Hospital Service App

1042.US Dashboard

INTRODUCTION

Overview

The client requested a platform helping businesses manage employees' tax forms. US forms are known for their complexity, and the filing process can be especially overwhelming for small business owners.

TYPE

Hybrid SaaS

ROLE

UX/UI designer: Conducted user interviews, created wireframes, tested prototypes, refined the dashboard layout with stakeholders, creating components and design system and delivering to developers.

TIMEFRAME

6 months

IMPACT

- The designed dashboard reduced the time for user by 70%

- Simplified steps, helping users complete form in 2 steps instead of 4

INITIAL CHALLANGES

Complexity of the current form

18 - 35 cells are required to fill according to each recipient situation. It can vary depending on the complexity of the situation, such as the number of income codes, exemptions, and tax treaty benefits being claimed.

A 40-page instructions booklet to comprehend and fill needed cells including special cases and tax treaty instructions

Would usually require several hours (around 3-5 hours) to comprehend and fill if a person is not familiar with the process of taxes.

Before starting, it was important to review the form and introduction manual, categorize the fields, understand their relationships, and identify prerequisites & special cases.

MAIN GOAL

Reducing the time-on-task and mental load by creating an action-oriented dashboard

Our main goal was to make the user go smoothly through the flow without needing the help of a tax expert avoid the user being lost in the middle of the flow by guiding the user on what to do next and where to extract needed info from

Initial questions were asked:

‍HOW TO CREATE A SMOOTH COMPREHENSIVE PROCESS FOR THE USER?

‍HOW TO MAKE THE USER LESS OVERWHELMED ABOUT FILING THE FORM

‍HOW TO GUIDE THE USER THROUGH EVERY STEP AND REDUCE ERRORS

‍HOW TO MAKE FORM EASIER TO UNDERSTAND WITHOUT MANUAL BOOK

KICKSTART

Initial Exploration and Research

The primary objective of the initial research phase is to understand user needs, analyze how competitors address those needs, and establish a foundational vision to guide the project's development.

1. Five 30-minute interviews with business owners and tax filing professionals were held

Focus Areas:

Daily workflows, key metrics, pain points and efficiency challenges

Deliverables:

User personas were created.

User Pain Points:

SEVERAL DAYS MIGHT BE NEEDED TO FILE EMPLOYEES FORM

USERS NEED MINIMUM 15 MINS TO GO THROUGH INSTRUCTIONS BOOKLET AND FIND SECONDARY INFO

USERS DO A LOT OF ERRORS THAT ARE LATER REFUSED BY THE IRS AFTER FORM IS SUBMITTED

UNDERSTANDING COMPLEX TAX FORM NEEDS TIME OR EXTERNAL HELP FROM A TAX EXPERT

2. Competitors analysis

Detailed analysis of competitors' screens, user process, and pricing plans to conclude what is needed to start, as well as understand the strengths and weaknesses in each product

3. Research Takeaways

Simplify navigation and labelling to align with user mental models

Users need to trust the product and know they won't send any errors to the IRS

Reduce cognitive load and streamlining the interface and highlighting actionable items

Provide access to secondary data without cluttering the view

4. Initial Conceptual Direction:

Concluding the initial research process, a set of goals and direction have been settled on:

Having a question or a set of related questions on one screen so the user can focus on one field at a time, making it less complicated and overwhelming

Simplify question and answer process as much as possible

THE THINKING PROCESS

Deepened research: Understanding the form and narrowing the scope

1. Deep Research Phase

To organize and deeply study the form, I had to put myself in the shoes of a tax expert; the challenge here was that the form is very complicated and all fields are interlinked.

‍GOING THROUGH FORM & UNDERSTANDING NEEDED FIELDS

‍CLASSIFYING THE FIELDS INTO CATEGORIES

‍LINKING ALL PIECES TOGETHER

2. User Flows

Based on the initial categorization, four user flows were developed, along with a general flow to determine the user's eligibility to file the form.

RESULTS OF THIS PHASE: ALL FLOWS WHERE CONNECTED INTO A SUPER LONG USER FLOW INCLUDING ALL SPECIAL CASES

APPLICATION ON SCREENS

Now it was time to transform all the data we had to screens and to prioritize needed screens to develop a MVP

Main questions/goal in this phase: How can screens be easy to navigate? how can the user focus on one question at a time? How can we guide user to find needed info (where data can be found etc.)

ONE QUESTION PER SCREEN TO KEEP USER FOCUSED

PROGRESS BAR: TO KEEP TRACK OF HOW MUCH IS LEFT, WHERE THE USER IS IN THE FLOW

TOOL TIPS: EXPLAINING THE PURPOSE OF EACH PAGE

BRIEF EXPLANATION FOR EACH OPTION TO CHOOSE

HELP CENTER TO GUIDE USER THOUGHOUT THE PROCESS

REFINING UX DESIGN & ITERATIONS

Back and forth in research, meeting with clients additional requirements

1. Comments received from the client: Focusing on errors system

IRS sends back a lot of forms with format errors, and the user would need to correct and resend them to prevent/reduce that: Implementing errors for needed formats, micro-interactions, error states, and error screens were designed accordingly to avoid the user continuing in the wrong direction

2. Suggestions to Client: Forms uploading page

Linking that a lot of forms that were previously filed for employee can have data that can be reused in 1042 S, so simply by scanning these forms, this step would help skip a lot of question for the user and save more time

3. Challenge - Bulk Entry System: Client requested having a flow for entering multiple forms at the same time

A challenge that came up in the middle of the process was having to assume that the user might need to apply the form for several employees which required designing each page accordingly to accommodate for multiple users' entry

DESIGN OUTCOME

Design Impact we delivered

Reducing steps from 4 to 2, which means reducing 70% of the time needed

Business owners can file more than one employee form at a time, saving extra time

REFINING UI DESIGN

UI design system and using templates, components for over 100 screens

Design system, components design, and template for different screens to accommodate different questions, making it easier for the developers and for the user to get used to using the form. Designing components for all screen sizes to ensure responsiveness.

ORGANIZING WORK

Delivering to developers

To provide developers with a clear and consistent screen flow, a new user flow was created using a coding system that had been agreed upon by the team, streamlining the implementation process.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Resolution

The time invested in researching and understanding both the user and the form played a crucial role in streamlining the process.

Communicating with developers necessitates a well-structured and logically coherent approach to ensure mutual understanding.

Iterative testing and continuous feedback loops significantly contributed to enhancing the product's quality and performance.

Establishing a well-structured and organized framework from the outset is crucial for efficiently handling projects with a large page count.

Proactively offering suggestions to clients while incorporating their feedback helps expand the vision and broaden the project's scope.

NEXT STEPS

Taking a step back to design website to access this form and user and admin screens

After being done with designing the 1042US MVP, it was time to take a step back to design the website where user can access the form, and the admin page for moderating the forms.

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