Military OneSource

Role

UI Designer
Brand Designer

Contribution

Brand Identity
UX/UI Design
User Research

Users

Active-duty service members, and their family
National Guard and Reserve members
Veterans
Deployment leaders and relocation officers
Military support staff and counselors
Base commanders and installation staff

Client

US Department of Defense

The Challenge

Military OneSource (MOS) is the Department of Defense’s central support program for active-duty service members, families, and transitioning veterans. While well-known for confidential counseling, most users had no idea it also offered a wide range of services, from relocation help and tax support to spouse employment resources, wellness coaching, and more.

The problem? The website hadn’t been updated since the early 2000s. The branding felt outdated and stiff, and the site itself was hard to navigate. Pages were unorganized, buried deep, and dense. The user experience was so frustrating that site traffic was consistently low, even though the services were incredibly valuable.

The DoD brought us in to change that. The goal was to rebrand Military OneSource and redesign the full experience to reflect what it really is: a one-stop, trustworthy resource for military life.

Task

As one of three designers on a full cross-functional team, I helped lead the visual and UX direction across the entire digital platform. That included:

Rebranding Military OneSource from the ground up
Redesigning the main website to be simpler and more usable
Designing two connected tools: Plan My Move and Plan My Deployment

We needed to make it easier for service members and families to find what they needed, feel supported, and trust the platform as a reliable partner.

Moodboard

Brand Colors

Final Logo

To stay responsive, we also launched a beta version of the new site with built-in feedback tools. Users could tell us what worked, what was missing, and what could be better, and we used that input to refine the final version.

Throughout, I collaborated daily with engineers, product managers, accessibility experts, and our creative director. I contributed to the component library, iterated on layouts, and helped guide implementation from wireframes to final handoff.

Logo

Action

We began with research, interviewing over 100 service members and family members across all branches, ranks, and locations (CONUS and OCONUS). We learned how they were currently navigating transitions, what services they actually used, and what gaps they were experiencing.

We also facilitated branding workshops with DoD stakeholders. There were a lot of opinions in the room and more than a few pivots. Each designer on the team presented a full brand concept, and after a couple rounds of change, my concept was selected: patriotic, strong, supportive, and simple, modernized without losing the sense of trust and duty.

With the brand in place, we redesigned the website architecture from the ground up. We turned a bulky, frustrating experience into a streamlined site of around 2,000 focused pages. Everything was made easier to find, easier to read, and built to work across devices.

In addition, we designed and launched two digital tools:

Plan My Move: A personalized checklist tool to help service members and families plan PCS (Permanent Change of Station) moves, find housing near bases, look up schools, and access military-approved movers.

Plan My Deployment: A step-by-step tool for preparing for deployment, connecting users to resources, procedures, and support in one place.

Before, this information was scattered across Facebook groups, word of mouth, or informal chats with deployment leaders. Now, it was all in one place, official, organized, and usable.

The Result

The redesign transformed Military OneSource from an outdated, underused site into a modern, accessible platform serving over 10 million military members and families. We cut the content from more than 20,000 unorganized pages down to about 2,000 focused, actionable ones, launched two high-impact tools, Plan My Move and Plan My Deployment, and introduced a refreshed brand that felt strong, supportive, and trustworthy. The beta launch with built-in feedback allowed us to keep improving based on real user input. For me, this project was deeply meaningful; it wasn’t just about pixels or aesthetic, it was about creating something service members could actually rely on in some of the most stressful moments of their lives. Seeing the final product in use, knowing it was helping families feel more prepared and supported, made all the challenges along the way worth it.

Contact me

Email: zmohtadi@gmail.com
Linked In: in/zmohtadi
Dribbble: dribbble.com/zmohtadi