Booz | Allen | Hamilton
The Veterans Affairs (VA) internal cloud server purchase site
Duration
2013-2014
Type
#VA, #Consulting, #Commerce
Responsibilities
personas, sitemaps, wire-framing, lo + high fidelity
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 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.
User Testing
Before moving on to high-fidelity mockups, I tested the lo-fi mockups with the main point of contact on the project and two additional participants. Here are some of the improvements made based on user feedback:
Users wanted a clean and modern design
Users stated the need to access cloud hosting plans directly from the home page
Final Design
After taking into account user feedback and iterating on the prototype, the final design was complete. Because the process of buying cloud servers was complely offline the users were appreciative that they could now handle it indepently, quickly, and with ease.
Takeaways
Looking back on the Veterans Affairs project, there are several aspects that could have been approached differently to enhance its success. Firstly, having a clearer understanding of the sitemap or information architecture (IA) from the project's inception would have provided a more solid foundation for the design process.
Next Steps
What would a mobile application look like? This project only focused on a desktop and tablet website experience. It would be interesting to see what a dedicated mobile application would look like with the same user ended goals in mind.
What can be improved with the design? UX design is an ongoing process. The next steps include continuing usability testing and constant iteration.
What other opportunities exist to sell internally to the staff? While cloud servers were only the next step what other off-the-shelf tools could be useful to the internal user.
