Trevor Daunt

lawfty logo

Lawfty is an online service for connecting injured parties to lawyers. They use a machine learning algorithm to acquire validated leads and work with partner law firms across the country to pursue cases. They contacted us about redesigning internal communications with their partner firms as their current system made it difficult to gather the data Lawfty needed from their partners in order to improve their algorithms. Our goals for the project were to design a new platform for the lawyers that improved their experience while simultaneously gathering data for Lawfty. 

Lawyers

Following a sit down with the client, my team and I interviewed multiple small firm independent attorneys about how they handled new cases, what technology they used, and the current processes that went into choosing their current set of clients.

Design Team
- Trevor Daunt - Karen Ko - Roger Deguzman -

From interview to insight

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After reviewing all of the data we collected in the interviews, we began mapping some insights out on a white board. Working together to understand lawyer’s behaviors and mental models.

Two Questions

With this new understanding of our users we once again looked at the problem from the Users perspective. What was the job to be done? What were the attorneys trying to accomplish? We discovered that new case evolutions came down to 2 questions.

“Does the client have a case?”       “Is it economically viable to pursue?”

Lawyers were trying to answer these to questions as quickly and efficiently as possible. So with that in mind our team began sketching out possible solutions. We focused on a solution that provided lawyers with at-a-glance answers the above questions.

Testing assumptions

From there we made some paper prototypes and began testing with potential users. We tested with both lawyers and non-lawyers in order to identify usability issues. We found some interesting patterns in our testing with lawyers. They scanned pages differently and didn’t want to be told to take a case or not. Lawyers wanted the facts so they could answer those questions themselves.

Card sort

With this in mind we put together an online card sort of Lawfty’s case data base and sent it to a diverse group of lawyers to sort into categories and then rank what specific facts they deemed the most important when deciding to take a case. 

Digital Prototype

Using this feedback, we built our final digital prototype with the most pertinent facts sorted into two main categories; Incident details and Injury details. 

Going Mobile

While we didn’t have time in our two-and-a-half-week sprint to fully prototype a mobile version of the site we took some time to think about the different paradigms involved. It is not possible to fit all the necessary information on a mobile screen so instead we focused on a scrollable interface that keeps the contact call to action in view at all times. Easy to read with the decision only a tap away at any time.

 
Lawfty Mobile Scroll.png

Next Steps

Before anything else, we recommended that Lawfty develop an analytical baseline on open rate, cases closed, days till signed retainer, and time spent following up with lawyers for documents. Then they should start a pilot of the new design with 3 of their partner firms for a 4-week period. 

Evaluation

We our team believes we designed an elegant solution to the problems facing Lawfty and their partner firms but no project is complete without success criteria:

  • Did the lawyers use the new system?

  • Does the new system provide Lawfty the data they need?

  • Does time spent following up on cases go down?

  • Do relationships with Partner firms improve?