A secure network built for first responders.
An account experience redesigned to match.
FirstNet was built for first responders, but its account dashboard inherited a B2B account experience designed for business customers. Subscriber-paid first responders needed to complete everyday account tasks — paying a bill, viewing usage, setting up AutoPay, shopping, and managing devices — without navigating unnecessary business-account complexity. As lead UX designer and researcher, I redesigned the dashboard around the tasks first responders actually came to complete, resulting in SUS scores of 95 mobile and 91 desktop.
Built for the people who depend on it.
Improved task completion and usability scores across a network serving first responders nationwide.
First responder subscribers on the FirstNet network.
Public safety agencies served across the network.
Secure applications supported on the FirstNet platform.
Mobile / Desktop System Usability Scale — "Excellent" range.
First responders needed everyday account access. The dashboard inherited a B2B account model.
The FirstNet account dashboard had been built by repurposing AT&T's Premier platform — designed for large businesses managing hundreds of lines. First responders managing their own accounts found themselves navigating a system built for corporate account managers, not individuals.
The result: critical tasks required too many steps to complete. Page loads ran into minutes. The design was intended to reduce unnecessary calls to Care by making common tasks easier to find and complete.
Subscriber-paid first responders were using FirstNet like individual account holders. They needed to pay a bill, view usage, set up AutoPay, shop, and manage devices quickly. The dashboard needed to bring those common tasks forward and reduce the B2B account complexity that didn't support their workflow.
What we set out to change
- Surface the top 5 tasks immediately from the dashboard
- Reduce steps for bill pay, autopay setup, and account management
- Eliminate enterprise-only features from the first responder view
- Dramatically improve page load performance
- Create a consistent experience across mobile and desktop
The solution in brief
- Modular, personalized dashboard built around top tasks
- Unified navigation with a single "site" structure
- Responsive design across all devices
- Role-based views separating subscriber and agency admin needs
Five research inputs. Every one said the same thing: this is too hard.
We triangulated the problem through user interviews, expert review, customer feedback, behavioral analytics, and audience segmentation. The signal was consistent — critical tasks were buried, navigation was counterintuitive, and page performance made everything worse.
What we heard in think-aloud interviews
- Users couldn't find information or links in the navigation
- The layout felt counterintuitive — expected tasks weren't where they expected
- Account setup was difficult for new subscribers
- The purchasing process had too many steps
What the expert review found
- No clear path to make a payment from the dashboard
- AutoPay status not visible — no positive/negative indicator
- Interface varied across platforms — no consistent experience
- Enterprise-level options visible to users who would never need them
What customers said directly
"Billing and account set up are a real pain."
— OpinionLab survey respondent
"It's probably a crucial service for government agencies, but the account site access and billing is sub-par."
— OpinionLab survey respondent
"The website is not well laid out. There is no way to pay your bill online."
— OpinionLab survey respondent
35% of all sessions were bill payment attempts. The top 5 tasks — pay bill, setup autopay, view bill, shop, account management — accounted for 85% of traffic. The dashboard needed to surface these immediately, not bury them.
Two distinct user types
- Subscriber-Paid (65%) — individual first responders managing their own accounts, expecting a consumer experience
- Agency-Paid (35%) — managed by their agency, different billing and account needs requiring a separate design approach
Top 5 tasks by frequency
- Pay Bill (35%)
- Setup Autopay (15%)
- View Bill (13%)
- Shop (12%)
- Account Management (10%)
The 65/35 subscriber-to-agency split shaped where we started. Designing first for the subscriber-paid experience allowed us to validate the modular dashboard model around the highest-volume use case before extending it to more complex agency administrator workflows.
Before — the inherited B2B account dashboard made everyday subscriber tasks harder to find, including bill pay, usage, AutoPay, shopping, and account management.
Supporting research artifacts
A modular dashboard built around the tasks that mattered most.
Research gave us a clear brief: surface the top 5 tasks immediately, remove what subscribers don't need, and load fast. The design approach followed directly from what the data showed.
Bring the tasks to the user. Don't make them navigate to find what 85% of them came to do. The dashboard is not a homepage — it's a task launchpad.
Information architecture
- Unified navigation — one consistent structure across all sections
- Role-based views — subscriber experience separated from agency admin
- Personalization over customization — system surfaces relevant content automatically
- No more than 6 dashboard cards in the initial view
Task prioritization
- Bill pay accessible from the dashboard — no sub-navigation required
- AutoPay status visible with clear positive/negative indicator
- Usage summary surfaced immediately — devices, plans, data
- Alerts integrated directly into the dashboard view
- Responsive design — same experience on mobile and desktop
Task flow analysis — mapping the existing steps required to complete top tasks and identifying where the experience could be shortened.
Supporting design artifacts
Final comp — the redesigned dashboard surfaced top tasks immediately, clarified AutoPay status, and presented role-appropriate account information across mobile and desktop.
SUS 95 mobile. SUS 91 desktop. Both in the "Excellent" range.
We validated through heuristic evaluation and unmoderated RITE testing — iterating quickly across multiple rounds before final build. The SUS scores confirmed the redesign was working.
Testing approach
- Heuristic Evaluation — expert review against Nielsen's 10 usability principles
- Unmoderated RITE — rapid iterative testing with first responder subscribers, allowing quick design corrections between sessions
Results
- SUS Mobile: 95 — "Excellent" (above 90th percentile)
- SUS Desktop: 91 — "Excellent"
- Validation showed the redesigned experience supported the top account tasks more clearly across mobile and desktop
- The redesign was designed to reduce the steps required to reach bill pay and AutoPay
Usability readout — SUS scores and task completion data from the final validation round.
Extending the model to agency administrators.
The first phase focused on the 65% subscriber-paid use case. The next phase addressed agency administrators — a distinct user type with different permissions, billing models, and management needs.
Next-step artifacts showing how the modular dashboard model could extend to agency administrator workflows.
What This Changed
The dashboard inherited a B2B account model that didn't match how subscriber-paid first responders used their accounts. Redesigning around the tasks they actually came to complete — bill pay, usage, AutoPay, device management — produced scores in the "Excellent" range.
SUS 95 mobile · SUS 91 desktop. An experience that finally matched the importance of the network it supports.