Munition’s Loader Time Cut by 50% with Greenfield App, Retention Up 25%
Challenge
Static PDF checklists frequently crashed outdated military tablets, slowing munitions loading and increasing safety risks.
Solution
Designed an interactive progressive web app with a touchscreen checklist, with helpful filtering logic, built through iterative user research and prototyping.
Impact
Cut munition loading time 50%, increased retention 25%, and improved mission readiness through faster, more reliable procedures.
Discovering injury risk for Soldiers as weapons loaders
Weapons loading is a hazardous task involving heavy equipment, explosives, and time pressure. Most injuries are non-fatal and typically include muscle strains, burns or chemical exposure or hearing damage
These risks are amplified by repetitive motions, tight timelines, and environmental factors on the flight line.
The loaders relied on a comprehensive checklist custom for each munition and aircraft to properly load and unload based on the mission goal. The checklist was a PDF which were large and complex files, consuming significant memory (RAM) and CPU resources during opening and rendering.
Critical procedures and warnings buried in 100-page PDFs
Through interviews with five weapons loaders and their chief, we studied how loading procedures actually happen in the field. We observed loaders reading a ton of documentation. All of which is required to support F-16 weapons loading which can exceed tens of thousands of pages, effectively the size of a small technical library that maintainers must navigate to find the correct procedure for a specific load configuration.
Upfront constraints
We surfaced early constraints, aligned on their impact, and planned mitigation strategies from the start.
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Short Research Windows and Global Users
Limited time and dispersed users required focused 6-month measures and asynchronous feedback alongside interviews.
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Unreliable Connectivity in the Field
Load areas often had low or no Wi-Fi, so solutions needed to work fully offline.
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Complex Aircraft Loading Rules
Each aircraft has unique procedures, making workflows and filtering logic difficult to learn and scale.
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Scaling Challenges
Large manuals frequently crashed tablets, and adapting solutions across aircraft types was technically challenging.
Discovery insights
Highest-risk workflow
Insight: F-16 weapons loading had the highest injury and fatality rates, making it the most critical workflow to improve.
Design Response: Prioritized designing procedures and navigation specifically for F-16 loading tasks to maximize safety impact early.
Morale and safety concerns
Insight: Frequent injuries and years without software investment created frustration and low morale among weapons loaders.
Design Response: Focused on building a tool that clearly guides procedures and reduces cognitive load during high-risk tasks.
Technology constraints
Insight: Loaders relied on GETAC tablets, but large static PDFs regularly crashed the devices.
Design Response: Designed a lightweight progressive web app with modular content to improve performance and reliability on existing hardware.
Navigation inefficiencies
Insight: Loaders spent significant time scrolling through large documents to find the correct procedure.
Design Response: Introduced filtering logic and dynamic checklists so users could quickly surface the exact steps needed.
Product Hypothesis
If we deliver an interactive checklist through a progressive responsive web app, users will complete critical tasks more efficiently and safely because the system guides them through required steps and prevents missed actions.
Platform decision — Progressive Web App
This will reduce development costs and enable faster team iteration, while improving reliability through faster load times and offline functionality.
Design decision — Interactive Checklist
This will improve efficiency and safety by guiding users through critical steps in real time and reducing the risk of missed actions.
Users Should Focus on Weapons, Not Checklists
I designed a mobile-responsive interactive checklist using a custom MUI design system built internally by the Department of Defense, ensuring consistency with existing digital products. To address the complexity of filtering aircraft configurations, I created a logical workflow that allowed users to quickly surface the procedures they needed—significantly reducing scrolling and improving usability.
Next, Reduce Injuries
Throughout the process, I collaborated closely with the Product Manager to ensure alignment with the Department of Defense mission goals, which was mainly to see a 50% decrease in injuries amongst the weapons loader community. We began to hone in on the filtering logic that we believed would help us achieve this metric.
The software tool should determine whether to display the checklist steps based on 3 filtering factors:
- Current Configuration: an interactive visual display that allows the Team Chief to input what munitions, fuel tanks, and suspension equipment is loaded on the aircraft
- Tasks: tasks performed should be a list of all jobs that are being performed on the aircraft.
- Future Configuration: add current config along with the task to develop the future configuration
Results: Significant Reduction in Load Times and Increased User Retention
We measured two key metrics once the product was in the weapons loaders’ hands:
Load times were reduced by 50%, improving speed and efficiency for the weapons loader team chief.
User retention increased by 25% within 3 months, indicating higher engagement and sustained adoption of the checklist tool.
These outcomes confirmed that the redesigned, interactive progressive web app improved both operational safety and mission readiness by enabling faster, more reliable access to critical procedures.
Reflection
Our team lacked time and resources to measure success around decreasing injury and fatality rate. If I was given more time on the project I absolutely would have wanted to track injuries and fatalities to ensure those were decreasing with the use of the Munition's Loader app.
Dive Deeper
This case study has been condensed for quick online viewing. A more detailed, visually presented version is available-please contact me if you're interested in learning more.