Context
The Department of Veteran Affairs is the agency of the Federal Government that provides benefits, healthcare and cemetery services to military veterans. I was brought into the UX Design team at ByLight to lead the redesign of the My HealtheVet Admin Portal. The new redesign I proposed was projected to help users find patient information 10 seconds faster than the legacy version.
The MyHealtheVet site is a medical resource and health portal for Veterans, that allows them to access their medical records, fill prescriptions, make appointments, communicate with their doctors, and find other services or VA-related information.
The Admin Portal enables VA staff with authorized roles to assist Veteran users with Premium, Basic Matched or Basic Unmatched accounts who come to the site and are unable to access their account or complete their desired task.
Due to the sensitivity of the organization I can't share specific aspects of my designs publicly. If you'd like to learn more about the process and this project, feel free to contact me.
User pain points
🛑 A fragmented legacy interface and high cognitive load hindered the efficiency of patient information retrieval.
🛑 Oversaturated search form and a lack of visual affordances for required fields led to user fatigue and increased input errors.
🛑 Poor information hierarchy and a lack of logical grouping increased cognitive friction, directly inflating time on task for core workflows.
Specific Contributions
Research & Strategy
✅ Research synthesis: Transformed legacy data, previous user research data and competitive analysis into actionable design concepts.
✅ Stakeholder Alignment: Led biweekly presentations to VA stakeholders to bridge the gap between user needs and agency goals.
✅ Research synthesis: Transformed legacy data, previous user research data and competitive analysis into actionable design concepts.
✅ Stakeholder Alignment: Led biweekly presentations to VA stakeholders to bridge the gap between user needs and agency goals.
Design
✅ Design System Integration: Utilized and expanded the VA pattern library to ensure 508 compliance and visual consistency.
✅ Rapid Iteration: Developed high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes in Adobe XD, integrating feedback from users and stakeholders in two week sprint increments.
✅ Design System Integration: Utilized and expanded the VA pattern library to ensure 508 compliance and visual consistency.
✅ Rapid Iteration: Developed high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes in Adobe XD, integrating feedback from users and stakeholders in two week sprint increments.
Execution & Delivery
✅ Agile Collaboration: Partnered with PMs and Engineering to define sprint goals and ensure technical feasibility.
✅ Seamless Handoff: Managed version control and developer documentation to streamline the build process.
Design impact
The MyHealtheVet admin portal redesign successfully engaged VA stakeholders who had historically been distanced from the design process. By socializing user research insights and presenting key interview findings, I established a data-driven rationale for design decisions, which was instrumental in securing stakeholder buy-in. Furthermore, these research outcomes directly informed feature prioritization during sprint and increment planning.
The redesigned interface significantly decreased average time-on-task. User testing confirmed that the new layout effectively reduced cognitive fatigue, with participants describing the interface as “cleaner and decluttered.” Users also reported increased confidence in search accuracy, noting it was “a lot easier to find information” for critical, high-frequency tasks such as password resets.
If you want to learn more details please contact me I'm always happy to chat!
