of the insights gathered from the research:
Users would like to know how much the cloud server will cost
Users were interested in having a shopping cart feature
There was a requirement to be able to access from a tablet and eventually mobile device
Personas
Following the analysis of user research findings, the next step was to develop personas, which aided in envisioning the intended audience. To facilitate the design process, I ensured that one particular persona effectively represented a user that was interested in acquiring internal cloud space and who was enthusiastic about improving the workflow process, taking into account their pain points and frustrations. This persona served as a constant reference point throughout the entirety of the product design journey, helping to maintain a clear focus when making design choices.
Sitemap
Afterward, the focus shifted towards conceptualizing the structure of the product mainly thinking about what the functions and main actions required at this particular part of the process.
Given this perspective, I prioritized the use of desktop computers or tablets and proceeded to design a sitemap that visually depicted the primary user journey within the product.
Sketches
At the onset of the design phase, I initiated the process by creating preliminary sketches outlining the desired page layout. My objective was to enable users to easily navigate between their cloud hosting options and have the ability to add the servers to their cart and move on quickly.
Low-Fidelity Prototype
With the foundation of the website's structure in place, the next step involved crafting low-fidelity wireframes. These wireframes served as initial representations of each screen's layout and content. Subsequently, these wireframes were transformed into lo-fi prototypes, allowing for a rapid assessment of how the screens should seamlessly flow together.