Habitat
Managing end-to-end legal workflow and client relationship
Habitat
Managing end-to-end legal workflow and client relationship
Habitat
Managing end-to-end legal workflow and client relationship
Background
LegalVision is renowned for its exceptional cost-effective legal services. A major factor contributing to this achievement is the integration of technology into its process. Unlike many traditional law firms, they embed a dedicated technology development/support team, which focuses on building solutions tailored to their unique legal process.
Client
LegalVision
User
LV legal team
My role
User interview,
Information architecture,
Card sorting,
Wireframing,
Prototyping,
Visual design,
Interaction design
Date
2019 (3 mths),
2023 (2 mths)
Background
LegalVision is renowned for its exceptional cost-effective legal services. A major factor contributing to this achievement is the integration of technology into its process. Unlike many traditional law firms, they embed a dedicated technology development/support team, which focuses on building solutions tailored to their unique legal process.
Client
LegalVision
User
LV legal team
My role
User interview,
Information architecture,
Card sorting,
Wireframing,
Prototyping,
Visual design,
Interaction design
Date
2019 (3 mths),
2023 (2 mths)
Background
LegalVision is renowned for its exceptional cost-effective legal services. A major factor contributing to this achievement is the integration of technology into its process. Unlike many traditional law firms, they embed a dedicated technology development/support team, which focuses on building solutions tailored to their unique legal process.
Client
LegalVision
User
LV legal team
My role
User interview,
Information architecture,
Card sorting,
Wireframing,
Prototyping,
Visual design,
Interaction design
Date
2019 (3 mths),
2023 (2 mths)
Challenge
Before I joined, the company utilised multiple tools that were customised from commercial softwares and UI templates. However, the legal teams struggled to use, while the tech team found it difficult to update. This approach did not allow us to customise technology rapidly to adapt to our workflow.
Challenge
Before I joined, the company utilised multiple tools that were customised from commercial softwares and UI templates. However, the legal teams struggled to use, while the tech team found it difficult to update. This approach did not allow us to customise technology rapidly to adapt to our workflow.
Challenge
Before I joined, the company utilised multiple tools that were customised from commercial softwares and UI templates. However, the legal teams struggled to use, while the tech team found it difficult to update. This approach did not allow us to customise technology rapidly to adapt to our workflow.
The business decided it was time to start from scratch and create a dedicated in-house platform, one that allows lawyers to do all their work without opening any external applications ever again.
The business decided it was time to start from scratch and create a dedicated in-house platform, one that allows lawyers to do all their work without opening any external applications ever again.
The business decided it was time to start from scratch and create a dedicated in-house platform, one that allows lawyers to do all their work without opening any external applications ever again.
User interview
To avoid reinventing the wheel, we want to find out what are the weaknesses and opportunities of the current platform?
Our legal team was the primary user of Habitat at first stage, so most interviews were conducted with their members from different practice areas and seniorities, usually proceeding in big and small group format to ensure less senior individuals feel free to speak their mind.
Surprisingly we realised lawyers needed the new platform sooner than we thought. On a daily basis, many tasks required workarounds or multiple tools in order to complete. This crippled team productivity, increased risk of disinformation, and hindered the maintenance of confidentiality.
Here were some of our key findings:
No overview of all their work or other teammate’s progress
Sometimes lawyers need multiple external tools to complete task
A lot of informations that are related display in separate pages
There is no structure in the interface, usability is low
It seems the main factor behind most of these issues is the lack of a proper information architecture
User interview
To avoid reinventing the wheel, we want to find out what are the weaknesses and opportunities of the current platform?
Our legal team was the primary user of Habitat at first stage, so most interviews were conducted with their members from different practice areas and seniorities, usually proceeding in big and small group format to ensure less senior individuals feel free to speak their mind.
Surprisingly we realised lawyers needed the new platform sooner than we thought. On a daily basis, many tasks required workarounds or multiple tools in order to complete. This crippled team productivity, increased risk of disinformation, and hindered the maintenance of confidentiality.
Here were some of our key findings:
No overview of all their work or other teammate’s progress
Sometimes lawyers need multiple external tools to complete task
A lot of informations that are related display in separate pages
There is no structure in the interface, usability is low
It seems the main factor behind most of these issues is the lack of a proper information architecture
User interview
To avoid reinventing the wheel, we want to find out what are the weaknesses and opportunities of the current platform?
Our legal team was the primary user of Habitat at first stage, so most interviews were conducted with their members from different practice areas and seniorities, usually proceeding in big and small group format to ensure less senior individuals feel free to speak their mind.
Surprisingly we realised lawyers needed the new platform sooner than we thought. On a daily basis, many tasks required workarounds or multiple tools in order to complete. This crippled team productivity, increased risk of disinformation, and hindered the maintenance of confidentiality.
Here were some of our key findings:
No overview of all their work or other teammate’s progress
Sometimes lawyers need multiple external tools to complete task
A lot of informations that are related display in separate pages
There is no structure in the interface, usability is low
It seems the main factor behind most of these issues is the lack of a proper information architecture
Information architecture
What is our business model and how can we integrate it into Habitat?
The performance of leads and opportunities is the most important metric in our business. LegalVision dedicates resources, assigns procedures to cater to these channels. The site map did not reflect this business emphasis in the existing system, making it difficult to navigate.
My new update ensures the record could be accessed from multiple points and views while preserving a clear and rational hierarchy.
Information architecture
What is our business model and how can we integrate it into Habitat?
The performance of leads and opportunities is the most important metric in our business. LegalVision dedicates resources, assigns procedures to cater to these channels. The site map did not reflect this business emphasis in the existing system, making it difficult to navigate.
My new update ensures the record could be accessed from multiple points and views while preserving a clear and rational hierarchy.
Information architecture
What is our business model and how can we integrate it into Habitat?
The performance of leads and opportunities is the most important metric in our business. LegalVision dedicates resources, assigns procedures to cater to these channels. The site map did not reflect this business emphasis in the existing system, making it difficult to navigate.
My new update ensures the record could be accessed from multiple points and views while preserving a clear and rational hierarchy.
Card sorting
Continue working on information architecture at page level
LegalVision has lawyers from over 20 legal practice areas, they would like to see slightly different content when landing on the same view. To understand better what needs to be done, I mapped out all the existing data in excel sheets, and provided series of questions for teams to answer, such as:
Do you need to preserve this field in Habitat?
Please rank the field on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being most important (I need to see it unhidden), 1 least important (I do not need to see it often)
Should this field be categorised into a different existing or new group, if yes, please write down the name or suggest a new group.
After gathering the answers and reviewing with stakeholders, I was able to eliminate unnecessary information and categorised the rest into the related groups.
Card sorting
Continue working on information architecture at page level
LegalVision has lawyers from over 20 legal practice areas, they would like to see slightly different content when landing on the same view. To understand better what needs to be done, I mapped out all the existing data in excel sheets, and provided series of questions for teams to answer, such as:
Do you need to preserve this field in Habitat?
Please rank the field on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being most important (I need to see it unhidden), 1 least important (I do not need to see it often)
Should this field be categorised into a different existing or new group, if yes, please write down the name or suggest a new group.
After gathering the answers and reviewing with stakeholders, I was able to eliminate unnecessary information and categorised the rest into the related groups.
Card sorting
Continue working on information architecture at page level
LegalVision has lawyers from over 20 legal practice areas, they would like to see slightly different content when landing on the same view. To understand better what needs to be done, I mapped out all the existing data in excel sheets, and provided series of questions for teams to answer, such as:
Do you need to preserve this field in Habitat?
Please rank the field on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being most important (I need to see it unhidden), 1 least important (I do not need to see it often)
Should this field be categorised into a different existing or new group, if yes, please write down the name or suggest a new group.
After gathering the answers and reviewing with stakeholders, I was able to eliminate unnecessary information and categorised the rest into the related groups.
Legal dashboard
Simple kanban overview for complex legal work
Common law practice in many companies utilised tools like Microsoft Office, Google Drive, but there were very few legal-specific tools in the market supporting high-level management.
While one might assume lawyers are all literal thinkers, our finding was that visualisation tool helped them work more efficiently. In fact many were using Trello to fill the gap, which led to the idea of building a kanban-like dashboard.
Legal dashboard
Simple kanban overview for complex legal work
Common law practice in many companies utilised tools like Microsoft Office, Google Drive, but there were very few legal-specific tools in the market supporting high-level management.
While one might assume lawyers are all literal thinkers, our finding was that visualisation tool helped them work more efficiently. In fact many were using Trello to fill the gap, which led to the idea of building a kanban-like dashboard.
Legal dashboard
Simple kanban overview for complex legal work
Common law practice in many companies utilised tools like Microsoft Office, Google Drive, but there were very few legal-specific tools in the market supporting high-level management.
While one might assume lawyers are all literal thinkers, our finding was that visualisation tool helped them work more efficiently. In fact many were using Trello to fill the gap, which led to the idea of building a kanban-like dashboard.
4 stages
2 fee structures
4 matter types
7 statuses
New project email
Scope complete email
Project complete email
4 stages
2 fee structures
4 matter types
7 statuses
New project email
Scope complete email
Project complete email
4 stages
2 fee structures
4 matter types
7 statuses
New project email
Scope complete email
Project complete email
Records list and details
Maintain a clean and accessible database
Besides many features Habitat offered to streamline legal work, we still needed to address the issue of messy data hierarchy in the current system. Without exaggeration, the foundation of success comes down to how clean and accessible the records are. Some solutions include:
Table has first column fixed, providing reference in horizontal scroll
User could quickly find out record status and perform actions from the header in details view
Data is categorised into related groups, which also allowed it to be filtered
Lawyer communicate with external and internal stakeholders through a slider chatbox
Records list and details
Maintain a clean and accessible database
Besides many features Habitat offered to streamline legal work, we still needed to address the issue of messy data hierarchy in the current system. Without exaggeration, the foundation of success comes down to how clean and accessible the records are. Some solutions include:
Table has first column fixed, providing reference in horizontal scroll
User could quickly find out record status and perform actions from the header in details view
Data is categorised into related groups, which also allowed it to be filtered
Lawyer communicate with external and internal stakeholders through a slider chatbox
Records list and details
Maintain a clean and accessible database
Besides many features Habitat offered to streamline legal work, we still needed to address the issue of messy data hierarchy in the current system. Without exaggeration, the foundation of success comes down to how clean and accessible the records are. Some solutions include:
Table has first column fixed, providing reference in horizontal scroll
User could quickly find out record status and perform actions from the header in details view
Data is categorised into related groups, which also allowed it to be filtered
Lawyer communicate with external and internal stakeholders through a slider chatbox
Responsive table
Record preview
Record bookmark
Product status
Record status
Payment status
Record data
Data group filter
Matter financial health tracking
Responsive table
Record preview
Record bookmark
Product status
Record status
Payment status
Record data
Data group filter
Matter financial health tracking
Responsive table
Record preview
Record bookmark
Product status
Record status
Payment status
Record data
Data group filter
Matter financial health tracking
Time tracker
Offer useful features to enhance efficiency
Another outstanding pain point was that, lawyers had to use separate tools to record their lawyer activity. This made retreating existing data and synchronising it within one system impossible.
Now, the time tracker is a global feature in the top bar, where they could access it anytime without closing current view. This work is closely related to team capacity management, so we also visualise it in a real-time calendar view.
Time tracker
Offer useful features to enhance efficiency
Another outstanding pain point was that, lawyers had to use separate tools to record their lawyer activity. This made retreating existing data and synchronising it within one system impossible.
Now, the time tracker is a global feature in the top bar, where they could access it anytime without closing current view. This work is closely related to team capacity management, so we also visualise it in a real-time calendar view.
Time tracker
Offer useful features to enhance efficiency
Another outstanding pain point was that, lawyers had to use separate tools to record their lawyer activity. This made retreating existing data and synchronising it within one system impossible.
Now, the time tracker is a global feature in the top bar, where they could access it anytime without closing current view. This work is closely related to team capacity management, so we also visualise it in a real-time calendar view.
Lawyer activities visualisation in calendar
Capacity management
Lawyer activities visualisation in calendar
Capacity management
Lawyer activities visualisation in calendar
Capacity management
Results
Over 90% of our 100+ lawyers successfully onboarded on Habitat within 1 month, except some senior members, but they eventually came along
Reduced requests for adding screen monitors by 40% as fewer lawyers now need to view multiple applications simultaneously.
Lawyers had better overview on their legal work, many even discovered matters that were forgotten in the backlog
Most members felt much more effortless when communicating with clients and colleagues
Results
Over 90% of our 100+ lawyers successfully onboarded on Habitat within 1 month, except some senior members, but they eventually came along
Reduced requests for adding screen monitors by 40% as fewer lawyers now need to view multiple applications simultaneously.
Lawyers had better overview on their legal work, many even discovered matters that were forgotten in the backlog
Most members felt much more effortless when communicating with clients and colleagues
Results
Over 90% of our 100+ lawyers successfully onboarded on Habitat within 1 month, except some senior members, but they eventually came along
Reduced requests for adding screen monitors by 40% as fewer lawyers now need to view multiple applications simultaneously.
Lawyers had better overview on their legal work, many even discovered matters that were forgotten in the backlog
Most members felt much more effortless when communicating with clients and colleagues
Learnings
The building of product for a startup usually does not follow any particular route, or well-defined design process
Work environment in LegalVision is fast-moving and ever-changing. The deadline was tight, and as the sole designer, I needed to prove myself to be outcome-driven, prioritised delivery while influencing the team with design thinking. There was no rigid UX process, but swift product strategy.
Stakeholders management is the key to success
Everything in a startup is limited: people, time, budget, energy. The main stakeholders for this project were the in-house lawyers, this might sound approachable, but they were super busy, and usually did not understand the value of user-centric design. As many times as I could recall, I had to avoid the collaborative workshops turning into a brief-giving session. Later we realised the best engagement was to Offer useful features to enhance efficiency. Once we were beyond that, I gained many insights from their expertise, and could often uncover unexpected problems.
Learnings
The building of product for a startup usually does not follow any particular route, or well-defined design process
Work environment in LegalVision is fast-moving and ever-changing. The deadline was tight, and as the sole designer, I needed to prove myself to be outcome-driven, prioritised delivery while influencing the team with design thinking. There was no rigid UX process, but swift product strategy.
Stakeholders management is the key to success
Everything in a startup is limited: people, time, budget, energy. The main stakeholders for this project were the in-house lawyers, this might sound approachable, but they were super busy, and usually did not understand the value of user-centric design. As many times as I could recall, I had to avoid the collaborative workshops turning into a brief-giving session. Later we realised the best engagement was to Offer useful features to enhance efficiency. Once we were beyond that, I gained many insights from their expertise, and could often uncover unexpected problems.
Learnings
The building of product for a startup usually does not follow any particular route, or well-defined design process
Work environment in LegalVision is fast-moving and ever-changing. The deadline was tight, and as the sole designer, I needed to prove myself to be outcome-driven, prioritised delivery while influencing the team with design thinking. There was no rigid UX process, but swift product strategy.
Stakeholders management is the key to success
Everything in a startup is limited: people, time, budget, energy. The main stakeholders for this project were the in-house lawyers, this might sound approachable, but they were super busy, and usually did not understand the value of user-centric design. As many times as I could recall, I had to avoid the collaborative workshops turning into a brief-giving session. Later we realised the best engagement was to Offer useful features to enhance efficiency. Once we were beyond that, I gained many insights from their expertise, and could often uncover unexpected problems.
NEXT PROJECT
LET'S CONNECT
ON SITE
OFF SITE
@2024 Max Zheng. All rights reserved.
NEXT PROJECT
LET'S CONNECT
ON SITE
OFF SITE
@2024 Max Zheng. All rights reserved.
NEXT PROJECT
LET'S CONNECT
ON SITE
OFF SITE
@2024 Max Zheng. All rights reserved.