Designing a better user experience for ExpertConnect
ExpertConnect aims to help experts find work, and help lawyers win cases
Finding the most qualified experts to assist one's case often requires a lot of legwork for lawyers. ExpertConnect streamlines the process by matching experts to legal matters that they are qualified to support, and provide tools to present themselves and their qualifications to lawyers working on those cases. The target audience is diverse: lawyers of almost every kind, expert witnesses on almost any topic, and account administrators who could facilitate agreements between the two parties. Catering to this audience presented many interesting challenges, such as learning legal processes and vernacular to best serve my users.
On a small team, everyone has a voice
The team I participated with was small. It consisted of three people: the CEO, an account admin/designer, and myself as a UX designer. The CEO doubled as both chief stakeholder and point of contact as a core user for user-research questions. The account admin wore multiple hats as well, supporting as a project manager and aiding in UI design. My role was as a UX consultant performing heuristic analysis, sharing design best-practices, and leading the UX design process from concept to execution. This allowed me to learn valuable skills in mentorship, and helped me develop my voice as a design leader.
There is always more work to be done
The initial scope expanded, from a utility-like matching service, to a matching & search service with customizable filters with messaging features, pitch-creation, and contract-writing tools. The largest constraints arose from working in a silo, unable to speak to the remote development team, or users other than the CEO.
We never stopped learning
Our process evolved over time. At first, we were working within a waterfall cycle, where exploration was discouraged, and progress was slow. Noticing an opportunity for greater productivy and creativity, I was able to create buy-in for a more Agile process. This caused us to have near-daily check-ins, and features were iterated upon and improved frequently with a holistic mindset to create a cohesive user experience. The rapid iterations created a greater flexibility in ideas, and opened doors for new features while adding clarity to existing features.
