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Client
Office for Veterans' Affairs
Domain
Public Sector
Service
User Research
Return to Case studies

Designing digital verification for two million Armed Forces Veterans​

Using collaborative design to map the stories and create the technical solution to realise the vision for a UK veteran card​

Since 2018, veterans leaving the armed forces have been provided with a physical card that entitled them to discounts and support services. Transform’s job was to design the new digital service that would extend this to all living veterans, solving complex technical challenges along the way.​

So, we got to work.

Identifying the challenge:

The are two million UK Armed Forces Veterans. The Armed Forces covenant commits the UK to being “best place in world to be a veteran”. ​

At the heart of this is helping Veterans more quickly and easily prove their service, so they can access the services and discounts they are entitled to.​

The challenge was proving who they said they were and they had served in the Armed Forces, without unnecessary delay.​

Solving this meant understanding and the human context alongside the complex technical and data security challenges that would serve Veterans, while satisfying the security priorities of the MOD.​

​User Research in identifying veteran needs

The Discovery was carried out over nine weeks. We built vital relationships with MOD technology, digital, Armed Forces Branches, LAs, Veterans charities.

Through workshops, contextual inquiry, interviews, data analysis and co-design, we involved:​

  • 25 Veteran interviews​
  • 17 Government stakeholder interviews​
  • 7 third-party interviews​
  • 803 veterans' survey responses​
  • 4 workshops​
  • 18 technical knowledge transfer sessions​

Our findings highlighted previously unknown challenges and opportunities for veterans, including:

  • Waiting periods up to 9 months to confirm service history​
  • Frequent absence of physical artefacts proving service​
  • Burdens on disclosure centres​
  • Lack of clear recording of the case files, meaning veterans having to start again ​
  • Clear demand and need for the card, not only for services but increasing a sense of value and recognition of their service

Defining the future service:​​

By understanding veterans’ needs, we were able to design the future service vision, end-to-end blueprint and a technical and data solution that would deliver the digital-first service.