Human-Centered Design for a Virtual, Global Community
THE CHALLENGE
The Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS) is a web application that enables college students around the globe to apply to virtual government internships. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, VSFS faced an exponential increase in the demand for internships and the application was significantly overburdened. VSFS was not designed to support the size of the program it has grown to be today. As the legacy system entered its 10th year, it faced an outdated PHP platform and lacked both a user-friendly interface and appropriate security protocols. This federal agency sought out and challenged Acuity to modernize the application, improve security protocols, and increase scalability, all while minimizing operational downtime
THE SOLUTION
Using a DevSecOps framework, Acuity designed and built the application with NodeJS/React and a Postgres database, while integrating identity access provisions for secure user management and multifactor authentication. In addition, since other government agencies showed interest in the application, the code was genericized to share upon request.
