VA Health and Benefits app

IA documentation

Understanding what’s guiding the app’s current information architecture and make future decisions that are in line with the existing organization, navigation, labeling, and indexing systems.

Sitemap/flow diagram

A sitemap is a planning tool that visually shows how information will be grouped and labeled, where content will be located, and how a user will move through the app. This adaptation of a standard sitemap includes the system display logic for screens that have variants, key actions (buttons, links), common processes and points where it makes use of native mobile integrations. This is the source of truth for the app’s IA.

VA Mobile App - Detailed sitemap 2.0

Taxonomy description

The VA Health and Benefits app’s IA contains four top level categories: Home, Benefits, Health and Payments. Each category contains at least two features and/or subcategories. Features within each category should be grouped into subsections if the number of features in a category exceeds six.

Top level categories and contents

• Home: The app’s default screen—displays a combined, personalized view of the information (and tasks) most relevant to the individual Veteran from across the VA, plus persistent access to general VA info (ex: contact and location finder) and lesser used features like Profile and Settings.
  • Profile (Subcategory): Infrequently updated items like personal information (such as contact information, military information, DOB) that isn’t specific to a single category and app settings.
• Health: All health-related features and statuses.
  • Features: Appointments, Prescriptions, VA vaccine records, Messaging (future: Medical records)
• Benefits: All benefit-related features and statuses that are not health-related.
  • Features: Disability rating, Claims, VA Letters (future: Education)
• Payments: A unified section for managing financial information from across the VA.
  • Features: VA payment history, direct deposit information (future: Medical copays, Bills, Travel reimbursements)

Adding new items to the app’s Information Architecture

1. A feature’s placement within the app’s navigation and taxonomy should take user mental models, business goals, and the feature type into account.

2. Always try to find a placement in an existing category first before proposing a new top-level category.

3. Within a category, keep the hierarchy as flat as possible in terms of screens.

4. If there are many features within a category, group the features and label the groups at category level.

5. All features in the VA mobile app should have a primary placement within the app’s taxonomy.

6. When content outgrows the current category structure, conduct card sort research.

Background

The VA Health and Benefits app’s Information Architecture is based on a multi-stage, collaborative design and research process:

• Phase I: Two rounds of card sorting with Veterans
• Phase II: Navigation model design exploration, audit and comparative analysis
• Phase III: Evaluative testing with Veterans, including a usability study of the proposed navigation model and sitemap