OVERVIEW

The Library of Congress contracted a few agencies in order to modernize their process when receiving and processing Bills from the House or Senate.

PROBLEM

These projects were failing in the past and not getting a continuation as they should have. Needless to say, we were met with a cold crowd, which was totally understandable. We were able to win them over by the 3rd Sprint (but that's another story). Initially, we were given lots of documentations from the past projects. These were quite helpful and would give us some references for this project to know what worked and what did not.

Firstly, we needed to gather their requirements. We had a couple of sessions of doing some interviews with the stakeholders. It wasn't too hard to empathize with them knowing that to get one part of the process done they needed to use Word, xLIS and Dreamweaver. It took too long and it was a painful process. The ultimate goal here was to integrate everything into one place where they could do their very important jobs.

We only had five and a half months to produce all the deliverables. My role was to provide workflow diagrams, interview the users, high-fidelity wireframes, and perform usability testings.

To start with, their current platform, xLIS was super outdated. It looked and behaved like something built in the '90s (see image below).

From this

To this

THE SOLUTION

Then we got on the workflow diagrams so that we could understand their process and workflow.

The main personas were:

• Manager
• Reviewer
• Coordinator
• Research Assistant
• Analyst

We were able to gather all that information. This was mainly done by the Business Analysts but I would add a few things from time to time.

Then it came time for the wireframes. When you start a project you can pretty much tell whether the client would be able to see the “final" product using a low or high-fidelity wireframe. In this case, they needed to see a high-fidelity wireframe (I wish we had enough time to produce a clickable prototype, but I was outvoted).

We started with the Research Assistant scenario wireframes. Since time was a luxury, I pretty much had to do my usability testing on the go. We had to create about five possible scenarios for the Research Assistant's day-to-day activities.

We had to create high-fidelity wireframes for:

• Inbox
• Intake
• Code Markup
• Research
• Analysis
• Writing

The client had up to three revisions for each persona. The wireframes got better and better after each session. We added additional requirements as they were given.

TIMELINE

We were given five and a half months to complete this project and have all the deliverables, which also included a study for a text editor (I was not involved in that), workflow diagrams, and the wireframes. We broke it down to first, deliver the workflow diagrams and then the wireframes. I worked directly with a Business Analyst and had 100% design freedom.

RESULTS

This project had failed so many times in the past that we were all skeptical when we started. However, this time we were able to please the client with our solutions and I am pleased to say that this project will go to phase 2 where there will be developers added to the team.

REFLECTION

This highlights my experience here, as I had the chance to experience the empathetic mindset and process of a UX designer. As a designer who has never worked together with such a group prior to this opportunity, all you need is empathy, curiosity, and constant iteration to design an experience that can get these users motivated in their workflow again. With these elements, I've learned you can create meaningful relationships with your users that can ultimately shape the end result of our product into an unimaginable scale.

I am absolutely grateful for this opportunity and for growing with such a talented team. With their guidance, patience, and open-mindset towards design, I don't think either the product or my journey as a designer would be where it is right now.

Inbox (Landing page)

Inbox (Showing the filter)

Writing (Modal showing import summary)

Intake