MILMOVE

Military personnel relocate frequently due to deployments, PCS orders, and school assignments, making housing, vehicle, and personal property management challenging. Long-term commitments are impractical, and while the SCRA allows early lease termination, scams targeting service members add further risks. This presents an interaction design challenge, creating a secure, streamlined platform to simplify transactions and build trust.

Background

Military personnel need easy access to used vehicles, temporary housing, and specialized gear, as frequent relocations make long-term commitments impractical. Junior soldiers often seek affordable cars for short-term use, while those in transition must quickly secure or transfer housing. Additionally, military gear is expensive and role-specific, making a trusted marketplace essential.

For now, I am focusing on the housing feature of the application due to limited time during my academic semester. This will streamline the process of finding, purchasing, and swapping homes, addressing a critical need for service members on the move.

Research Question

"How might we create a solution that helps military families efficiently buy, sell, or rent homes while considering the challenges of frequent relocations and short-term assignments?"

Stakeholders

1) Active duty military personnel: Primary users buying and selling items, house, and cars
2) Veterans: Secondary users who may be selling items or transitioning between homes and vehicles.
3) Military families: Often the point of contact for buying or selling homes and cars, especially if they move ahead of the service member.
4) Military contractors and suppliers: Potential sellers of military-grade gear to the community.
5) Housing management companies: They may provide short-term rentals or sublets to soldiers moving to new duty stations.

This platform can benefit military personnel and other stakeholders by creating a more stable housing market, offering affordable vehicles, and promoting the sustainability of military gear. For military personnel, the platform helps manage relocations by allowing easy subletting or transferring ownership of homes, reducing the risk of long-term leases that don’t fit their needs. It fosters trust within the community, minimizing scams and streamlining transactions.

Methodologies

Interview

I conducted interviews with both primary and secondary personas to gain insights into their needs, pain points, and behaviors. Based on these findings, I developed a user flow, created wireframes, and designed interactive prototypes to visualize and refine the user experience.

I conducted interviews with two soldiers and one military spouse to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences and challenges related to military relocations. My goal was to identify their pain points, needs, and expectations regarding the moving process, including aspects such as planning, logistics, housing, transportation, and military support services.

By interviewing both service members and a military spouse, I aimed to explore different perspectives, how soldiers handle PCS (Permanent Change of Station) moves, what difficulties they face in coordinating their relocations, and how spouses experience and manage the transition. These insights helped inform my user flow, wireframes, and interactive prototypes, ensuring that the app effectively addresses the unique challenges of military moves.

Key Findings from Interviews

Logistical Coordination Difficulties

  • Coordinating moves with deployment schedules is a major stressor.

  • Example: One participant stated, “The most challenging part is coordinating the move with my deployment schedule.”

  • Housing decisions are often made with incomplete or outdated information, making remote housing selection difficult.

  • Managing vehicle sales or storage within tight timelines adds to the stress.

Issues with Existing Digital Platforms

  • Current platforms like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are seen as unreliable and unsafe.

  • Example: One participant mentioned, “Craigslist feels outdated and unsafe.”

  • Users experience deals falling through and difficulties navigating disorganized listings.

  • There is a need for a secure, military-focused platform tailored to relocation needs.

Importance of Military Community Support

  • Military families rely on local military communities for relocation assistance, tips, and shared resources.

  • Example: One interviewee shared, “I’d focus on getting help from the local military community. They’re great for sharing tips and resources quickly.”

  • Supplementary research indicates that military families move approximately every 2.5 years, often incurring financial losses due to rushed decisions (Military Family Advisory Network).

Implication for the platform

These findings will shape the MilMove app to better support military families during relocations. To streamline logistics, it will feature verified housing listings and vehicle storage management tools, reducing rushed decisions. For security, it will provide a safer, more reliable alternative to platforms like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Additionally, it will integrate community-driven features to connect users with local military support groups and shared resources. By combining these elements, MilMove aims to simplify moves, enhance trust, and foster a supportive network for service members and their families.

Userflow

Wireframes

After Wireframing…

I learned that there’s still a lot for me to master, especially using a grid and aligning elements for consistency. Sketching on paper first helped me visualize the layout, but once I started wireframing, I had to make adjustments, like relocating a message box to fit a sign-in button. I realize that design requires flexibility, as layout constraints and user interactions shape decisions. Moving forward, I tried to focus on accessibility, usability, and testing different placements to improve the experience.

Hi Fidelity Prototype

After Hi-Fidelity Prototype

In reflecting on my high-fidelity prototype, I recognize several key areas for improvement that would enhance both the design and user experience.

  1. Design Consistency:

    • Focus on improving consistency in typeface, font sizes, and spacing.

    • A more structured design system is needed (typography styles, spacing rules, layout grids).

  2. User Experience:

    • Based on feedback, consider adding an interactive map for better listing location views.

    • Integrate functional icons like buttons for map, messaging landlords, and accessing key details more intuitively.

  3. Logo & Branding:

    • Realized the current logo name might be used by another app.

    • The branding needs to align with a broader vision (expanding to services like car sales, job opportunities, and childcare).

    • Plan to redesign the logo for scalability and to reflect a more comprehensive brand identity.

    Overall Plan:

    • Focus on refining design consistency, usability, and branding to create a polished, scalable, and functional prototype ready for future growth.