Background:
This client was developing an enterprise intelligence application for the intelligence community.

Challenge:
Over time, as the application evolved, the team struggled with increasing adoption and effectively communicating its growth to leadership.

Approach:
Our first step was to secure in-depth interviews with current users. We targeted 50 potential leads, from which I conducted 18 interviews. We turned the findings into a journey map that visualized the use of the application within the intelligence gathering process. In our research, we discovered that while users valued the wealth of critical data the application provided, many found the interface very difficult to use. Despite efforts to encourage others to adopt the application, many users found the UI was intimidating and opted for alternative tools instead.

Based on feedback about the application’s competitors, I conducted a competitor analysis, which included a demo session with one of the leading competitors. With all this data, I developed UI concepts illustrating the potential future state of what the application could be, complete with design rationales to support each mockup.

This led the product owners to initiate a major redesign of the application's UI. To guide this effort, I designed and facilitated a half-day UI/UX workshop. We focused on a central hypothesis that by making the interface more user-friendly and less intimidating, we could significantly increase user adoption beyond the baseline rate.