AIR FORCE
RECRUITING
Over the past six years, I led and contributed to the evolution of the digital ecosystem for United States Air Force recruiting, spanning AirForce.com, interactive games, and immersive experiences. The work focused on unifying disparate audiences, modernizing legacy systems, and creating engaging, human centered experiences that reflect the cognitive, technical, and emotional realities of service.
Air Force recruiting needed to speak to multiple audiences with distinct paths, motivations, and eligibility requirements, all within a shared digital platform. The ecosystem included legacy content, multiple recruiting branches, and a growing portfolio of interactive experiences, all of which needed to feel cohesive, accessible, and scalable.
The challenge was to bring structure and clarity to a complex system while maintaining flexibility for future growth and innovation.
the challenge
AirForce.com Platform Redesign
The AirForce.com website had been redesigned years earlier, but in 2021 the scope expanded to incorporate content from the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve into a single experience. This required the merging of three distinct sitemaps and a deep UX audit to determine which pages should be merged, modified, or removed.
Decisions were informed by analytics, user behavior, and recruiting priorities. We delivered wireframes and visual designs for all new and updated pages, which launched in January 2023.
Because the site is fully component based within AEM, this effort also became an opportunity to audit and improve the full component library, ensuring accessibility compliance, mobile friendliness, and reduction of redundant patterns across the platform.
Results and recognition
The Air Force digital ecosystem successfully balanced scale, engagement, and usability across platforms and audiences.
Below are awards won over the years across all U.S. Air Force websites:
Cannes Lions Silver in Digital Craft for Overall Aesthetic Design
Webby Award Winner for Best Use of Video or Moving Image
Featured in the Crafted with Code showcase
FWA Site of the Month
Awwwards Site of the Month
CSS Design Awards Site of the Year
ADC Shortlist
One Show Shortlist
My Role
Creative Director and Head of Experiential Design
Led UX and visual design across AirForce.com, E.C.H.O., and Aircade
Defined information architecture and sitemap strategy across recruiting branches
Designed and audited component based systems for accessibility and scalability
Concepted and directed interactive and game based experiences
Partnered closely with developers, strategists, and client teams over multiple years