I turn complex problems into human-centred digital services

The quarterly spend table provides government suppliers with information on where contracts are being supplied and how much funding is being spent across the different categories. We had feedback that the original page layout was unclear and was making it difficult for them to know where to expand their service offerings.

We were unable to talk directly with the users of this page for this work, instead working with an internal SME who was able to give us guidance on what the priorities, pain points and key tasks being completed through this and adjacent content pages of the Marketplace website. The key pain points were:

• users were unsure what was included in the totals
• there was no historic totals or change % for them to be able to contextualise the current quarter's spend
• the columns were laid out in a way that made it unclear how the individual service categories applied to the higher-level structures

The redesign resolved these issues by the addition of additional guiding text, a stat block summarising the high-level contextual data points, and a single column layout grouping the different service categories with just a single higher-level grouping layer.

Feedback that we got was that this was a significant improvement to clarity and usability for the suppliers.

While I have worked on a large number of projects / initiatives this is one of the best examples of where I have been involved from product inception all the way through to delivery / continuous development and integration into business. This started as an invite to a workshop a group of business stakeholders were holding - they were looking at introducing Microsoft OneNote as an additional software tool to help solve some complaints from field staff about lack of process, confusion around tooling and assessment requirements.

After attending the workshop, having to this point primarily been focused on external customers, I spent time investigating the tools and processes our field staff used in their day-to-day. I discovered that the systems and processes were many and, after field research, discovered that these varied widely across the country.

This was causing:

• Inconsistent assessment practices
• Confusion for field staff when they were internally moderated
• Confusion / disruption for learners when their advisor changed
• Inconsistent customer experience for our learners when engaging with our staff on their regular visits
• Poor results from our governing body's audits

I spent some time pulling together a quick (hi-fi) prototype that provided a single product which covered the largest parts of the field staffs key workflow. This was then demonstrated to leadership as a proposal which they greenlit and gave us 3 months to deliver an MVP. The timeline was tight because we suffering heavy attrition of staff and learners to a new competitor and process complexity was one of the main reasons given for staff departures.

The initial prototype and presentation are presented below:

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After the project was greenlit I spent the next month going around the country with another UX designer as support and we did rigorous testing of the prototype and ensuring (within the time limitations) we were able to cover off as many of the key points as possible.

We had no dedicated project team for this but we brought in an external developer to build the application while I co-ran the project and sprint cycles with a product owner of one of the adjacent products. We spent 2 months in development and design iteration, I then ran some workshops across the country, running a short 2 week pilot and a roadshow to demonstrate the new tool to the business.

This culminated in a release 3-4 months after the initial project start with (thanks to the pilot period and lots of comms) a well-received, relatively smooth rollout that significantly reduced workflow complexity and received great feedback from field staff, as well as learners / customers.

While working at Waka Kotahi NZTA, I was tasked with a full site rebrand, incorporating UX improvements for new site features and a marketing campaign. I had a 4-week timeframe before the launch.

Week 1: I reviewed the existing site and identified pain points. Desk research showed a large portion of users arrived via TradeMe, so I studied its search experience to inform a familiar and intuitive experience on Rightcar.

Week 2: I rapidly prototyped designs across the five page types, implementing the new brand theme and improving accessibility and usability. I also compared rating systems on the Australian equivalent site and discovered multiple, inconsistent systems - some using 6 stars. I advocated mapping them to a 5-star system to reduce cognitive load, though this wasn’t implemented.

Week 3: We conducted 2 days of in-person user testing on mobile and desktop with 10 participants. The feedback was consistent, confirming that the design largely worked as intended.

Week 4: I iterated on designs based on testing, focusing on content ordering on the car details page. Users prioritized crash avoidance and protection features and expected car details on the left rather than the right.

Car details page - user feedback changes

The site was developed the following week. I had left the agency before launch, so I couldn’t review the final implementation, but it turned out well.

Testing → Usability feedback + iterations. While the timeline was challenging, it emphasized the value of focused, user-centered design in delivering meaningful improvements quickly.