Impact Fund, NoticeAssist↗
CONTRACT
WEB APP
LEGAL TECH
0 --> 1
The Impact Fund↗ is a legal NPO based in Berkeley, CA; they challenge the wealthy and powerful by fighting for socioeconomic, environmental & racial justice through strategic litigation.
Their latest digital product, NoticeAssist, helps public-interest lawyers write legal documents on Microsoft Word that are accessible and understandable by people of all backgrounds. I was brought in to re-design the UI and user flows from scratch.
NoticeAssist was released on Sep. 17, 2024.
Product Designer
ROLE
Jun 2024 --> Aug 2024
TIMELINE
THE PROBLEM
Class action notices are confusing and full of jargon...
Lawyers aren’t the best at writing for everyday people, who need to know 1. what they have to do and 2. when to do it so they can benefit from a successful class action or settlement
What if we had an AI-powered writing assistant that could
and offer innovative alternatives to words and phrases that are inaccessible
analyze a class action notice, line by line
a fine level of control over the balance between AI input and professional discretion?
while still giving lawyers
Impact Fund developed a prototype, but it felt
clunky and unintuitive,
so I was challenged to design a user experience
that felt natural, clean and lightweight.
THE SOLUTION
Step 1.
High-level tips to make the document more approachable.
Putting this step first gives lawyers a heads up for what they're getting themselves into , and makes the process of zooming in on individual sentences to edit far less overwhelming.
Step 2.
Swap confusing phrases w/ fresh suggestions, one at a time.
I strongly advocated to the developers that sentences should be highlighted and scrolled to when NoticeAssist suggests edits for them; without this visual indicator the user would have to search for those lines manually.
Edit suggestions before inserting them,
Or just dismiss them (you can't please everyone).
See something you like? Save it to look at later.
TAKEAWAYS
Rather than solving problems first-hand, I was given a broad solution but tasked with overhauling the user experience. My biggest reflection was that how a product worked or looked were still important, but executing on UX rested on how a product made the user feel.
BEFORE
Vague & misleading
Redundant information
Cluttered feel
AFTER
Gets to the point
Simplifies user decision
Polished feel
BEFORE
Illegible labeling
Awkward white space
Unclear flow
AFTER
Clear categories
Progress indicators
Clear start and end
BEFORE
Visually dissonant
Vague hierarchy
No version control
AFTER
Linear progression
Lightweight feel
Legible flow
