A Guided Interview Redesigned

Building a Better Divorce Experience with UX and Product Strategy

Role:

UX Designer & Researcher

Duration

8 weeks

A glance:

A strategic transformation of a legacy divorce documentation system into a modern, user-centered web application. The project delivered significant usability enhancements through collaborative efforts with US Digital Response and focused on user experience improvements while establishing sustainable product management practices for the Self-Help Center team.

Process

Discovery

Define

Design

Deliver

Discovery

Where (and why) do users get stuck?

User pain points and their relevance to infrastructure

The Utah State Court’s Self-Help Center (SHC) along with the State Law Lirbray I learned tthe team was working on transitioning from the legacy divorce documentation system (OCAP) to Forms.io. The SHC provides critical services to people navigating the legal system without lawyers, but their digital tools don't always meet user needs.

Understanding User Struggles

Through interviews with SHC staff, as well as on-site observations, we uncovered patterns of user difficulties:

  • Users frequently contacted the center with login issues

  • Many reported being "stuck" but couldn't articulate where or why

  • Staff attorneys were providing technical support instead of legal assistance

Platform Assessment

Forms.io presented specific constraints we needed to work within:

  • No content recovery system for accidental deletions

  • Lack of effective versioning capabilities and no way to create drafts or copies of previous versions

  • No auto-save functionality, requiring users to manually save frequently or risk losing their work

  • UI limitations including overwhelming progress indicators

  • Developer experience differing significantly from end-user experience

Organizational Challenges

Beyond technical issues, we identified critical organizational mindsets to address:

  • Communication gaps between SHC needs and development team

  • Limited technical expertise within the management team

  • Perception of the guided interview as merely a "$20 service" rather than a valuable digital product

Key Insights:

  • Users weren't just experiencing technical difficulties; they were encountering fundamental usability barriers that prevented completion

  • The SHC team's service-oriented mindset was limiting their ability to advocate for proper UX investment

  • Platform constraints were exacerbating user difficulties rather than being addressed strategically

  • Staff time was being diverted from legal assistance to technical troubleshooting, undermining the center's core mission

The Challenge

The Problem:

Self-represented litigants using the Online Court’s Assistance Program (OCAP) for Divorce frequently struggled to complete the process due to confusing language, unclear navigation, and a lack of contextual support. These issues led to high abandonment rates and an increased demand for technical support from court staff. The new platform, to replace OCAP, had technical constraints, and the absence of a dedicated design team made it challenging to implement user-centered improvements.

Goal:

The redesign sought to improve the user experience of the Guided Interview for Divorce by making it more understandable, navigable, and supportive, especially for people unfamiliar with legal procedures, while working within strict platform limitations. It also sought to reduce abandonment, lower support needs, and promote a more sustainable, product-oriented approach to digital court tools.

Define

How might we transform a technical migration into an organizational mindset shift?

Reframing a platform change into an opportunity for fundamental transformation

What began as an investigation of user pain points quickly expanded into something more complex. As I implemented UX ceremonies with the non-technical team to discuss discovery findings, I uncovered critical gaps in their development workflow and internal processes. During these sessions, team members expressed frustration with platform limitations and revealed how changes were pushed and published without strategic consideration.

By requesting to join development meetings, I gained visibility into their product roadmap and release process. This participation revealed that many solutions I had initially considered wouldn't be feasible within their technical constraints. The "aha moment" came when I realized that addressing user experience issues required more than interface improvements—it demanded a fundamental shift in how the organization approached digital development itself.

Defining the Challenges

User Research Insights

Through targeted usability testing, we uncovered specific pain points:

  • Users became overwhelmed by the children's information section

  • Similar-looking screens created navigation confusion

  • Complex terminology created barriers to understanding

  • Users needed better preparation for the information they would need to provide

Strategic Approach

Based on our research, we defined a preventative design strategy:

  • Anticipate confusion points before they occur

  • Create clear contextual guidance throughout the process

  • Design for varying levels of both legal and technical literacy

  • Reduce need for technical support contact

Key Define Insights

  • The project required addressing both technical migration and organizational culture simultaneously

  • User barriers were often predictable and could be prevented with proper design interventions

  • The most effective framework was preventative design—addressing issues before users encountered them

  • Shifting from viewing the system as a "$20 service" to a valuable digital product was essential for securing appropriate resources and attention

Key insights

We framed the project challenges as:

  1. Legacy Migration Challenge: How might we preserve critical functionality while moving to a new platform?

  2. Technical Constraint Challenge: How might we improve the user experience within Forms.io's limitations?

  3. Mindset Shift Challenge: How might we transform the team's approach from service-oriented to product-oriented?

  4. User Completion Challenge: How might we address the critical usability barriers preventing form completion?

Design

How might we create user-centered solutions within rigid platform constraints?

Finding creative pathways when direct solutions aren't possible

Working within the constraints identified, we needed creative solutions that would be technically feasible while addressing the core user and organizational needs.

Solution Brainstorming

We explored multiple approaches to improve the experience:

For User Experience:

  • Onboarding Enhancement: How might we better prepare users for what's ahead?

  • Information Architecture: How might we chunk complex processes into manageable steps?

  • Contextual Guidance: How might we provide just-in-time instructions when users need them?

  • Visual Clarity: How might we differentiate similar sections to reduce confusion?

For Organizational Transformation:

  • Communication Frameworks: How might we improve technical requirement discussions?

  • Process Adaptation: How might we apply agile principles to a non-technical team?

  • User Testing Integration: How might we establish sustainable testing practices?

Collaborative Solution Development

We engaged multiple stakeholders to refine our ideas:

  • Partnered with US Digital Response to implement hybrid agile practices

  • Improved communication channels with the development team

  • Engaged legal aid organizations who work directly with users for testing and feedback

Key Design Insights

  • Working within platform constraints required creative workarounds rather than ideal solutions

  • The most valuable ideas focused on contextual guidance and breaking complex processes into manageable steps

  • External partnerships were crucial for implementing agile practices in a non-technical environment

  • Solutions needed to address both immediate user needs and long-term organizational capability building

Deliver

How did preventative design transform both user experience and organizational capability?

Implementing solutions that address both immediate needs and long-term sustainability

Moving from design to implementation required careful prioritization and evidence-based decision making, focusing on changes that would have the highest impact within our constraints.

Evidence-Based Design Solutions

Based directly on user feedback, we implemented:

  • Pre-Section Introduction Screens: Created contextual preparation screens addressing user feedback like: "A few sentences introducing the section would be helpful"

  • Simplified Terminology: Replaced technical terms with clearer alternatives based on observed user confusion

  • Visual Differentiation: Enhanced distinction between similar screens after observing users commenting "the screen looks too similar to the previous one"

  • Process Chunking: Broke down the complex children's information section into manageable steps

  • Progress Indicators: Added clearer indicators showing which child's information was being entered

  • Auto-save Implementation: Added auto-save functionality to prevent frustrating data loss, addressing a critical platform limitation

Process Design Improvements

Beyond interface changes, we implemented new processes:

  • Testing workflow with legal aid organizations before launch

  • Communication templates for clearer technical requests

  • Auto-save feature implementation to prevent data loss

Impact

"What I thought would happen versus what actually happened:

Expectation

  • Leadership will immediately see value of UX and support systemic change.

  • Everyone will be excited to adopt user personas and data-driven decisions.

  • Immediate transformation in how courts approach user-centered design.

Reality

  • Some stakeholders were skeptical, some key decision-makers had breakthroughs

  • Showing real user impact, I gained incremental buy-in.

  • It’s a slow process, but each small win builds momentum for long-term culture change

Some of the responses:

“In my 30 years of working in the court, I had never seen a presentation like this about court patrons, it was eye-opening.”

— Court Administrator

“We already do those things; people just don’t want to read.”

— Court Clerk

Small Wins Lead to Big Impact: Minds won't change overnight, but each breakthrough moment matters at any level.