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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:​

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


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.