Improving Veteran Applications

Mission:

Improve Veterans' access to benefits earned through service by digitizing critical paper applications

UX Support:

Discovery, product and service design, usability research

Digitizing the notorious ‘4138’

Our team audited all VA forms and selected VA Form 21-4138, ‘Statement in Support of a Claim,’ for digitization.

Despite being paper-only, over 1 million 4138s were submitted in 2023.

The Problem

Over the years, processing the 4138 has become more and more difficult.

As benefit programs expanded, so have the types of statements Veterans submit.

VA created alternative forms and services hoping to replace the 4138.

However, usage has continued to increase.

PROJECT GOALS

1. Digitize VA Form 21-4138 without contributing to the burden it currently poses for form processors.
2. Decrease generic 21-4138 usage for top requests, and increase usage of more targeted alternatives.

HOW MIGHT WE…

…surface alternative applications to Veterans?

…persuade Veterans to consider alternative services?

PRINCIPLES

Universally accessible, plain language content, ‘One thing at a time’ form design, form minimalism

TOOLS

Mural, Figma, Slack, GitHub, ZenHub

INSPIRATION

US Web Design System (USWDS)
VA Design System
GOV.uk design system

Contact

email@domain.com

000-000-000

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— Facebook

Contextual wayfinding

After several rounds of design and testing low-fidelity concepts, we decided to present a navigational question on step one of the digitized 4138.

Annotated wireframes defining the end point for each type of statement

To validate that our approach would help reduce 4138 submissions without deterring Veterans from their goal, we set out to:

1. Evaluate the usability of a pre-form subtask that asks users to identify their statement type and explore relevant alternatives before completing a 21-4138.

2. Evaluate the effectiveness of presenting a subtask to users in the flow of accessing the form.

Result

During 8 user research sessions with blinded and sighted Veterans, we explored a total of 10 hypothetical scenarios.

Of the 10 scenarios, only 2 resulted in the Veteran choosing to submit their information via the 4138.