Morgan Lewis

Company: Morgan Lewis

Role: UX Designer, sole designer on project

Location: Philadelphia 

Timeframe: 2017 – 2018

Brief: Reduce friction and automate complex manual workflow to process year-end bonuses

Morgan Lewis, is a large international law firm. I was responsible for driving the UX in new web applications for Philadelphia office’s lawyers, paralegals and financial administrators. 

My main project was an internal tool named ‘Kratos’ that would serve to automate a complex, manual workflow used to calculate end of year bonuses and financial earnings.

Artist’s rendering of planned office tower planned at 23rd and Market Streets, seen here looking east toward existing Center City skyline.

Discovery and User Research

Objectives

  • Research and observe user behaviors amongst senior financial administrators
  • Develop a new internal application based on existing ML UI Kit that automates a very manual workflow
  • Design document processing features to be intuitive and accessible 

Research

  • Card sorting
  • User Interviews
  • Interview Guide
  • User Interview Debrief
  • Usability testing sessions

Needs

  • Ability to process allocation reports (year-end bonuses) 
  • Step-by-step guide that alleviates pain points from manual workflow 

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Wants

  • Simpler workflow
  • Less steps overall
  • Easy to use interface 

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Desires

  • For year end reports to take less time

“Define what the product will do before you design how the product will do it.” – Alan Cooper

Challenge

For about a year and a half, multiple stakeholders struggled to develop a new web application that would automate a lengthy, annual process, the production of allocation reports. Allocation reports help determine – among many things – year-end bonuses for firm associates and partners. These reports are produced by financial administrators and require a ton of manual data entry.

TAKING A CYCLICAL APPROACH

Process

My process was very iterative and cyclical, revolving around regular working sessions with stakeholders and my primary user/persona.

Due to time constraints and limited resources the majority of my user research data came from behavioral interviews and usability testing sessions with one of the primary users, my main persona, a senior financial administrator in the Philadelphia office.

I also relied heavily on the information provided to me by my project stakeholders; two developers and a senior project manager. They knew firsthand how the allocation reports were developed, step-by-step.

After many discussions and card sorting exercises with the project team, I rapidly iterated low-fidelity wireframes. Then I proceeded to construct high-fidelity wireframes to review with a senior financial administrator.

Step-by-step

Making the Complex Simple

My biggest challenge with this project was to create a cohesive, streamlined experience despite the original manual process being so convoluted. I decided on a multi-step wizard interface that could guide the user through the process.


Phase-by-Phase

Solution

After a few months of work, my hybrid high-fidelity wireframe / visual mockups were finalized and approved, then handed off to developers for implementation.


Key Takeaways

Outcome

Despite all designs being approved for implementation, I wasn’t able to be involved post-handoff. I was essentially excluded from this phase despite attempts to gain more insight into the delays. Plus, other firm projects divided my attention so I wasn’t able to ensure my designs were built correctly. All in all, however, my portion of the project was a success. My key takeaway moving forward, however, was to be very hands on post design approval to ensure all metrics are met.