Understand the problem.
When servicemembers separate from the military, they're given a characterization of discharge. This determines if they receive the benefits they earned with their service. If the characterization is 'dishonorable' or 'other than honorable,' that can cost Veterans their healthcare, education, and other VA benefits. It is sometimes literally a matter of life and death. If a servicemember was discharged for things that are no longer considered dishonorable -- for example, for being gay -- they can apply to have their characterization of discharge upgraded to 'honorable,' so their benefits get reinstated. If you submit your paperwork incorrectly, or to the wrong authority, it can set your case back for years. It's really easy to do this process wrong, and that's what we needed to fix.
Use existing patterns to solve the problem.
VA.gov (Vets.gov at the time this work was done) has clear, repeatable UI patterns. Everything we built from zero needed to adhere to these patterns, but that meant instead of spending cycles deciding on form layouts and the like, we could use an existing decision tree pattern to build a paperwork wizard. If the biggest challenge was knowing what paperwork to submit to whom, we could map that out and build the wizard to step people through the process. It was my responsibility to prototype the screens in Sketch and validate them with my project manager, lead researcher, and engineering team. As a team, we were also very focused on the language we chose, making the effort to write in plain English instead of legalese, and preserving the phrases and patterns that Veterans understand.
Validate the new solution with real people.
Nothing is real until it's been tested with the people who need the solution. We designed a wizard that ends in clear instructions about what paperwork to submit, and to which authority, based on the information a Veteran enters. I helped conduct hours of interviews with Veterans who were either undergoing the upgrade process, wanted to upgrade, or had successfully (or not) upgraded their characterizations of discharge. We had to be sensitive to people's experiences as we did this research -- often, dishonorable or 'other-than-honorable' discharges are the direct result of personal trauma.
"Bravo Zulu, guys."
Our testing showed us the solution we'd built worked, and worked well. One Veteran praised the work by saying 'Bravo Zulu,' meaning, 'well done,' wishing he'd had the tool available when he needed it. The release of the Discharge Wizard was met favorably by the military community, and anecdotally we've heard that more Veterans are successfully applying for upgrades than ever before. Nearly four years after its initial release, the Wizard remains online and functional.