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Swords to Plowshares, a Bay Area nonprofit supporting veterans, offers legal guidance on complex processes like VA benefits and discharge upgrades. Their existing self-help guides contained important information, but were difficult to navigate. The language was often dense and clinical and the website’s structure made it hard for veterans to find the resources that matched their needs. These challenges were especially difficult for users with PTSD, limited digital access, or lower literacy levels.
Swords brought us on to redesign their self-help tools and advise on improving the structure of their website. We began by interviewing staff and creating a trauma-informed script that the team used to lead on-site user testing sessions with veterans. These sessions revealed key barriers to comprehension and usability, helping us understand what veterans needed most from these tools.
We then analyzed the findings and delivered a set of content and design recommendations. These guided our redesign of the self-help materials and informed our suggestions for a reorganized website structure. The focus was on creating a more intuitive and respectful experience that prioritized clarity, accessibility, and emotional safety.
The updated guides are clear, easy to follow, and visually engaging. We provided the Swords to Plowshares team with training materials so they could continue creating new guides after the project concluded. Each tool offers step-by-step support for veterans and advocates navigating legal processes, using plain language and simplified layouts to reduce confusion. We applied key accessibility principles related to contrast, readability, and design structure. In parallel, we supported the team in rethinking their website layout to better connect users with the resources most relevant to their needs.
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