HM Armed Services Veteran Card
A new Government Service
It started in 2018 with a ministerial promise from Teresa May for UK veterans to get better and easier access to much needed information and services. Two years later, the government had managed to complete a discovery and an initial Alpha phase. With only 6 months to go until the launch of private Beta, we put together a new team to deliver against pressing timelines, intense public scrutiny and all the usual challenges of rainbow teams and remote fully working.
Client Government UK
Role Lead Designer
Team Delivery team of 15, 1 Content designer, 1 User researcher
Time 18 months, 2022-2024
Key results
The new service passed Beta assessment on first attempt, went live and scaled from processing a few hundred to hundreds of thousands of applications in the course of weeks. The results were a huge success for the government, the users and the team.
Build and launched a new award-winning government service
Build and launched a CRM processing sensitive data
Built on and developed a new Design System
Impact
The impact of design was tangible in how it enabled end users to apply, process and receive their Veteran cards proving their service and identity as a previous service person. Design led and shaped the process, the architecture of the service, the key metrics of scaling up capacity and the iteration over internal processes to build and implement automation where possible.
Design as a driver for discovery
Design as a facilitator
Design as strategic partner for delivery
Learnings
The biggest learnings was that coordination and integration takes time, especially when working remotely and with a team of various backgrounds. Having shared equipment and systems, shared language, and a common goal in what to achieve together makes a huge difference. Building something people can feel proud of is a huge driver for success.
Approach
This project required end-to-end design and development of the new government service. This meant front of house and back of house operations, identifying use cases, and articulating processing guidelines and policies.
Understanding users and constraints
Together with our user researcher we identified all participants in the service. We started mapping out journeys, and our primary constraints: data management. One key opportunity was to build a bespoke back-of-house data management product to enable staff in processing applications.
Iterative and continuous improvement
We were able to build in stages to enable key milestones in the product management and release cycle. Working collaboratively, cross-cutting disciplines allowed us to share common ideas and objectives, but also help with each other’s questions in how we can make our work better.
Design systems
For the front of house web application we used and build with the GDS Design system, however our backend processing tool had to adhere to the MoD design system standard. This was essentially a new design system we had to build out and develop as we worked through our design development.
GDS Design process
We relied and utilised most of the GOV.UK GDS guidance in how to build for user centred design. We had an external accessibility test done and prepared for Beta assessment, which we passed at first trial (an unusual but highly welcome milestone).
Going live
We went live on a Sunday, which was celebrated with a slot on the Sunday breakfast TV news segment of noteworthy events in the UK. We had segmented tranches and managed a scale-up in numbers in line with our iterations of automated processings in the backend. Last but not least we won a couple of nominations and a Government service award. The team that had held together for more than 12 months had become trusted friends and colleagues.