Prototypes, Possibilities, and Parting Thoughts

This post is the fifth and final in a series produced for a Harvard Kennedy School field class on tech and innovation in government. Our team has been working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Cemetery Administration, and the U.S. Digital Service to improve the process of discovering, locating, and visiting graves in NCA cemeteries.

 Imagine designing a product that could help millions of families across the country who have lost loved ones and memorialize the veterans who have served our country. Thirteen weeks ago, when our multidisciplinary team of Harvard students joined forces to tackle a problem for an organization none of us had ever heard of, this was a pipe dream. Today, it’s our reality. 

Back in January, the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) approached us with a question: how might we improve the process of discovering, locating and visiting graves in their 135 cemeteries?

Following a design process that involved field work, more than 30 interviews, brainstorming and rapidly testing prototypes, we arrived at three proposed solutions:

Our three prototypes

Prototype 1: Mobile-Friendly Visitor Site

The first prototype, a new mobile-friendly site, responds to the challenges visitors face in finding information about a loved one, a friend, or an ancestor before they arrive at a cemetery. The site allows them to search by a wide range of fields (including service branch, war period, and hometown) to narrow down the results as much as possible.

When a visitor has found the veteran they’re looking for, the site gives them all the information they need to visit. They can even navigate directly to the grave (not just to the cemetery) through a new maps feature. If they want more information, in a few taps they can see the cemetery’s opening hours, flower policy, parking availability, and other amenities. They can call the cemetery directly from their phone—and a warning will pop up if it’s closed. Throughout, we’ve used the vets.gov style guide and design library to keep the interface clean, simple, and intuitive.

Prototype 1: an enhanced mobile site featuring a more user-friendly design and improved grave search

Prototype 2: Enhanced On-Site Resources

 The second solution focuses primarily on improving the navigation tools available to visitors when they plan a visit or arrive at a cemetery. This ranges from making the cemetery maps higher quality and more readable to being able to generate customized directions for visitors to the specific grave they’re visiting. This routing feature and the ability to integrate it with the mobile site becomes more feasible each year as the NCA geo-references every grave in its cemeteries.

Prototype 2: improved cemetery maps with the ability to route visitors to a specific gravesite

Prototype 3: Open Data Strategy

 The third solution, an open data strategy, involves making the NCA’s data more easily accessible and up-to-date so that people can find information quickly through third party sites like Google or Ancestry.com. This could be as simple as fixing broken links to NCA data on the U.S. government’s open data website, Data.gov. More long-term, an open data strategy could involve creating an API or working with Google to generate “rich snippets” or enhanced search results when someone googles an NCA cemetery or the name of someone buried there (see image below for an example).

Prototype 3: making data more accessible, to enable third party sites to offer accurate, up-to-date information

We tested these prototypes with real people—including fellow Harvard students, service members, veterans, and an NCA cemetery director. We used their feedback to iterate and refine our ideas. On April 28th, the class Demo Day at Harvard, we presented our finalized prototypes to our clients at the US Digital Service and the NCA, as well as to the rest of our class and the wider Harvard community!

Ultimately, our prototypes represent three related approaches to improving the process of discovering, locating, and visiting gravesites at NCA cemeteries.  Our recommendation to the NCA is to implement all three.

Looking forward

We recognize that some of our prototypes will be more difficult and time-consuming to implement than others. We therefore recommend a phased approach. In the short term, we believe the NCA should focus on developing a new mobile-friendly site, with the core features visitors told us they most need: an improved grave locator tool, and basic cemetery visitor information. Improving map print-outs from existing on-site kiosks should also be done in the first phase. One way to do this would be to add a more detailed plan of the relevant section, so that visitors can better navigate to a specific grave.

In the medium term (6-18 months) and longer term (18 months+), the NCA should add more functionality to the mobile-friendly visitor site. There is a great opportunity to use the site as a platform for the new history and education content that the NCA is developing. The kiosks themselves can also be replaced in the longer term, and—like the mobile-friendly site—make use of GPS technology to more accurately locate graves. An API that is regularly updated would also allow visitors to better access accurate grave and cemetery information through third-party sites.

Our conversations with visitors, cemetery directors, and veterans have made us confident that these solutions have significant potential. They promise to help the NCA in its mission to honor and memorialize veterans, and importantly, to improve the wayfinding experience of visitors to NCA cemeteries. We are excited to see the US Digital Service and the NCA hopefully implement these solutions in future.

We recommend a phased approach to implementing the three solutions

Thank you

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us: first, our fabulous clients, especially Jessica Tozer from the NCA, and Suzanne Chapman and Mary-Ann Brody from the US Digital Service at the VA. It’s been an honor to work with them on such an important topic. Second, to our professor Nick Sinai and course assistants Angel Quicksey and Chante Lantos-Swett, who have guided us at every step, and taught us new brainstorming techniques and prototyping approaches. Third, to the veterans, armed services, and family members who were our interviewees and were so generous with their time—their insights have been invaluable. Finally, to you, dear readers of this blog—thank you for all your interest and support! We hope you have enjoyed reading about our journey, and that you will continue to support the work of the National Cemetery Administration in future.

Over and out!

 Keith Caton, Athena Kan, Emily Middleton, Devyn Paros, Yuko Tanaka

Testing…Testing…1, 2, 3

This post is the fourth in a series produced for a Harvard Kennedy School field class on innovation in government. Our team is working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) to improve the process of discovering, locating and visiting graves in NCA cemeteries.

It’s easy to point out something wrong with a government service. Developing solutions is a harder task. Armed with our key insights based on our field research and interviews, however, our team was ready to move beyond simply asking how we could improve the process of discovering, locating and visiting gravesites in NCA Cemeteries.

We were brimming with ideas and were excited to test them.

First, we had a stop to make. We traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to present our work to executives at the NCA and to co-work with our contacts in the NCA and the U.S. Digital Service. In between official activities, we got to tour the Digital Service’s headquarters and raid the Eisenhower Executive Office Building's gift shop (they were having their 50% off spring sale!).

Visiting USDS headquarters (missing: Keith Caton)

During our first stop at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, we presented our insights to NCA executives and got their feedback. The meeting made our work and its potential impact more tangible than ever. We also presented three prototype ideas, which we later workshopped with our main NCA contact and members of the US Digital Services team who are overhauling the VA’s website (Vets.gov). Each prototype idea targets a unique but related step in the process of visiting an NCA cemetery.

1. Mobile-Friendly Visitor Site

Our first prototype idea is a mobile-friendly site that provides grave locations and cemetery visitor information. It will aid with pre-visit research, at-cemetery navigation, and discovery of gravesites.

Pre-visit research functionality would include a search tool to find a specific veteran. The search tool could feature auto-suggestion of cemetery names and a separate advanced search function. We could also include screens that offer tips and instructions on getting to the specific cemetery as well as maps to navigate to both the cemetery and the grave.

To help with at-cemetery navigation, we will incorporate features such as section-specific maps and an option to contact staff at the cemetery. We could also offer options to read about each cemetery's history, take a guided tour via phone, and learn more about notable burials to support visitors who want to explore the cemetery. A more complex but critical improvement would be incorporating a GPS-enabled locator using Google Maps to route visitors to a grave.

2. Modifications to the Kiosk Map

Moving beyond the online search process, our next prototype focuses on the in-person journey at the cemetery and improving kiosks. Kiosks are available at most but not all of the cemeteries. They allow people to look up the names of those buried at the cemetery (similar to the online tool) and print maps of the cemetery for visitors to take with them.

Examples of NCA cemetery maps which vary in readability. (Left) Florida National Cemetery, (right) Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minnesota.

Even small modifications to the kiosk and maps may help. The maps, for example, vary widely in readability. The NCA could create standards to improve the readability and usefulness of maps, add QR codes that link to the mobile-friendly visitor site, or add a link to the mobile-friendly visitor site to existing kiosks’ welcome screens.

More ambitious goals include kiosks that are easier to maintain or update, and wi-fi enabled kiosks (such as LinkNYC adopted in New York City) in each section, rather than just at the visitor center.

3. Google "Rich Snippets"

Rich snippets are the bits of information that Google pushes to the top when you search for things like the weather, a recipe or a word definition. Many people we interviewed start their online searches with Google. These snippets could be used to enable visitors to find the information they need quickly and easily, and direct them to other helpful resources.

This would aid in the pre-visit research and on-site navigation stages. The NCA could further expand this idea by partnering with Google to ensure the information is up-to-date and as precise as possible.

Next Steps

After discussing with the VA, we've decided to pursue prototype #1, the mobile-friendly visitor site, in greater detail. The USDS has also mentioned a desire to pursue the other prototypes as well, but the first prototype will be our focus. This next week, we will rapidly test and refine our prototype with the following questions in mind:

1. Is the prototype helpful? Does it provide information that people need?
2. Is the information people need most readily available? Does the sequencing of the information make sense?
3. Is the prototype intuitive and easy to navigate?
4. Is the process stressful for people?

Keith Caton, Athena Kan, Emily Middleton, Devyn Paros, Yuko Tanaka

Insights on Gravesites

This post is the third in a series produced for a Harvard Kennedy School field class on innovation in government. Our team is working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Cemetery Administration. You can read about our project here and about our experience doing field research and interviewing veterans here.

Armed with packs of sticky notes and Sharpies, we were prepared to synthesize all of our research into what we thought were the most important takeaways. The catch: we weren't allowed to speak.

This technique, called the K-J method, allowed us to digest the deluge of information we collected and efficiently reach a consensus. Our findings came from a wide variety of sources, from a Massachusetts National Cemetery site visit to interviews with fifteen veterans. We also conducted "usability tests," where we watched individuals use the existing gravesite locator tool or competitor sites, and asked them questions along the way.

Our five-step approach to collecting information about cemeteries.

While we learned a lot from visiting the Massachusetts National Cemetery and trying existing gravesite locators, we found it invaluable to interview veterans, family members of veterans, and staff from the VA and the National Cemetery Administration (NCA). We came out of every interview with a unique perspective on the process of discovering, locating, and visiting gravesites at NCA cemeteries.

A diagram detailing the demographics of our interviewees. We interviewed 28 people, including 13 NCA staff and 15 members of the public. Our external research prioritized veterans and family or friends, which are not mutually exclusive groups.

Synthesis

Through our series of interviews, we gained a thorough understanding of what people experience when trying to find a gravesite in an NCA cemetery. We divided the process into five phases: discovering, planning, traveling, navigating to a section, and finally finding the gravesite. We also identified the pain points in each phase that could make the experience frustrating for a visitor or stop the visit altogether.

As we interviewed people about their experiences grieving, honoring, and remembering their loved ones, it was clear that frustration was not the only emotion involved. With that in mind, we also mapped a range of emotions visitors could be feeling onto each phase in the process. For instance, during the planning process, a visitor may be pleased with finding information efficiently. On the other hand, a different visitor may be confused or disappointed if he or she is unable to find a specific gravesite using the gravesite locator.

While each person’s journey is unique, there were many similarities among those we interviewed. We leveraged these similarities to identify four overarching types of visitors:

Discoverer - The discoverer may not have a close personal relationship with someone at the cemetery, but loves ad hoc exploring and learning about veterans' stories.

Returning Visitor - The returning visitor may have visited NCA cemeteries before but is still unfamiliar and recently became ready to visit a cemetery.

First-Time Visitor - The first-time visitor is unfamiliar with the NCA and NCA cemeteries and is visiting a close friend that was recently buried.

Regular Visitor - The regular visitor is very familiar with the NCA after regularly visiting over several years and values personal interactions and connections with cemetery staff.

We gave each type a fictional profile, including a name, face, the typical needs and attitudes of the person during a visit to a cemetery, and other characteristics such as level of vulnerability during the visit.

The four personas that we developed in order to remind us of the needs and attitudes of each type of visitor.

After organizing our thoughts into profiles of visitors and the journey they would take when trying to find a gravesite, we identified four key insights from all of our research:

1. There is a lack of awareness and understanding about NCA and its services.  Many people we interviewed had not heard of the NCA and do not use its tools to find graves. Additionally, some veterans’ negative perceptions of the VA extend to the NCA and its online tools; for instance, they expect to not be able to find helpful information online.
2. Existing gravesite locator resources are insufficient.  Kiosks that allow people to search for a gravesite and print a map can be out of order, run out of paper, or be difficult to use. Similarly, the online gravesite locator does not always work, it may be hard to use, or visitors do not know it exists. Staff resources are also limited, especially when visitors come outside of cemetery operating hours.
3. Visitors with maps may still face challenges.  There are environmental challenges to finding a gravesite, e.g. grave markers look very similar, poor weather conditions may make markers difficult to see, or cemetery sections may change over time with new burials. Cemeteries may also simply have an unintuitive layout, which is especially difficult for a first-time visitor to navigate.
4. Many visitors seek to better memorialize veterans digitally.  Many visitors feel the information available online about a gravesite is disappointing and even disrespectful. They want to learn more information about those buried, such as length of service and honors awarded, while striking a balance with privacy and respect.

Next Steps

Armed with our research, insights and key takeaways, our next steps will be to develop a prototype of a potential solution. Inevitably, this will involve lots of testing, some failures and even more insights. Whatever prototype or solution that we arrive at, however, our goals will ultimately be to:

• Facilitate discovery and planning
• Support visitors at all hours
• Guide visitors reliably to their destination
• Provide respectful and dignified service

Overall, we see our project as an opportunity to bring all walks of life together to honor the past and provide hope for the future through love and healing. We have a challenging path ahead of us, but we are excited to brainstorm possible solutions, prototype, test the prototypes, and improve what we build! 

-Keith Caton, Athena Kan, Emily Middleton, Devyn Paros, Yuko Tanaka

How to find a gravesite? And other questions

Making the journey. Early one Friday morning, Team VA piled into a tiny Ford Focus with some pastries, some muffins, and a mission. Our destination: Massachusetts National Cemetery, in Bourne. We wanted to experience finding a specific gravesite first-hand.

We had quickly realized when conducting our secondary research that exploring the National Cemetery Association (NCA) website was not sufficient. We had grown familiar with the site’s gravesite locator tool, but we sought to learn more. To really understand the user journey, we had to make a journey ourselves.

The entrance to the Massachusetts National Cemetery

Keith and Devyn had a specific mission in mind: to locate the gravesite of Petty Officer Tyler John Trahan.

Keith and Devyn used a kiosk in the visitor center to look up Petty Officer Trahan's burial location: section 41, gravesite 1456. The kiosk printed a black and white map of the cemetery with road names and section numbers.

Grave Locator kiosk in Massachusetts National Cemetery and map of the grounds

Navigation grew more complex soon after they hopped back in the car. Even for two self-declared “map people,” Keith and Devyn had trouble orienting the map with its curving streets, circular-shaped sections, and small text. When they found section 41 — marked by an engraved, narrow granite post — they realized that snow covered many of the flat grave markers. Undeterred, they walked up and down the rows, brushing off snow to reveal grave numbers, until they found Petty Officer Trahan’s grave and paid their respects.

Paying respects at Petty Officer Trahan’s grave

Meeting the staff. We also spoke with the Cemetery Director, Assistant Director, and Head Foreman. They told us about the types of people who visit, the layout of the cemetery, and how staff and volunteers interact with visitors.

We had five main takeaways:

1. Over 50% of people who visit during office hours are older (aged 65+). We must ensure we understand the needs of this group, and if they are different from those of other groups.

2. The cemetery has a higher volume of visitors than we realized. The Bourne cemetery staff estimated approximately 200 visitors per day, on average. (We later spoke to cemetery staff at Fort Snelling and Riverside whicho typically receive upwards of 1000 visitors per day.)

3. Cemetery staff and volunteers often help visitors to locate graves, even though that is often beyond the scope of their job description.

4. The cemetery has limited human resources. Bourne has employed only one additional staff member to manage the cemetery in the last 15 years, despite adding many more grave sites. They rely on volunteers, such as those from the SFC Jared C. Monti Foundation, to help plant flags on Memorial Day for example.

5. Many people visit outside of office hours. In early morning, evening, weekends, and on national holidays, visitors likely rely more heavily on the grave locator kiosk. During these times, the public information center is not staffed.

When we visited, many gravesites were covered by snow

Understanding our users. Once we had a better understanding of NCA cemetery operations, we narrowed our focus to two user groups: veterans, and family members and friends of veterans.

Meet Patrick*. Patrick served in the US Marine Corps for seven years. He now teaches naval science at a college and still actively engages with the military community. Patrick’s deployments included Afghanistan, where he lost several close friends and teammates and experienced significant psychological trauma.

"For me, navigating through that was a nightmare."

- Patrick, Marine Corps Veteran

Patrick has paid his respects in three NCA cemeteries. His first visit was especially difficult. He remarked, “There weren’t clear markers...I just didn’t understand the layout.” At two of the three cemeteries Patrick visited, his friend was not in the system or the terminal malfunctioned. Once, he relied on a friend’s approximate directions.

Most recently, Patrick visited Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego County. He was reluctant to try the grave locator terminal given his previous experiences, but it worked. Using the small map print-out, the grave number and a larger map in the visitor center, he found the site relatively quickly. Landmarks that appeared on the larger map helped him to navigate, and the number markers were clear. He left with a positive impression of the cemetery.

We will continue to speak to more users throughout the project. We highly value understanding the user journey, testing our assumptions, and receiving users’ feedback at all stages of the design process. So expect to read about more users on this blog soon!

Keith Caton, Athena Kan, Emily Middleton, Devyn Paros, Yuko Tanaka

*Name has been changed

Honoring Veterans in a Digital Age

Introduction. The government agency with the highest satisfaction rating is probably one you’ve never heard of. In budget and staff, the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) is the smallest agency within the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Despite its low profile and small size, however, NCA scored a 96 in customer service, the highest of any public or private entity in 2016.

Calverton National Cemetery, the largest cemetery in NCA’s purview.

Enter a multidisciplinary team of Harvard students. Last week, Jessica Tozer of the NCA visited our Tech and Innovation in Government class at the Harvard Kennedy School to discuss this seeming contradiction: exceptional service but low visibility. We're also lucky to have guidance from Mary Ann Brody and Suzanne Chapman of the U.S. Digital Service (USDS). As experts in design thinking and user experience, they'll help us integrate USDS best design practices to answer this question: How might we improve the process for discovering, locating, and visiting gravesites at NCA cemeteries?

Our diverse backgrounds provide us with different lenses through which to approach this challenge:

• Athena is passionate about making meaningful changes in government and healthcare with technology. She previously worked for Booz Allen Hamilton and will be a Software Engineer Intern on Uber's autonomous vehicle team this summer. She's also co-founder of tech for social good group Coding it Forward, co-founder of health non-profit CHOICE, and partner at Dorm Room Fund.

• Devyn comes from a background in local government and policymaking. She previously worked for the city of Columbus, Ohio, on public safety, sustainability, and community and economic development. She is a generalist with a passion for making government services more effective and for leveraging all available tools to help reach the hardest-to-reach members of our community.

• Emily hails from a small town in northern England. She was previously a management consultant in the UK and Southeast Asia, with a focus on digital financial services. She is looking forward to bringing her experience of tech and innovation in the private sector to serve veterans and their families.

• Keith brings the perspective of a veteran who served eight years as a Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician. Through his experience, he gained skills in general management, interpersonal dynamics, and operational planning. He is inspired to serve on this project because of his experience interacting with Goldstar families and losing friends in combat.

• Yuko plays the role of internal organizer. As a former American History teacher at a public high school in New Orleans, she helped build a program that helps students change their behavior patterns instead of keeping them in detention. Her passion for creating commonsense solutions through the use of technology inspires her to serve on this project.

The Challenge. Over the next few weeks, we will interview veterans and their families across the Boston area, shadow visitors at NCA cemeteries, and speak to historians and researchers to create an experience that better meets users’ needs. The power in our diversity will propel our research and creativity to provide the best solution for our users.  

The NCA manages cemeteries, soldiers’ lots, and monument sites across the United States. Created in Google Maps with data from NCA.

A long history, and a large scale. President Abraham Lincoln founded the NCA in 1862 after Congress authorized him to purchase grounds for use as national cemeteries during the Civil War. Before this, soldiers were buried where they fell. Today, the NCA:

• Manages 135 national cemeteries, a national veterans’ burial ground, and 33 soldiers’ lots and monument sites in 40 states and Puerto Rico
• Provides care to 4.3 million veterans, service members, reservists, and family members in 3.5 million gravesites
• Buried 131,620 veterans and their family members in 2016
• Employs more than 1700 people, nearly 75% of whom are veterans

Our team aims to complement and build upon the NCA's long-standing success.

Delivering a high standard of care. The NCA aims to provide a personal service and minimize any hoops people must jump through to get through an already-difficult process. That means no robocalls and people staffed at every site. Cemetery directors receive a yearlong training to learn exactly how NCA processes work, how to talk to families, and how to manage burial grounds in locales across the country. The sites they maintain are eternal shrines, and the NCA aims to deliver a sense of perpetual care. Any solution we develop must meet the level of care and integrity the NCA brings to its normal course of service delivery.

Navigability and accessibility. Over 4.8 million people visited VA national cemeteries in 2016. By using digital tools and reimagining the user experience, we aim to make the experience of visitors to burial sites more intuitive. Since the NCA serves a variety of users, each with unique needs, our team hopes to make veterans’ stories more accessible to all through the use of technology.

Diversity for Design. Our team is comprised of members with a multitude of life experiences and professional backgrounds. The power in our diversity will propel our research and creativity to provide the best solution for our users.  

Keith Caton, Athena Kan, Emily Middleton, Devyn Paros, Yuko Tanaka