Reimagining the legal industry to improve the way attorneys work
I joined Prevail Legal as their first UX Designer. Within the first five months I designed and handed off three distinct products. Quickly the owner of many other hats, aligned design to their agile process, created a product roadmap and rallied multiple teams around the company vision.
Opportunity
For more than a century, legal proceedings have remained unchanged
Prevail is a legal tech startup that offers a digital testimony platform designed to revolutionize the way attorneys conduct depositions. Never before have attorneys been able to instantly retrieve AI transcripts and synced videos until Prevail Sessions.
Problem
Developer-led designs led to confused attorneys
Prior to me joining, all front end UI was created by the development team. The UX was not thought through that led to dead ends and frustrated users, while the UI lacked. On top of that, we needed to teach attorneys new behaviors in a virtual environment that matches their traditional way of working, which required us to rethink the entire platform.
Solution
Rebuild the platform to match technology advancements
I read through user feedback to understand pain points and leveraged industry best practices. Through informed research, I created a seamless end-to-end experience with a clean interface that allowed customizable views based on user access and preferences.
Discover
Coming in with fresh eyes
As the first true UX Designer at the company, there was a lot of foundational work to be done, in addition to addressing attorney’s pain points of our key product: Prevail Sessions (or as we lovingly call it: the platform).
Kick-off
Following an investor meeting, our CTO announced that our top priority was to redesign both the front-end and back-end of Prevail Sessions. The goal was to keep much of the functionality the same, but update the code, the UX and the UI. Pictured is the old version of the platform.
Diving in head first
I started off by reading loads of reports generated after a session that outline issues users experience on the platform. Then I took to researching both well-known and up-and-coming video conferencing platforms to discover commonalities and best practices to distill into our product.
Being able to customize a user view was very important to our stakeholders because it would help grow our product into other industries.
Define
Rebuilding to better serve our users
In a meeting with the CTO, front-end developer, and project manager, we discussed what we wanted to do differently based on feedback and created a plan. Our goal for the improved platform was to not be something that attorneys have to use, but rather what they chose to use because it improves the way they work.
Outlines before sketches
To start, I created a product outline that set the objective, user access table, layout and adjacent functionality. This not only helped me with designs of from the top down what every wireframe needed, but the details developers would need for accompanied design, as well as sharing with stakeholder so they had a clear list of what was going to make it into the new version.
A moving target allowed for better accuracy (in the end)
Even though the deploy date was continually pushed out, getting the mockups finalized quickly allowed me one-on-one time with the developers to finesse functionality, understanding what is and isn’t possible as well as including new features that needed to be added based on ongoing client feedback.
Design & iterate
It starts on the whiteboard and progresses
Our CTO wanted to ensure that we had a “pinnable” area and drew out on his whiteboard what he had in mind (far left). From there, I began wireframing placement of video tiles, panels and other features.
An improved (and intuitive) transformation
Every developer “owned” one piece of the platform to implement. To ensure cohesiveness and consistency, I created individual frames that corresponded to the product outline.
Designing a new system
One of the first things I needed to tackle was to create a design system. There was a lot of inconsistency across the brand from different owners. Creating this system early on was a game changer when it came to designing a multitude of frames in a matter of days. Additionally, this helped the front-end developer create components for the other developers to use.
Refine & deliver
“Software is never finished, it’s merely abandoned”
Here is a quick video of the product as it stands. I’m so proud of what I accomplished. Shipping this product was no easy feat, but I loved seeing every component and interaction I designed come to life before my eyes. In the end, all to deliver an intuitive product that shows off our innovate technology.
Lesson Learned
Working with developers
In bootcamp, the goal is to package up every design with a beautiful bow and throw it over the developer wall to never be touched again. It was a wonderfully odd experience to realize nothing is ever final, my designs will never receive a bow. I quickly learned to change my language from “please do this” to “is this possible?” Developers, ever the realists, were able to guide me into thinking bigger (“we can do that and more!”) and helping me focus on the now (“those 10 things can’t be done, but this one can <grin>). A humble lesson in compromise.