Project Overview
In 2021, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) launched the VA Health and Benefits mobile app (VAHB) to provide Veterans with convenient, seamless, and secure access to their healthcare and benefits information.
For this project, we were tasked with enabling Veterans to add their Preferred Name and Gender Identity to the profile section of the app. By prioritizing accessibility and usability, we aimed to enhance how Veterans are recognized and represented across VA services.
Scope and Objectives
The goal of this project was to integrate Preferred Name and Gender Identity into the VA: Health and Benefits mobile app’s profile section, ensuring seamless synchronization with a Veteran’s VA.gov profile.
This update aimed to provide Veterans with more control over how their identity is displayed, fostering a more inclusive and user-centered experience. To achieve this, we focused on enhancing personalization, ensuring data synchronization, prioritizing accessibility and usability, and maintaining security and privacy.
Challenges
- Technical Constraints – Integrating new identity fields while ensuring smooth data synchronization with existing VA systems.
- Policy and Compliance Considerations – Aligning the feature with VA policies and security requirements while maintaining user privacy.
- Designing for Clarity and Sensitivity – Creating an experience that is welcoming and inclusive while clearly explaining how Preferred Name and Gender Identity are used.
- Ensuring Accessibility – Meeting WCAG standards to ensure all Veterans, including those using assistive technologies, can easily update their information.
By addressing these challenges, we worked to deliver a solution that not only met functional requirements but also enhanced the overall Veteran experience within the app.
Approach and Process
We focused on integrating Preferred Name and Gender Identity into the app’s profile section, ensuring alignment with VA.gov and a smooth, user-friendly experience. Our approach included researching VA.gov implementation, mapping the user flow, and using existing design components. We worked closely with the Product Manager to ensure the final design met the project goals and provided a seamless experience.
Key steps included:
Research and Alignment
Researched how and where Preferred Name and Gender Identity were implemented on VA.gov to ensure consistency in the mobile app.
User Flows & Architecture
Mapped the user journey for updating Preferred Name and Gender Identity, ensuring a clear and intuitive process to update within the profile area.
UX / UI Design
Used existing design system components for consistency and streamlined implementation and collaborated with the content designer to ensure clear, inclusive language.
Development and Launch
Conducted accessibility testing, ensured accurate development, performed usability tests with Veterans to verify data sync with VA.gov, and successfully launched the feature.
Research and Alignment
The first step was aligning the Preferred Name and Gender Identity feature with the VA.gov platform. We researched how these fields were implemented on VA.gov to ensure consistency between the web and mobile versions. Key research activities included:
- Reviewing the structure and design of the VA.gov profile area
- Understanding the data synchronization method between VA.gov and the mobile app
- Analyzing content guidelines and existing language used on VA.gov
This research helped us ensure that the mobile app experience would align seamlessly with the web platform.
User Flows and Architecture
After researching VA.gov’s approach, we mapped out the user journey for updating Preferred Name and Gender Identity within the mobile app. Previously, the profile screen combined both personal and contact information into a single child screen. To align with VA.gov’s structure and improve usability, we separated these into two distinct child screens — Personal Information and Contact Information.
Key tasks included:
- Designing a clear, intuitive process to navigate to and update Preferred Name and Gender Identity within the Personal Information screen
- Ensuring easy access and a streamlined flow for Veterans to update their information
The result was a seamless, user-friendly flow that simplified the process, aligned with the VA ecosystem, and improved accessibility by enhancing the discoverability of personalization options, making the user experience more intuitive.
UX / UI Design
For the design phase, we adhered to the app’s existing design system to maintain visual consistency and streamline implementation. Since the app already had pre-established components, we didn’t need to design anything new but focused on integrating the new fields within the profile layout.
Key steps in this phase included:
- Using existing design system components for consistency
- Collaborating with the content designer to ensure inclusive and clear language
- Creating a design that respected the app’s aesthetic while integrating the new fields naturally
The goal was to make the new feature feel like a natural extension of the existing profile area, both visually and functionally.
Development and Launch
Once the design was implemented, we moved into the testing phase. This step involved:
- Conducting accessibility reviews to ensure compliance with WCAG and Section 508 standards
- Verifying that data updates were accurately syncing between the mobile app and VA.gov
- Performing usability tests to ensure the feature was easy for Veterans to find and update
After thorough QA, we successfully launched the feature, giving Veterans the ability to update their Preferred Name and Gender Identity in the mobile app with confidence that their information would sync seamlessly with their VA.gov profile.
Note: Due to policy changes implemented by the Trump administration, the option to update gender identity was removed from the VA: Health and Benefits mobile app in February 2025. As a result, the screen recording shown here only reflects the update for Preferred Name.
Outcome and Impact
The integration of Preferred Name and Gender Identity into the VA: Health and Benefits mobile app gave Veterans more control over their identity, ensuring it synced seamlessly with their VA.gov profiles.
Key impacts included:
- Increased Personalization – Veterans could update their preferred name and gender identity, fostering greater control over their profiles.
- Consistency with VA.gov – Ensured alignment across platforms, reinforcing trust and familiarity with VA services.
- Improved User Experience – Simplified, intuitive design made it easy for Veterans to update their information.
This feature enhanced inclusivity and usability, improving the overall experience for Veterans while aligning with the VA’s mission to provide personalized services for Veterans.