4 products shipped. 25-year-old legacy systems replaced.

Overview

MEPCOM (United States Military Entrance Processing Command) is the sector of the Department of Defense that oversees recruiting and training of America's armed forces. They process around 1 million applicants a year and have an annual budget of over $350 million.

MIRS (MEPCOM Integrated Resource System) is a HRM system used to track military applicants during their enlistment process. The application is deployed across more than 65 locations within the US. The legacy MIRS application and its supporting suite were created over 25 years ago — all outdated in terms of user experience and performance.

The Problem

The legacy systems were costing MEPCOM money because they were inefficient in the applicant enlistment process. Slow processing speeds and outdated interfaces were impacting the number of applicants they could process each day. Users were forced to develop their own workarounds to complete everyday tasks.

Expanding the Scope

Phase 1 of the MIRS redesign was completed in 2021. I recognized that the supporting applications — Student Test, Recruit Travel, and Fee Basis Provider — were equally outdated and needed to be re-envisioned with the same standards. This would ensure the likelihood of the client extending our contract and provide much-needed updates and cost savings.

The original proposal was only to perform a face-lift for these supporting applications. I worked extensively with the Product Owners to illustrate the value of rebuilding them from the ground up with a proper user-centered design process. All 3 supporting applications have been redesigned.

Project Planning & Resource Allocation

With multiple work streams and a number of designers, it was important to create project plans for each to help with resource allocation. These plans allowed me to see if we were adequately staffed, begin considerations for designer/project placement, inform the client, establish realistic expectations, and prioritize project intake at the program level.

Field Research

There are over 65 Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS) in the United States mainland and territories. Each MEPS varies in size, number of applicants processed, and processes. It was critical for the design team to visit these centers in person — to observe the nuances of everyday operations, establish rapport with personnel, and get a sense of the pace of the day.

Insights gathered from these visits often formed the basis of the next epic of improvements in the backlog.

Each visit was structured. The design team collaborated and devised an agenda alongside engineers and business stakeholders. Insights were analyzed and synthesized into actionable next steps after each visit.

Persona & Journey Mapping

Three personas were developed as the result of extensive user interviews and UX requirements gathering. Each bearing unique goals and challenges.

Journey Maps were created for each persona and key tasks to be accomplished. The insights distilled from user interviews led the team to create 3 different portals, one for each user type, since the user needs were vastly different from each other.

Information Architecture & Ideation

Information Architecture was developed for each of the three user types: MEPS, HQ, and Vendor. Diverging concepts were built from the unique requirements of each user set as a result of journey mapping and requirements gathering sessions.

Deliverables

MEPCOM Interface Guidelines (MIG)

To unify the growing number of products under the MEPCOM umbrella, led the team to create the MIG (MEPCOM Interface Guidelines) — a shared design system ensuring visual and interaction consistency across all products.

Student Tests — Shipped Q4 2023

Redesigned with focus on creating efficient student aptitude test uploads, bulk information correction, and predictable smart search for specific tests.

Recruit Travel — Shipped Q3 2024

Redesign focused on: (1) allowing users to make bulk shipper orders and edit those orders; (2) real-time shipper updates from MIRS 1.1 (the master application); (3) creating meal debit cards.

Fee Basis Provider (FBP) — Shipped Q1 2025

Created customized portals for the 3 main user groups: MEPS users, HQ users, and Vendors.