Optimizing a self-service platform for law firms to search and download files.
MyVeritext is a self-service platform for law firms to order services, manage events, and access the delivered content.
A large portion of MyVeritext users are practicing attorneys and paralegals that need to dedicate their time to analyzing files and building a strong case. cannot do this when they’re spending a significant amount of time on searching and downloading files.
Only 20% of customers are active MyVeritext users.
About 30% of support tickets were usability issues.
Increase conversation rate for file downloads.
Reduce time spent on searching for files.
Reduce the amount of support tickets.
After collaborating with the PM to analyze the support tickets and other feedback from users, we gathered the following insights: Searching for content is inefficient because pertinent information is hidden. Downloading files is slow due to a lack of bulk actions.
The existing UI used expandable cards, which obscured pertinent information, files, and actions.
A data table to handle a spectrum of data sets and revamp the information architecture.
The proposed solution was through the lens of an object-oriented approach and identify the primary object in this part of the user journey, which were the files. The primary action to take on the files was to download. The data table needed to do the following for users:
The PM and developer had concerns for the amount of information displayed by taking the table approach. I reinforced with the team of the existing user feedback that they don’t want information obscured. This part of the customer journey requires maximum efficiency in finding individual files. We needed to facilitate this efficiency by rethinking the information architecture and displaying files as the primary object.
After getting buy-in from all stakeholders on the approach, I refined and delivered the final designs. The following refinements were made to improve the data table functionality:
The only method of multiple file downloads was by expanding a card to view all of its associated files. We knew that users needed to download files across different events. There were huge interaction costs in these steps: expand a card, select or deselect files, click download. But imagine this over 20 times.
Multi-selection from the data table for bulk actions.
The design leveraged the data table to allow users to select as many or as few files as they needed. This also set the foundation for scaling towards additional bulk actions that would lead to other conversion points (e.g. ordering files).
Technical constraints arose when reviewing the proposal. There was a limit to the files that could be included in a single download. Performance was the root of the constraint, so I designed a method to make users aware of the constraint.
Additional feedback was to reduce the noise during multi-selection. The UI is very dense and there were concerns with overwhelming users.
An important consideration was to alert users of the file limit prior to initiating the download. To reduce the noise, I wanted to make sure we also did not obscure any information. The following refinements were made to the multi-selection design:
The feature was released in December 2024. There is still work to be done with the development team to set up the observability metrics to determine the time on task in searching for files.
We have been able to gather file download and support ticket metrics, which showed a positive impact.
File downloads increased by 22%.
Overall support tickets decreased by 30%.
Performance constraints limited our ability to align the product with users’ expected mental models. The direction we took was to make progress over perfection. Releasing the feature was important in solving a critical user problem: searching for content. And this was considered a huge win in our books. We will continue to take the agile approach in incremental improvements to tackle the performance constraints.