A new experience for IOS and Android
United Airline is one of the most recognizable brands in the travel industry. Looking towards the future they are looking not only to refresh their brand but also offer new features and interactions for their web and native mobile users.
The Team
Brenda - Project Manager
Adam - Sr. business analyst
Me - Sr. UX Designer
Project Details
Length of Project - 6 months
Goal - Apply the new branding concepts and features to the booking and shopping paths within the IOS and Android app.
Vik - Lead Developer
Understanding
& Research
My first step is always to gather information that may help me understand the problem from a high level.
JD Power
JD Power reviewed the current app and identified areas of improvement that include loading speed and user comprehension.
Source: JP Power
Opinion Lab
Daily comments that users say about the app and web that is gathered though comments and customer support.
SME
Meeting all the people involved and what their goals are with their project.
The Approach
Learning about what customers where saying along with the existing work that was already
Interviewing the ideal users and understand their frustrations and needs
Interviews with Vets showed that the vast number of vets did not get training in careers they wanted to pursue post service.
Also they were given very little guidance in relocating or re-acclimating to civilian life.
Confirmation
Hearing the same consistent problems and frustrations first hand was important to confirm the stakeholders own experiences
What People Say
...Felt that their service left them years behind their peers in terms of career and professional development.
I really enjoyed most of the time [in the military]...I took it well then, but late I didn't...it was hard to come back to the real world.
When I was applying for jobs, I would not put down that I was a disabled vet.
Synthesizing
Distilling the information that I gathered from veterans and delving deeper into the concepts and pain points.
Jessica Lake
Jessica served in the Navy for 3 years. She was planning on serving as a career but a medical issue forced her to leave the navy.
Jessica was originally from a small town in Florida, but she wants to try a big city experience such as New York or L.A.
Jessica is concerned with finding a supportive community in a new city.
Andrew Bates
Andrew served in the Army as a Ranger for 6 years.
Andrew initially served to pay for college, however, he ended up serving a bit longer to perhaps make a career in the military. Now he wants to enroll in college and got into his first choice. The college is however in a state he is unfamiliar with.
Andrew is nervous about money and getting his benefits in another state..
Design Direction
The solution should help veterans find and be found by companies communities in cities they want to live in as well as giving them the confidence to move forward with personal/professional goals after service.
Insights
Successful veterans often rely on a mentor within their network.
Careers ambiguity tends to be the largest blocker for most veterans looking to transition into civilian life.
Veterans are extraordinarily good at completing tasks laid out before them, however the difficulties are within the creation of the steps.
Job recruiters, HR managers, and veterans themselves to not know how to translate military abilities into skilled and abilities that are useful in civilian life.
Site Map
From the research we were able to organize the much of the information into four main catagories (Volunteering, Career Services, Health & Wellness, and Community)
Another feature seen here is the "Vet City Score" that would rate cities based of reviews of other vets within them.
Journey Map
In the journey map depicts how users currently transition in to civilian life and huddles they may face.
Insights
Soldiers typically present minded thinkers.
They are very well suited for completing a series of tasks, however can be bogged down when steps become ambiguous.
Veterans will often rely on mentors to help define proper paths.
Brainstorming
Quick sketches using pen and paper done in a group with stake holders, designers, and developers
Wireframing
Mockups
Solution
Tags
Tags are a concept we would use to help users translate their military skills into something that would be comprehendible to people with little to no understanding of military terms.
Resume Builder
By using a third party OCR (Optical Character Recognition) we are able to transform a military resume into on more suitable for civilian life.