VA Form Builder: A No-Code Tool to Digitize Veteran Forms at Scale

The first step for Veterans’ access to their earned benefits often starts with a form. Traditional paper forms and their PDF counterparts, unfortunately, create significant barriers, such as delays that cause frustration and distrust in government services. Forms that can be completed online (digitized forms) in a step-by-step flow are the new standard for accessibility, enabling pre-filled data and reducing the need for retyping known information when the Veteran is signed into their account. Online forms offer shorter completion times, lower error rates, faster processing, and a greater sense of ease and trust. For this reason, VA’s goal is to digitize every form.

The current process of making a paper form available for online completion involves a highly skilled team of engineers, designers, researchers, accessibility specialists, and more. The timeline is typically anywhere between 3 and 9 months. VA needed an efficient, scalable, cost-saving solution to digitize its 260+ remaining paper forms. We set out to address simple forms as a proof of concept that would free up forms teams to focus on more complex forms.

My role

  • UX Lead

Tools used

  • Figma

  • Mural

  • GitHub

  • VA Design System

  • VA Forms Library

Skills applied

  • UX for Internal Tools

  • No-Code Platform Design

  • Inclusive Design & Accessibility

  • Stakeholder Facilitation

Goals

With a focus on simple forms, it was determined that the VA Form Builder needed to be a no-code tool to help non-technical VA staff, separate from the forms teams, efficiently create and manage digital forms. This would set the stage for our primary goal of streamlining the digitization of over 260 backlogged forms, reducing delays for Veterans, and enhancing the overall experience.

Key goals included:

  • Enable faster publishing of forms without custom engineering; VA staff can launch or update a form in days instead of months

  • Embed accessibility and design system compliance into the workflow

  • Reduce governance review effort and error-prone manual processes

  • Empower internal users while preserving Veteran trust and usability

  • Veterans experience shorter forms and fewer errors

  • Faster benefit delivery due to less manual processing

  • Complete MVP within 12 months

Process

I co-led the design of this tool, focusing on ease of use, scalability, and accessibility. We relied heavily on reviews and collaboration with a VA forms accessibility expert, as well as guidance from our product owner.

During this initiative, I:

  • Owned the UX strategy, user flows, and high-fidelity UI design

  • Collaborated closely with engineering and product to shape (and reshape) a feasible MVP roadmap

  • Worked transparently and in low-fidelity to encourage frequent feedback and early alignment

  • Structured stakeholder demos and feedback loops around rapid iteration

  • Documented design decisions, component logic, and handoff workflows for future teams

  • Facilitated weekly working sessions with VA accessibility and governance experts

  • Aligned the interface with VA’s brand, voice, and inclusive design principles

Early sketch from discovery and strategy discussions.

Hand-written notes from discovery and strategy discussions.

Another early sketch from discovery and strategy discussions.

Result

Design highlights

  • Step-by-Step Form Builder UI: Guides staff through form creation using pre-approved field types and logic

  • Preview-as-you-build Mode: Shows how the form will appear to the Veteran, reducing the need for design knowledge

  • Built-in Accessibility & Validation: Reduces the risk of errors by using form components aligned with WCAG, the VA Design System, and VA Content and Accessibility standards

  • Submission-Ready Output: Generates a governance-reviewable package for approval and publication

  • Findable, Documented Design Decisions: Linked throughout GitHub, Mural, Slack, and sprint tools to support continuity and reuse

Key impact

  • Delivered a proof of concept in under 12 months that would enable non-technical staff to participate in digital transformation

  • Supported the VA’s service mission by reducing form turnaround time

  • Embedded accessibility and user-centered design from the start

  • Recognized by VA stakeholders as meeting and/or exceeding performance and design expectations

Reflection

Challenges We Navigated

  • No VA precedent for no-code tools

  • Short MVP timeline (under 12 months)

  • An even shorter design timeline, as I joined the project 3 months in, with design already underway

  • CMS platform limitations and third-party dependencies

  • Complexity in guiding non-designers through form best practices and flow logic with conditional inputs

  • Limited availability of usability testing opportunities

  • Despite meeting the success criteria, funding for continuation was not renewed, so the team ensured documentation was robust enough for a future team to own and adapt this tool

Wins

This project was a rare opportunity to address systemic digital equity from within a government agency. The most rewarding part was designing a tool that enabled others to scale accessibility and service delivery, even after our work wrapped.

I’m especially proud of the way we:

  • Built strong cross-functional alignment through structured, inclusive working sessions

  • Pivoted the design direction in response to new constraints

  • Made complex form logic accessible to non-designers

  • Left behind thorough documentation that ensures continuity for future teams or technologies