Veterans Enrollment System (VES)

Role

Lead Visual Designer

Client

Veterans Affairs

Year

2023

Duration

14 months

3 min read

At a glance

Problem

VA staff enrolled veterans in health care through a 2003-era interface that was slow, hard to learn and short of accessibility standards.

Key decision

Designed for accessibility from the first wireframes and fixed audit findings at the component level, so every fix carried across the system.

Result

Case workers completed basic enrollment tasks 30% faster in prototype testing, on a WCAG 2.1 AA compliant design.

Overview

The Veterans Enrollment System is how VA staff enroll veterans in health care. Its interface dated back to 2003: slow, hard to learn, and well short of accessibility standards. The modernization aimed to meet WCAG 2.1 AA, align with the VA’s enterprise design approach, and make enrollment faster, so veterans get access to care sooner.

My role

Led visual design for the enrollment workflows, from layout to final high-fidelity screens
Extended the VA Design System with the enterprise components the project needed
Partnered with accessibility specialists to design to WCAG 2.1 AA and fix audit findings
Joined usability and accessibility testing, then turned findings into design changes
Wrote annotated specs for engineering and ran design QA on built screens

The problems I designed for

Buried information

Deep, clunky menus turned simple tasks into a hunt.

Accessibility gaps

No screen reader support, failing contrast, and forms that were hard to complete with a disability.

Missing components

The VA Design System was built for public veteran sites, not a dense internal tool.

What I designed

Flatter navigation. Common tasks sit within one or two clicks, and a persistent record header keeps the veteran’s key details in view.
Forms built for daily use. Long forms are grouped into clear sections, with one consistent label pattern and inline errors that say how to fix the problem.
Scannable, data-dense screens. A tight type scale and clear hierarchy make key data stand out, and status never relies on color alone.
New enterprise components. Built to VA Design System conventions and documented with states, usage, and accessibility notes.

Redesigned VES enrollment screen with clear sections for financial information, copay test, and enrollment details

Original VES enrollment screen from 2003, with tabbed menus and dense, low-contrast text

Before

After

Working with accessibility and testing

Accessibility shaped the design from the first wireframes, not at the end. With our accessibility specialists, I checked every color pairing against AA contrast, designed visible focus states, and mapped tab order on complex screens. My specs annotated headings, labels, landmarks, and focus order, so engineers built what screen readers need. When audits found issues, we fixed them at the component level so the fix carried everywhere.

With the testing team, I built prototypes of key flows, joined sessions with VA staff and assistive technology users, and fed findings back into the designs, often within the same sprint.

Results

30%

Faster enrollment. VA case workers were timed on basic enrollment tasks in the old system, then in a prototype of the new one.

WCAG 2.1 compliant: works with screen readers, meets contrast, and supports keyboard-only use.

VADS+

New enterprise components extend the VA Design System, so future features won’t need an overhaul.

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