Overview

Users struggled to track the status of documents that required action from multiple people, resulting in uncertainty around ownership, errors, and delays. The team investigated how a centralized hub could improve clarity and efficiency across complex signing workflows.

Role & Ownership

I led research planning and execution end‑to‑end, partnering closely with Design, Product, Content, Business, and Engineering to iteratively shape concepts and evaluate their impact on the user experience. This included defining what success should look like and validating progress as designs matured.

Research Strategy

The research focused on identifying breakdowns that most directly affected task completion and user confidence, particularly where ownership and next steps were unclear.

Methods

• Concept testing to evaluate early workflow hypotheses

• Task‑based usability testing to assess whether designs supported key actions such as signing documents and understanding others’ progress

• Statistical comparison of the redesigned experience against the existing one to quantify changes in usability, satisfaction, and task ease

Synthesis & Key Insights

Research showed that users derived significantly more value from a consolidated view of documents involving multiple parties than from views focused solely on their own outstanding actions. Visibility into who still needed to sign and how far a workflow had progressed reduced uncertainty and increased confidence in completing tasks correctly.

Early findings revealed two primary barriers to realizing this value: unclear status terminology and difficulty locating critical information when it was hidden behind expandable views. Addressing these issues became a priority for subsequent design iterations, as they directly undermined users’ ability to interpret progress and ownership.

Quantitative evaluation validated the refined designs, which were perceived as more usable, more satisfying, and more consolidated than the existing experience, confirming that improvements to information clarity and visibility meaningfully enhanced the workflow.

Impact

• Reinforced the value of emphasizing shared progress over individual task lists.

• Partnered with Content Strategy to resolve terminology confusion identified in early research, improving users’ ability to quickly understand document status and next steps.

• Established success metrics used to assess post‑launch success, providing a baseline for continued iteration and measurement over time.