Authenticated home page

About

My VA is the page a Veteran lands on after they sign in to VA.gov. It’s the topmost page of the authenticated experience and the only page that pulls information together from every category: health care, benefits, payments, and forms.

For the page a visitor sees before they sign in, refer to the Unauthenticated home page template.

This template documents the target state for My VA. Work is in progress toward it, so the page in production may not carry every section or behavior described here yet.

The authenticated experience

The authenticated experience is what a Veteran sees after they sign in. It’s personalized, and it spans both VA.gov on the web and the VA Health and Benefits mobile app. Three goals hold across that entire experience, and they get more specific the deeper a Veteran goes:

1. Veterans know what tasks they need to complete.
2. Veterans can see the status of the benefits they’re receiving or have applied for.
3. Veterans can easily navigate between features.

There are 4 page types in the authenticated experience:

• Dashboard. The personalized landing page a Veteran encounters after they sign in. My VA is the dashboard on the web. The Home Screen is the dashboard in the mobile app.
• Category. An overview of a single, complex VA service. On the web there are 4 category pages: My HealtheVet, Benefits, Payments, and Forms. Refer to the Category pages template.
• Feature. The home of an individual tool or service, such as Appointments, Claims, or Overpayments. Feature pages are lists that give a Veteran a complete picture of that feature.
• Detail. A single record or item within a feature, such as one message thread, one claim, or one copay bill. Detail pages are where notifications from email, text message, and push should point.

What a dashboard does

Like the dashboard in a car, this page confirms what a Veteran already knows is going on and surfaces what needs attention. It’s minimal and scannable, and it only displays the essentials. In research, Veterans have described the dashboard as their virtual to-do list.

The jobs of the dashboard, in priority order:

1. Surface important, time-sensitive information a Veteran needs to know, ideally as a task. Sometimes the task is simply reading something.
2. Provide a high-level summary of a Veteran’s engagements with VA.
3. Surface tools and features a Veteran needs on demand, such as the Veteran status card, VA letters and documents, or Find a VA location.

Usage

When to use this template

• For My VA, and only for My VA. This template describes the single authenticated home page for VA.gov.

When not to use this template

• For the unauthenticated home page. Use the Unauthenticated home page template for the page a visitor sees before they sign in.
• For a category, feature, or detail page. These page types summarize or list a single service. My VA is the only page that spans all categories. For a category page, use the Category pages template.
• For the mobile app Home Screen. The mobile app dashboard shares the same jobs and most of the same sections, but it has its own layout and behavior. Differences are noted throughout this page.

Example

Web

Each tab shows the same page in a different state. Select a numbered marker to jump to the guidance for it. On the Default tab, every marker matches a numbered section in Structure. The Empty tab marks only the sections whose behavior changes. The Loading and Error tabs number the 2 scopes described in each, not the numbered sections.

Mobile app

The VA Health and Benefits mobile app calls this page the Home Screen. It does the same three jobs as My VA and uses most of the same sections, but it has its own layout, its own navigation, and one section that doesn’t appear on the web.

Select a numbered marker to jump to the guidance for that section.

1 2 3 4

Differences from the web:

New features and improvements

The Home Screen adds this section between the alert and Action required. It surfaces recent app updates and enhancements, and it doesn’t appear on My VA.

• Forms. There’s no Forms category in the app, so no Forms row appears in Updates.
• Sub-tasks. If a Veteran can complete a task in 6 taps or fewer, tapping an item in Action required opens a sub-task on the Home Screen rather than navigating into the feature.

Empty states work the same way as they do on the web.

Structure

All sections are required unless noted, and they appear in the order shown.

1. Page title
2. Alert (conditional)
3. Action required
4. Updates
5. Quick access
6. Need help?

My VA carries no page description. That line belongs to category pages, and it’s discouraged even there. Refer to the Category pages template.

The mobile app Home Screen adds a “New features and improvements” section between the alert and Action required. That section doesn’t appear on My VA.

My VA also uses the standard Header and Footer components and the authenticated secondary navigation.

Choosing a section

What a piece of information is decides the section it belongs in, and the section decides the Action List variant. Work down this list and stop at the first match.

When to use Action required or Updates

• A date puts an item in Action required. A state puts it in Updates. An overpayment with a due date is an action. An open claim is a record, even though it carries dates.
• An item appears in one section, never both. An item in Action required doesn’t also appear in Updates.

Components used

Four of the six sections are built with the same component, Action List (va-action-list). Each section uses a different variant:

Action required

attention

Updates

summary

Quick access

launcher

Need help?

launcher

Any of these sections, when it has nothing to show

empty

Refer to Action List for how each variant behaves, what belongs in an item, and the component’s accessibility guidance. Give each list its heading through the component’s heading-text and heading-level rather than placing a separate heading element above it.

The mockups on this page are built with the real component.

Section guidance

1. Page title

Required. Names the page.

• The title is an H1 and reads “My VA.” It matches the secondary navigation label exactly. My VA carries no breadcrumb, because it’s the topmost page of the authenticated experience.
• The title carries no call to action.

2. Alert

Conditional. A VA.gov-wide notice about a system issue that affects everyone.

Alerts on My VA are always system-level. They tell a Veteran about the state of the site before they try to use it. Because My VA is the topmost page, information that every Veteran needs to see belongs here. A message that only affects health care users belongs on the My HealtheVet category page, and so on down the hierarchy.

Use an alert for:

• System maintenance. Scheduled or in progress.
• API errors or outages. A system that’s temporarily unavailable.
• Facility operating status.

Never use an alert for:

• A task specific to one Veteran. That’s what Action required is for.
• A notification. Alerts are not a notification channel.
• A category-specific problem. A message like “My HealtheVet is down” belongs on that category’s page.
• A receipt confirming something the Veteran just did.

An alert persists until the system issue is resolved.

Use the Alert component with the informational or warning status, matched to the impact.

3. Action required

Required. Time-sensitive items from every category, gathered in the one place a Veteran sees them together.

Each item in this section is a critical action: important, time-sensitive information a Veteran needs in order to complete a task. Tasks range from submitting a form to viewing data. Not every task has an expiration date.

Properties:

• Time-sensitive. The item is urgent, and there are usually negative consequences if the Veteran doesn’t act.
• The same item the category page shows. An item reads the same way here as it does on the category page it belongs to. My VA gathers items from every category. A category page filters the same items to one area. The goal is an item that’s identical on both pages, not summarized. Where an API can’t return item-level detail, the item is summarized here instead. Travel pay is the one exception that’s deliberate rather than a constraint. Refer to Travel pay reads per appointment.
• Persistent. The item stays in the section until the Veteran completes the task or the display window closes, whichever comes first.
• Grouped or individual. An item can stand for a group of tasks rather than one. Group them when the source system can’t return task-level detail fast enough, or when the detail is more than belongs on a page that spans every category. Travel pay is one example.
• Sorted by deadline, soonest first. When two items share a date, group them by category so items from the same category read together.
• No overlap with Updates. An item that appears in Action required doesn’t also appear in Updates.
• Curated. Show 5 items, then a “Show more” control for the rest.
• Linked to the full set. A “Show all required actions” link sits below the list and opens every required action the Veteran has.
• Unread until the Veteran opens it. Mark an item unread when the Veteran hasn’t seen it yet.

How long an item stays in Action required

By default, an item appears in Action required for 30 days. This keeps the section short enough to scan and reserves it for what’s genuinely time-sensitive.

Exceptions are granted case by case. Request one when a task stays consequential well past 30 days. These exceptions are already approved, each shown with how long it appears:

Evidence requests on a claim or appeal

Indefinitely

Overpayments

Indefinitely

Form submissions that failed and need to be resubmitted

60 days

Copays don’t need an exception. A past-due copay bill rides the most recent monthly statement, so it re-surfaces inside the default window on its own.

When an item has no date

Every item needs a date to sort on, and some source systems don’t supply one. Debts over 120 days old are the case we’ve hit so far: the system reports how old the debt is but not when it started, so the date is approximated as today minus 120 days. That puts the oldest debts at the top, which is where they belong.

When you find another item with no date, work down this list and stop at the first one you can do:

1. Approximate a date from whatever the source system does report, the way the 120-day debt does.
2. Sort the item after every dated item when there’s nothing to approximate from.

An approximated date is a sort key, not a deadline. Display only a date the source system supports.

Required content for each item:

• Title. What the item is. Lead with the record’s identity, including the dollar amount where there is one: “$120.40 overpayment for Post-9/11 GI Bill,” “3 evidence requests,” “File travel pay for 3 recent appointments.”
• Metadata. What the Veteran has to do, the date they have to do it by, or both: “Respond by March 4, 2026,” “Call us to update your address on file.” Keep it to 3 lines at most.
• Tag. Optional, and most items carry none. Add one only for an error, a past-due deadline, or an item that’s processing.

Never:

• Invent a deadline so an item has a date to show.
• Give the parent feature a line of its own. The title already says what the item is.

Use the Action List component’s attention variant with max-visible-count set to 5.

Mobile app guidance: If a Veteran can complete the task in 6 taps or fewer, tapping the item opens a sub-task on the Home Screen. Otherwise, take them to the most direct place possible within the feature.

4. Updates

Required. A summary of the current status of each active engagement with VA.

Think of updates as the gauges on a dashboard: informational, sometimes actionable, but never required. Each row gives a Veteran a reason to come back.

Properties:

• Non-dismissible. A Veteran can’t dismiss or hide an update.
• Status-oriented. Each row shows recent activity from a defined recent time period. The default window is 90 days, and a team can adjust it to the benefit.
• An aggregate. Each row rolls a set of records up into a count for one feature, such as “6 ready for refill” or “5 unread messages.” A category page breaks the same information out into record subsections that name the individual records. Updates on My VA is the summary; the record subsection is the detail.
• No overlap with Action required. An item that appears in Action required doesn’t also appear in Updates.

Required content for each row:

• Title. What the row leads to, written as an action wherever possible. Where a row leads to one specific record, name the record.
• Metadata. What’s waiting behind the row. That’s record detail for a row leading to a single record, such as an amount and a date. It’s a count for a row that stands for a set, such as “6 ready for refill” or “5 unread messages.”
• Status. Only where a row leads to one record and that record has a state. Not every row needs one.

Record subsections on a category page carry the records behind these rows. Refer to Record subsections.

Never:

• Contradict the category page. A Veteran who opens a row should find the records it counted, with the statuses and dates the count implied.
• Show a count of zero. A row with nothing behind it comes off the page.

Example updates for each category:

Appointments

Upcoming appointments, After-visit summaries

Claims

Open claims, Decision letters ready for review

Forms

Forms received, Forms in progress

Medical records

Lab results, Test results

Payments

Compensation received, Copays, Overpayments

Prescriptions

Ready for refill, Shipped, Ready for renewal

Messages

Unread messages, Draft messages

Use the Action List component’s summary variant.

5. Quick access

Required. A collection of top tasks and links to cross-cutting benefits that help a Veteran navigate to related services.

• Quick access links are static. Base them on popularity, Veteran feedback, or both.
• VA.gov Design Leads decide which links appear on My VA. On a category page, the category team curates the list, so it isn’t the same from page to page.
• Keep the list to 5 links or fewer.
• Keep each row to a label and, at most, one line describing what the tool does.

Never:

• Use an internal product name that a Veteran wouldn’t recognize.
• Include counts or statuses. These are places to go, not things that changed.

Use the Action List component’s launcher variant.

6. Need help?

Required. Contact and assistance routes for the whole product. Always last on the page.

• Include only routes that apply across VA.gov.
• Anything scoped to a single category belongs in that category page’s help section.

Use the Action List component’s launcher variant.

General guidance

Breaking the rules

The guidance above helps teams decide how to surface information. There will be times when something is timely and important enough to break it, even though it doesn’t meet the criteria. A new decision letter is one example.

Where amounts and action labels go

A dollar amount is data about a record, not a label or an action. In Action required it leads the title, as in “$65 copay bill for Medical Center Green.” In an Updates row it reads in the metadata line beneath the title.

Action labels such as “Download” and “Continue” read in the row title or the metadata line too.

Refer to Action List for what’s clickable in a row, where a status tag sits and what doesn’t belong in one, and how rows wrap and reflow.

Content considerations

• Write an Action required item in two parts. The title names the record, and the metadata line carries the action, the date, or both. For example, “$65 copay bill for Medical Center Green” with “Due by August 5, 2026” beneath it.
• Write update descriptions as a count plus what changed. For example, “3 refills ready.”
• Spell out dates. Write “August 24, 2026” with no leading zero on the day. Refer to Dates and numbers for the full rules.
• Use the Veteran-facing name of a tool, not the internal product name.

Accessibility considerations

• Sections are headings, not decoration. Each section title is an H2 under the page’s H1, and each item title within a section is the next heading level down.
• Announce content that loads after the page. When a section finishes loading or fails to load, make sure assistive technology users learn about the change. Refer to the Loading indicator and Alert components for how each handles focus and announcements.
• Don’t rely on color or position alone to communicate that an item is time-sensitive.
• The page reflows. Every section stacks to a single column at 200% and 400% zoom and down to a 320px viewport, with no horizontal scrolling and no loss of content or function.

Related

• Unauthenticated home page — the home page a visitor sees before they sign in
• Category — the page type one level below My VA
• Signed out vs. signed in
• Help users to manage benefits and tools
• Help users to stay informed of their application status
• Alert
• Loading indicator