My HealtheVet
What's New Page
Although many of My HealtheVet’s core tools were migrated to VA.gov as part of a major modernization effort, the “What’s New” page was intentionally preserved. While most legacy content was removed, this page was recognized as a vital communication tool during the transition—ensuring that Veterans continued to receive important updates in one trusted location. Its continued presence highlights the page’s value as both a usability win and a strategic asset for cross-platform consistency.
Background
My HealtheVet is the Department of Veterans Affairs’ patient portal, offering Veterans access to health records, prescription refills, appointment scheduling, and more. Yet, the platform lacked a centralized, user-friendly place to highlight recent updates and key alerts.
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To address this, I led the design and user research for a brand-new “What’s New” Page: a centralized hub where Veterans can quickly see personalized and general updates relevant to their health and site features. This page aligns with VA.gov standards and supports migration efforts, making key information more accessible for users—especially older Veterans navigating digital services.
The Process
To build the “What’s New” page, I followed an Agile framework to keep the project aligned and adaptable throughout development. Working in sprints, I collaborated with designers, developers, and stakeholders to ensure timely delivery of iterative improvements. Early in the process, I created high-fidelity wireframes that adhered to VA.gov’s design standards and accessibility requirements. These wireframes formed the basis for our usability testing sessions, allowing us to gather actionable feedback from Veterans before development. Each round of feedback informed design refinements, which we rapidly implemented and re-tested to validate usability improvements across both desktop and mobile platforms.
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I created high-fidelity wireframes using Adobe XD, which we updated after each round of feedback. My responsibilities included:
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Writing the research plan, tasks, and interview guide
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Coordinating recruiting and test sessions
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Synthesizing results into insights and design recommendations
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Aligning with accessibility standards and VA’s design system
I also ensured that logged-in flows respected 508 compliance while keeping interactions minimal for mobile and those with physical or cognitive disabilities, as our largest user group is over the age of 65.
Early High Fidelity Wireframes
Before the feature was officially named the “What’s New” page, I created high-fidelity wireframes to visualize how the notification center would function and where an archive system could live within the My HealtheVet ecosystem. These early designs served as a foundation for discussion and helped illustrate the concept’s potential. At that stage, notifications were still envisioned as a sub-feature. It wasn’t until we gathered feedback from stakeholders and business partners that we were advised to make the content more prominent—ultimately leading to it becoming a standalone page with a clear entry point and elevated visibility on the site.
Discovery & Early Concepts
Discovery & Early Concepts
To lay the groundwork for the “What’s New” Page, I conducted a series of stakeholder interviews and a comparative analysis of notification systems across major healthcare platforms, including Kaiser Permanente, BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, Cigna, and Mindful Health Solutions.
Stakeholder Insights
Through 1:1 interviews with teams from various departments, including business partners and stakeholders, we uncovered several shared priorities:
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Make updates easily visible and non-intrusive
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Ensure relevance for both logged-in and logged-out users
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Tailor the experience to be accessible to older Veterans
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Offer clarity around changes (e.g., “tell them what moved and where”)
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Avoid duplicative or confusing notifications
A s one stakeholder summarized:
“It needs to be easy for those generations—the Vietnam Veteran and the Korean War and the World War II Veterans.”
These conversations helped solidify the project's purpose to create one central place that notifies Veterans about important updates in a way that’s simple, respectful of their attention, and accessible.
Comparative Research Takeaways
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Sites with minimalist, centralized dashboards performed best with users
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Overloaded pages and gated information (only visible after login) proved to be confusing
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Clear notification hierarchies and visual signals (like tags and colors) help guide user attention without overwhelming them
We used these insights to inform our initial concept mocks, which included:
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A red tag notification icon on the homepage
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A blue banner C T A styled consistently with VA.gov patterns
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Differentiated experiences for logged-in vs logged-out users
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A capped limit of five notifications to prevent cognitive overload
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Color-coded urgency levels and tag expiration logic (e.g., “new” fades after 30 days or interaction)
These early designs were presented for business and content approval before being tested with Veterans in usability sessions.
Early Concepts PResentation
Click left and right arrows to view all research, initial concept mocks, and more!
Research
&
Testing
User Research
My research phase included moderated usability testing with 20 Veterans across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. I focused specifically on older Veterans, with half of participants over the age of 64 and a mix of cognitive accessibility needs.
Methodology
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Conducted 1-hour moderated sessions via Zoom
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Tested desktop and mobile high-fidelity prototypes
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Observed Veterans completing tasks like:
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Navigating to the What’s New page
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Interacting with time-sensitive alerts
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Interpreting "new" tags and notification hierarchy
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Logging in to view personalized alerts
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Key Findings
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15 of 20 liked having both the homepage banner and What’s New link.
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10 of 20 suggested moving the link higher on the page for visibility.
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14 of 20 preferred logging in first to access personalized notifications.
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12 of 20 wanted the “new” tag to disappear after interacting with a notification.
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5 of 20 found “General” vs. “Personalized” labels confusing and preferred a unified feed.
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17 of 20 didn’t recognize the unified sign-in card as time sensitive.
I also learned that participants wanted:
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Due dates on notifications
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Archived alerts in an inbox-style layout
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More visuals and clearer C T A buttons
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A consistent experience across devices
Final Recommendations
and Outcomes
Final Recommendations
Based on our research, we proposed these major changes before handing off to developers:
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Open “What’s New” as the landing page post-login for better visibility
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Retire the “General” and “Personalized” categories in favor of one clear feed
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Use yellow “Urgent” tags for time-sensitive alerts, with due dates
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Allow “new” tags to expire after 30 days or user interaction
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Display up to 5 alerts to reduce overwhelm
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Enable drop-down preview only for logged-in users
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Incorporate date stamps and simplified, plain language for all notifications
These changes helped balance the needs of business stakeholders, Veteran users, and content strategy teams while keeping development complexity manageable
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Below are some of the final mocks sent in to development along with annotated mocks:
Please enjoy this final screenshot of the current website.
Next Steps
After business approval, the final prototypes were handed off to development. Post-launch plans include tracking:
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Notification click-through rates
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Time on page
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Reductions in redundant support calls
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Veteran satisfaction surveys
Future iterations will aim to include underserved Veterans such as expats, LGBTQ+ users, and non-English speakers for more inclusive design.
Outcomes and Reflection
Designing for a Veteran population—especially one that spans generations—challenged me to prioritize clarity, accessibility, and minimalism. By actively involving users throughout the process, we were able to simplify the experience while maintaining functionality and trust. The "What’s New" page is now a model for how government platforms can communicate with transparency and care.​
