Giving first responders account access built around how they actually work.

The research shifted the dashboard from an internal account model to an action-oriented account experience — surfacing billing, usage, device, and AutoPay actions earlier and creating a framework that could scale from individual first responders to agency administrators.

FirstNet subscriber-paid users needed fast, direct access to a small set of high-frequency tasks: pay a bill, check usage, manage a device, enroll in AutoPay. AT&T's Premier platform was built for corporate account administrators managing hundreds of lines. The opportunity was to build a task-first experience on top of that infrastructure.

I grounded the redesign in user tasks. Instead of treating the dashboard as a place to promote content or mirror backend account structures, I focused on what subscribers were trying to do when they signed in. Premier was deeply embedded in AT&T's infrastructure — working within those constraints shaped the approach: identify what could be surfaced and restructured within the existing system, and build the task-access layer on top of it.

Public safety users do not need extra friction when managing essential service. A task-based dashboard gave users faster access to the account actions that mattered most and created a stronger foundation for future account experiences.

I triangulated evidence across research inputs. Think-aloud interviews showed what first responders needed from account management. Expert review identified usability and content hierarchy issues. Adobe Analytics and OpinionLab data showed how users interacted with account areas and where they hesitated. Audience segmentation helped separate individual subscriber needs from agency administrator needs. Each method confirmed the same signal: users knew what they needed to do, but the experience made it harder than it should have been.

The research gave the team confidence to make a structural change. Instead of rearranging existing content, we could prioritize the tasks users were trying to complete and defend a simpler experience with evidence.

The redesigned dashboard brought high-priority account actions to the surface, created a responsive model that worked across desktop and mobile, and used a modular structure that could support future account and admin needs without redesigning from scratch.

I reorganized the dashboard around what users came to do. The modular model surfaced high-frequency account actions immediately, reduced navigation depth for bill pay and AutoPay, and applied responsive design across mobile and desktop. I also treated the layout as a modular framework, allowing the team to surface different account modules based on user role, device, and account context.

The action-oriented structure gave users a clearer path to what they needed and gave the product team a more scalable model for supporting different account types without adding unnecessary complexity.

I validated through heuristic evaluation and unmoderated RITE testing, iterating across rounds before engineering commitment. I used task-based evaluation and SUS scoring to understand whether users could complete key tasks and whether the experience felt usable overall. The final SUS scores — 95 mobile, 91 desktop — both landed in the "Excellent" range, above the 90th percentile.

The testing gave stakeholders a clear signal that the redesign was not only visually cleaner. It improved the usability of critical account tasks across device contexts — and gave the team the evidence to move forward with confidence.

The redesign created a foundation for more complex admin workflows — extending the same modular account framework from individual subscribers to agency administrators who needed to manage accounts, billing, devices, roles, and permissions across teams.

Phase one covered subscriber-paid users, 65% of the FirstNet user base. Phase two extended the same modular account framework to agency-paid administrators — a distinct user type with different permission structures, billing models, and multi-line management needs. I used role analysis and early wireframes to explore how administrators would manage billing, permissions, account access, and line-level actions, preserving the simplicity of the individual subscriber experience while adding the depth administrators needed. Building the first phase with extensibility in mind meant the second phase could reuse the core patterns rather than rebuilding from scratch.

The redesign was not a one-off dashboard update. It created a flexible account framework that supported multiple user types across FirstNet without requiring separate design systems for each audience.