TL;DR: Redesigned a legacy system into a responsive document builder that made users feel like superheroes—faster, more capable, and fully in control across any device.
The Challenge
Our employees were spending way too much time manually converting client documents. The process was clunky, inefficient, and locked into desktop workflows. Meanwhile, expectations for multi-device access and speed were rising quickly.
To move forward, we needed:
• A streamlined, responsive document workflow
• Legal involvement to ensure compliance
• A UX process that worked across departments with very different schedules
Understanding the Landscape
Before designing anything, we broke down the current process:
• Mapped the full document workflow
• Identified 3 distinct user groups
• Defined what success looked like for each group
• Chose representatives from each group for future testing
This early clarity made all the difference later.
Collaborative Redesign in Action
We used a hands-on, low-tech method to reimagine the experience:
• Plotted each user’s goal on one side of a whiteboard
• Marked their starting point on the other
• Wrote out the in-between steps as a group
• Armed everyone with sticky notes to suggest improvements at each step
This was critical for me. I was new to the product, and this exercise helped me deeply understand user pain points through the team’s lived experience.
Designing for Superheroes
Inspired by The User’s Journey by Donna Lichaw, I added a visual cue to guide us: a tiny cape-wearing figure in the corner of our board. The question became:
What would make the user feel like a superhero?
What could we add to empower them? What could we remove to reduce friction?
What could we add to empower them? What could we remove to reduce friction?
It brought energy and focus to our sessions.
Flexible Design at Scale
Once we understood the vision, we moved into design. Key challenges included:
• Balancing flexibility with style consistency
• Designing for hundreds of client variations
• Supporting responsive layouts with persistent styles
• Using modular elements to build custom documents without breaking structure
This meant deep collaboration with product owners and implementation specialists to ensure every decision reflected real-world needs.
Some screens of the potential solution.
Takeaway
Great UX isn’t just about design; it’s about listening, adapting, and making users feel powerful. Even when timelines change, the value of clear collaboration and thoughtful process remains.
