Mass VetsAdvisor: Unlocking Access to Veterans’ Benefits Information

Yasmin Fodil | GovLoop | June 25, 2012

“Returning to civilian life is challenging,” said Kyle Toto, a U.S. Army veteran who worked with Massachusetts Broadband Institute on the project. “When I came home from Afghanistan I wanted to spend time with friends and family and not have to search endlessly for my benefits. MassVetsAdvisor allows veterans and their families to search for their benefits from the comfort of their homes and on their own time.”

For the past year BYO has been working on a project for the Massachusetts Broadband Institute to design the requirements for a website that would meet the online needs of veterans. Instead of looking at the coolest toys on the market and designing a flashy site, we went into the field, talking with the most marginalized groups of veterans to identify their core needs, and designed a product that would meet them. Check out our presentation on the human-centered design process we used to create the concept.

1. How does this project make the world a better place?...