Impact
Gained a 90% satisfaction rate among customers – administrative end-users and heads of Ethics and Legal departments.
Reduced the cognitive load and uncertainty users face by providing them with a more straightforward process.
Overview
An initiative to enhance the experience for administrative users who need to review and approve ethics disclosures.
ROLE
• UX Designer at OneTrust
ROLE
• UX Designer at OneTrust
TIMELINE
• 3 months
• 3 months
TEAM
• 2 UX Designers
• 1 UX Researcher
• 2 Product Managers
• 1 Front-End Engineering Lead
• 1 Back-End Engineering Lead
• 2 UX Designers
• 1 UX Researcher
• 2 Product Managers
• 1 Front-End Engineering Lead
• 1 Back-End Engineering Lead
PLATFORM
• B2B Web Application
• B2B Web Application
TOOLS
• Figma
• Maze
• Figma
• Maze
What is an ethics disclosure?
An ethics disclosure is the voluntary release of information from an employee.
• This helps build transparency and trust within a company to mitigate risk
• The process involves employees answering a series of ethics and compliance survey questions
• Example questions include: "Do you have an additional job? If so, how many hours a week do you work?"
The individuals who review disclosures are known as approvers. They can either approve or send back the disclosure. Employees who submit a disclosure are referred to as respondents.
The problem
When manual reviews are required, approvers face cognitive load and uncertainty while reviewing. This is especially burdensome for approvers who use OneTrust infrequently.
• Approvers see the same screens respondents do
• This is problematic since approvers have completely different objectives for these screens
• Approvers get confused, lost, and uncertain about what steps and actions they can take
On the original screens, users needed to click the bottom right arrows on the page to enter the view they needed to review (Left). Users were also presented with a redundant way to navigate the questions (Right).
“Approvers look at the wrong places. When there are so many things to look at, they can lose sight of the most important things."
- User interview participant
- User interview participant
Working with PMs and Engineering, I went through each screen of the approval flow to understand the technical limitations, assumptions, and historical context before beginning research.
Research goals
Explore and understand
What are the specific challenges approvers face within the disclosure approval workflow?
Validate
Are design improvements addressing pain points?
Research process & methods
Customer communication
I spoke with 11 individuals across 5 different customer organizations. I sent a survey to 40 customers.
Research challenges
• Getting a satisfactory number of survey results promptly was difficult
• I sent out the survey near the holiday season at the end of the year and forgot to account for it in my planning
• Leveraging my relationships with the PMs and Engineering, the delivery was delayed by a three-week sprint
Key insights & design recommendations
Approvers are often a blocker in the process as most only use the tool when approving, which can be once or twice a year. They can get confused about which actions to take.
Recommendation: Make the platform more intuitive. Include tip modals and in-app guidance to inform and educate infrequent users. Edit the content so approvers only see what they need to.
Email notification clarity and actionability are lacking.
Recommendation: Rewrite the subject line to be concise and remove technical jargon. In addition, include the Disclosure ID (a key identifier that differentiates one disclosure from another).
Approvers waste time when attempting to learn more about the employee or the disclosure itself.
Recommendation: Add a section to the right of the questions and answers which includes additional details. This section should be configurable by the admins of each customer. Content may include human resources data, associated campaigns, related or past disclosures, and high-level analytics.
Approvers can be uncertain about what they need to do after they submit their review.
Recommendation: Navigate the approver to a configurable table view with all of the other disclosures they need to review, ranked by priority. Explore the possibilities and limitations of using AI to inform the approver on what is the most efficient action they should take next.
Recommendation: Make the platform more intuitive. Include tip modals and in-app guidance to inform and educate infrequent users. Edit the content so approvers only see what they need to.
Email notification clarity and actionability are lacking.
Recommendation: Rewrite the subject line to be concise and remove technical jargon. In addition, include the Disclosure ID (a key identifier that differentiates one disclosure from another).
Approvers waste time when attempting to learn more about the employee or the disclosure itself.
Recommendation: Add a section to the right of the questions and answers which includes additional details. This section should be configurable by the admins of each customer. Content may include human resources data, associated campaigns, related or past disclosures, and high-level analytics.
Approvers can be uncertain about what they need to do after they submit their review.
Recommendation: Navigate the approver to a configurable table view with all of the other disclosures they need to review, ranked by priority. Explore the possibilities and limitations of using AI to inform the approver on what is the most efficient action they should take next.
Wireframes & early iteration
Design trade-off
One design consideration I had was around having complex infographics and charts so approvers could see past data submitted by respondents.
• Engineering expressed technical concerns based on the configurable data
• I reassessed the needs of approvers
• I decided to showcase the data through text only
• I planned to reassess after release and more testing
User feedback
Positive, yet constructive
Overall, customers found the new designs clear and easier to utilize. There were some minor concerns in the UI and the data viewing customization that needed to be addressed.
Interactive prototype
High-fidelity mockups
An updated email notification that relies on best practices in UX writing. It limits technical jargon and provides clear instructions and calls to action. It addresses the insight of the email notification lacking clarity.
A tip modal with multiple steps to help guide the approver when they enter the flow. They can choose not to show it every time they log in. It addresses the insight that users may not know what actions to take.
An updated approver view of a disclosure. It is a more condensed and efficient way of showing the responses. It also addresses the insight that approvers may need to locate more information before finishing their review.
A new table view the user is navigated to after finishing their review. It shows which disclosures still need their attention and which ones they have completed. It addresses the insight that an approver may not know what to do after submitting a review.
Outcomes
Navigated a delay in timelines
• I successfully overcame the major challenge of a delay in survey responses and scheduling availability with users
• Leveraging Product and Engineering relationships, this delay did not become a major blocker
• I successfully overcame the major challenge of a delay in survey responses and scheduling availability with users
• Leveraging Product and Engineering relationships, this delay did not become a major blocker
Recognition from UX and Product leadership
• My research insights and understanding of user issues were communicated through numerous presentations
• My clear storytelling and research-backed recommendations were well-received and commended, exemplified in the quote below:
"In addition to his design skills, Nick is a skilled and thorough UX researcher.
He is adept at setting research goals, creating comprehensive research plans, conducting customer outreach, running insightful research studies and interviews, and distilling valuable insights from his findings.
His ability to uncover key user insights has contributed significantly to the success of our team’s projects."
- John Langford, previous UX manager at OneTrust
- John Langford, previous UX manager at OneTrust
