Soldier Engagement

Introducing Data Visualization on Survey Results

12 weeks to take a platform from MVP to delivering actionable insights for use

Introduction

The Soldier Engagement Platform was created to collect feedback from soldiers testing weaponry in the field. While effective at gathering data, the platform’s original Responses tab lacked critical visualization features, making it challenging for users to interpret survey results, access metadata, or glean actionable insights.

To address these challenges, I was the lead UX designer of the Responses Page, which focused on creating a comprehensive visualization framework of survey results.

This redesign incorporated three key features:

  1. A Scalable Title Block to display survey metadata and summary information.

  2. Survey Summary Visualizations to provide a high-level view of aggregated responses.

  3. Individual Response Visualizations to analyze user-specific data efficiently.

These enhancements transformed the platform from a basic MVP to a robust tool for real-time feedback and actionable insights.

The Problem

The Responses tab lacked essential visualizations, making it difficult for users to:

  • Access metadata about surveys.

  • Summarize responses in meaningful ways.

  • View individual submissions for deeper analysis.

The absence of these features hindered users from quickly interpreting data or exporting deliverables.

Past View

The Design Process

Gathering Requirements —> Ideation —> Wireframing —> Prototyping —> <—Testing —-> Solution

Gathering Requirements

Worked with product strategy & end users to formalize scope, and set of requirements for initial data visualization feature.

I began by collaborating with end-users and product strategy to formalize scope and define clear requirements for our initial data visualization feature:

  • Used user personas and journey maps to pinpoint pain points and priorities.

  • Scoped the project into manageable features, starting with the Title Block to set the foundation for other visualizations & to balance engineering backlog

Key decisions included:

  • View of summary across all responses and separate view being able to drill into each survey response

  • Create graphical summaries that could be used in army reports

Title Block Requirements

Summary Requirements

Survey Submission Visualization

“It would save me countless hours to have the graphs that I need for my reports built within the platform”

“When I'm asked how collection is going, it would be great to be able to quickly look at an overview of the results and let them know”

Validated to product strategy that First Response Date & Due Date were not valuable enough to user to include in title block, pivoted date features to a different segment of responses page, emphasized developer lift of live page sharing —> shifted to V2 of results page development

Ideation

Automatic graph selection flow —>

Wireframing & Low Fidelity Exploration

Using wireframing libraries, I created low-fidelity mockups for:

  • The Title Block, showcasing survey state and metadata.

  • Aggregated Survey Summary Visualizations (e.g., automatic graphs).

  • Individual Response Visualizations, detailing user-specific metrics.

Wireframes were iterated based on user feedback gathered in weekly internal design reviews and recurring bi-weekly client meetings.

Title Block Wireframing

Individual Survey Response Wireframing

Response Summary

Testing

Presented concept design to end-users during bi-weekly meetings. Validated requirements; during the second meeting I received feedback to include event and project data on the title card;

Consistently gather feedback, iterate on designs, and incorporate user insights to continually improve the user experience.

Testing on graph types through internal platform power users.

Solution

Reflection

Key Takeaways

  • Continuous user feedback during the design process helped identify essential and non-essential features early on, reducing development cycles.

  • Post-launch reviews revealed additional opportunities, such as incorporating new response indicators and survey completion metrics for individual responses.

Impact

  • Users gained real-time access to survey insights, reducing reliance on CSV exports.

  • The Title Block and summary visualizations enabled faster decision-making during field operations.

  • The platform moved closer to fulfilling its mission of actionable, real-time feedback.

A client summed it up best:
"In the field, we only have so much time with soldiers to gather feedback, and having an at-a-glance view of form results is invaluable."

Future Iterations

  • Expand customization for visualizations (e.g., filtering and advanced export options).

  • Integrate version-specific and time-to-complete metrics directly into individual responses.

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