Summary
I worked with two product managers and a product designer to clean up the content in this identity verification modal.
We had three goals:
- Tell notaries when signers pass or fail identity verification
- Tell notaries what to do if a signer fails identity verification
- Build and maintain credibility with notaries about identity verification results
Background
This is a small piece of the DocuSign Notary product. This particular modal appears for notaries during an active remote online notary session. This critical information needs to be clear and easy to digest during a video call. ID verification is critical to all notary work. If a notary makes a mistake, the legal implications can be severe.
When I reviewed the designs, I saw a few opportunities to improve clarity and comprehension for the audience.
- Revise content patterns for consistency
- Improve information hierarchy and readability
- Remove details that aren’t critical
Content patterns
I proposed two options to my PM.
- Option A was designed to fit a smaller scope of work and could ship on time.
- Option B was a larger scope of work that we could plan out.
By showing two options, it was my goal to demonstrate why it would benefit the team to include content design in the planning stages for each release. At that point, I was still mostly working after product design was done and before engineering started their work. My goal was to get involved earlier in the project so that I could adequately scope and plan my work within the larger constraints of the project.
Option A
The “Better” option that fits the existing scope of our work.
- The content patterns are minimally cleaned up for consistency
- The date and time formats are easier to read
- The data and time formats are more accessible to folks with dyscalculia
- The error messages have been rewritten for clarity (though not all are included)
- Pronouns are always they/them
Option B
The “Best” option that needs a bit more planning and time.
- The pass/fail results are now the first word of each header, followed by the ID verification type — which also means that we’re no longer relying on an icon to communicate a critical status
- The second line has a new pattern that immediately confirms:
- The ID verification partner
- The action the ID verificiation partner performed
- The document that the ID verification partner checked
- The date and time stamp have been minimized to a third line because this entire process takes place almost in real time — this is the least important information in this moment, for this audience
- The error messages are the same as option A (though not all are included)
- Pronouns are always they/them
Deliverables
Results
This strategy has helped me persuade product managers to include me earlier in the product development process, during the planning stages. 🎉
When I can scope my work alongside the rest of the team, it makes it much easier to manage a larger workload, plan for headcount, avoid burnout, and plan vacation time.
Portfolio
Check out another project.