Reliance Matrix's mission is to digitize and accelerate existing HR & Benefits business processes from paper-first to data-first, through cutting edge technology and world-class user experiences.
Reliance Matrix Workflows provides Business and HR Benefit teams with a suite of APIs and no-code tools to automate their PDF processes across industries. It turns PDFs into custom, logic-driven webforms via a no-code builder. With Workflows, anyone can build custom software that works for their specific processes, enabling teams to scale via technology, instead of more people.
While powerful and capable of handling many complex use cases, Reliance Matrix's existing Workflow builder wasn't intuitive enough for first time users, and often required hours of Reliance Matrix's support to onboard, continue to educate, and ensure users are able to properly use the application.
The goal of this project was two-fold. One, to decrease the manual time required to onboard new users; And two, to increase the conversion from 'creation' to 'publish', for a more scalable business practice.
Year: 2023
My Role: Lead Product Designer
What I did: Research Strategy, Design Vision, Interaction Design, Prototyping
For this case, I am going showcase the design through the Lens of Amy, an HR Benefits Administrator in a large Enterprise organization with over 15,000 employees. Amy manages and administers her organization's retirement plans, health benefits, insurance, and supplemental benefits. She's looking for an easy-to-use, automated, low-code solution that she can operate on her own, without relying on Engineers and/or multiple applications.
Amy is used to creating efficiencies without additional resources. She is in the weeds, but strategic enough to know there is a business case to be made in automating that work. She has a good working relationship with the product team in order to advocate for her team and its needs.
• Design and manage the process and operational integrity of client
benefit management.
• Provide guidance on technical and managerial operations.
• Sets objectives for benefits operations and implements action
plans.
• Uses tools like: Zapier, Typeform, Google, Asana, project management apps, and low code automation tools.
• Relying on engineering teams to build custom tools.
• Bootstrapping together multiple low-code solutions.
• Getting crushed with manual processes.
• Technology that creates more complications & more overhead.
• Low Code/No Code solutions.
• Autonomously creating workflows.
• Automating processes.
• Ease of use.
To set the stage for the case study, here's a quick 5-step overview of how the users worked through the existing MVP.
When working with new products, expectations are often disparate to reality. My initial research highlighted the stark difference between how we thought users were using the Workflows product, and how the users were actually using it.
“I've been stuck in this loop before: Why can’t I add a signer? Oh, right, I have to go back and add an email first."
“Sometimes I go to edit the webform first, and don't think about the PDF at all. Other times I start with a PDF and build the webform around it. Both ways of working are important to me."
“I don't actually know how to access any of this stuff today. I think you literally have to write JSON to do-so."
“It was kind of a mess to start with. I was very confused. If I were asked to build a new workflow, I couldn’t."
How might we support an iterative, cyclical building process?
How might we support a co-equal model; both a webform-first and pdf-first mental model?
How might we streamline the experience for less clicks and more discoverability?
How might we better support users new to Workflows?
Based on research insights, it was clear this redesign was not a matter of defining user tasks; It was a question of how to fit the existing pieces of the Workflow editor together, to better complete those tasks. To kick off my ideation phase, I sketched out a parts list with a few general concepts for each.
Very quickly, the idea of a side-by-side webform and PDF view became a clear vehicle for communicating that the two artifacts (webforms and PDFs) are inextricably linked. From there, it was a matter of moving the rest of the pieces to fit into this new navigation structure.
Because there are multiple layers of relationships and editing states to communicate, finding a navigation hierarchy that could turn this idea from concept to functional prototype took several stabs. The guiding principle became reinforcing the ability to see both the webform and PDF together in one view. From there it was a matter of layering in the other navigation needs.
The winner, based on user testing, was to keep the focus on one side-by-side step, with a clear CTA. Further iterations would be made to add emphasis to the secondary pagination, per user feedback.
Here's the early mid-fi static iteration of the full side-by-side concept. The first guiding principle is to use materiality and elevation to define editable areas.
The second guiding design principle is to use interaction, movement, and progressive disclosure to reinforce the idea that these two artifacts (webform and PDF), each requiring editing, are two sides of the same coin. The most successful navigation interaction was a sliding tab to keep users oriented in the space, as it moves.
The use of highlighting, transitions, and foreshadowing in the prototypes, made it possible to test the design with users, and later, communicate the design vision to engineering.
Highlighting the related selections from one half to the other is just one layer of interactions reinforcing the user's understanding that the webform and pdf are interconnected. Users wanted even more.
The biggest problem with Workflow settings, in the initial experience, was they were scattered around the tool; before, during, and after building the actual workflow. Common cases of users needing professional services help, were to locate and understand these settings options. The guiding design principle is discoverability, simplification, and consolidation. The new design simplifies and consolidates settings, based on current user behavior, and brings them all into a single step in the workflow editing experience, making these powerful and useful tools highly discoverable and simple to understand.
Here are a few additional user pain points I addressed, as I began the final design refinements. The additional refinements were based on a one week study, with 5 participants, testing two iterations of prototypes.
This study helped catalyze these final refinements and concepts into viable, validated, engineering-ready design. The primary takeaway from the final round of testing was: the overall hierarchy and structure were good, but there were missing layers of additional information, communication, and streamlining that were needed to make this a productive standalone tool.
Now Amy, the Benefit Administrator, can turn her complex PDF into a simple online workflow without the need for Reliance Matrix's support.
Amy is guided through the Workflow builder, setting her up for success with a complete first time user experience, tutorials, and an entirely new help center to orient and guide her on her way.
Amy can focus on her end-user's/employee's experience. When she uploads a complex PDF, she sees a webform has already been generated based off of her document. (Which is her primary concern since this is what her users/employees will interact with.)
Amy understands the connection between the webform and PDF, instantly. She toggles back and forth, seamlessly, between the Webform and PDF to edit both, understanding all-the-while how the two are connected.
Amy understands what work she has already done, and what needs her attention. She can tell, at a glance, what pieces are missing or unconnected, helping her problem-solve, and complete her Workflow in one-go.
Amy has full control over her workflow's settings, before publishing it. Once she is confident with her workflow, she continues to the settings page to see all of the possibilities available to her, in one place. In a fraction of the time and clicks, Amy is able to build a workflow from scratch, and begin collecting information from her users/employees, with the confidence that their experience will be up to her standard, and the data they provide will properly populate her original PDF.
