Lauren Boutros | UX Designer

CASE STUDY 01: U.S. GOVERNMENT CLIENT

Elevating editorial teams through a collaborative, simplified platform

Sample working document moving through the first stage of the publication process.

Launched

21 April 2025

Role

UI/UX Designer

Design team of one

Team

1x UI/UX Designer

1x Product Manager

15x Developers

Project context

Designing an improved editorial review platform with the goal of enabling users to enter, track, make changes to, and submit articles up for publication.

Design an application that can handle and process articles from submission to review to publication

Impact

27% increase in task completion

Users can now confidently make sure their products are going through the proper rounds of review before publication and dissemination

Confidential project (NDA)

This project is under an NDA. I can’t share all the details online but I can discuss my role on the project in greater detail on a call.

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USER FEEDBACK

Users are completing the form at higher rates and we’re losing fewer people to it!

Being able to outsource tasks with the Clone Existing button helped me get the job done.

Henri Benn

Infrequent user (anonymized)

I expected to feel frustrated like I used to with entering data here, but the nav and info icons really made a difference!

Mustafa Khalil

Daily user (anonymized)

We’re seeing improved completion rates and better retention--this is clearly working. Thank you team!

Alice Featherton

Client team lead (anonymized)

PROBLEM 02

The product record page is missing points of reference to help situate users

The Product Record page, where all the info entered in the Create form ends up displayed, also requires quite a bit of interaction. With the goal being to get a product ready for publication, users needed to know how far along in the completion process there were, as well as where in the Product Record they needed to go next.

Status changes are only possible if you can find out where to do it

The original Product Record page had a very obscure way to change statuses

Users really needed a way to collaborate with others moving the product forward

The publication process involves people of many roles, and yet no way for them to interact in-app

No frame of reference for how far in the process a user might be

Another contextualization issue, but needing a different approach.

DESIGN DECISION 01

I explored three opportunities for improvement to the form

To solve the information architecture problem, I worked with our client to understand field values and hierarchy, and collaborative on a value-rich outline of the form.

I also pushed for adding in-form navigation to facilitate jumping to a section.

Knowing that users struggled with tasks feeling duplicative, I created a “clone existing” button allowing users to select from existing product records and use one as a template.

DESIGN SPRINT

Users struggled with overwhelm and skepticism of the system to be redesigned

Our client came to us dissatisfied with the low usage and high dropout rates of their existing tool. They tasked us with designing a version to be more widely accepted and used in daily work.

My team ran a 5-day design sprint to help focus questions. Using short interview slots during the design sprint, we were able to create an affinity map to figure out what problems were most reported.

Our initial goal became to improve usability and acceptance and increase user usage of publication phases for greater proofreading before publication.

Usability issues with the Create form

Users frequently gave up on inputting data due to the length and disorganization of the form.

Disjointed display of data in Record page

The amount of data to display and keep track of was overwhelming and disjointed.

The Create form redesign is elegant, structured, and assistive.

Left-side navigation allowing for easy maneuvering from one section to another

Info icons help users understand the constraints for for fields when they need to know

“Clone Existing” button simplifies how many fields have to be uniquely completed

Fixed Create and Cancel buttons make it such that the user does not lose their frame of reference.

DESIGN DECISION 02

I took three different approaches to tackle this context issue

I’m a big fan of progress indicators, and adding in a stepper felt like an organic solution to the problem. I’m an even bigger fan of communication, so I was thrilled when our development team confirmed we could support a comment section.

Improving the status change experience was a matter of localizing where they can be modified to the header space.

The Product Record page is a central space for users of all responsibilities towards publication.

Added a stepper in Product Record header for users to situate themselves and how much is left

Improved how statuses are changes and tracked

Added comment section for traceability, product history and of course, collaboration

Choosing the best solution of three mediocre ones

I decided to add a table under the chip fields instead of using a hover for each chip or worse, a super long chip. The table extends the length of the page (not ideal) but is the better solution of the three.

Order-of-operations decisions and partnering with developers

This tool handles classified material, and I had to make the call on when a user should enter in classification levels for uploaded material during file uploads. The answer: before clicking “upload”.

Making sense of ultra-complex processes

Published products are sent to recipients via Distribution Lists. I had to navigate workflows for three list types that work very differently. The section as a whole was low on usability until I introduced “Revert to minimum list” and adding helper text.

Last-minute overhauls as requested by senior leaders

I was asked to redesign one of our key workflows; the requestor felt we could improve the experience and simplify. Frustrating to erase green-lit work, but also a relief that we had permission to simplify further. I enjoyed the tight turnaround for the hi-fi mockups that were requested of me!

RETROSPECTIVE

We transformed an enterprise tool used by over 11,000 people

Results achieved

We developed a tool that users are excited to use as part of their workflow. On a larger scale, we impacted the intelligence production lifecycle by solving problems within the process that impacted completion rates. Now, more finished intel is making its way to analysts and operation teams.

What I learned

I learned that requirements gathering is not a one-and-done process. Requirements often changed for this project: the client would often pivot after seeing mockups as they would generate new ideas. On the project management side, I learned the complexity of relationship-management as it relates to wanting to keep the project moving forward. We had to prioritize items that were next up, and record requested requirements for further down the pipeline.

Surprise constraints

My client team didn’t know everything they needed from the get-go, and didn’t communicate everything from the start. There was no real “end” to requirements gathering, which meant having to make some difficult calls with prioritization so as not to delay out launch date. Another major constraint is that this was a development-forward process where UI/UX design was decidedly secondary; that was challenging for me as a passionate advocate for the user experience design process. It also meant that I was not given the ability to perform UX research to the extent I would feel comfortable calling sufficient.