Document repository

I began by reviewing existing tools of a similar use to understand common patterns and user expectations. While this gave a baseline of best practices, the real insight came from the client's employees, particularly the operations team, who would be the early adopters of the tool.

I conducted interviews with a few of the team members to understand their current workflows, the tools they rely on, what they like about them, and their expectations for a new system. This helped me identify their core needs, such as quick document retrieval, status tracking, and preferences to keep in mind when iterating on the document template system.

Throughout the design process, I conducted two usability tests: one with low-fidelity mockups and another with an interactive prototype to observe how users interacted with the tool. My goal was to identify friction points and learn how the repository could integrate into their existing workflow. These sessions informed iterations on table layout, filtering, tagging, and contract creation flows.

Users required the ability to search and filter contracts quickly, have access to all up-to-date templates, and keep documents securely stored in a centralized system that mirrored the company's filing structure, making it easy to locate physical copies when needed. We also wanted to build a tag system that focused on both the contract status and its validity to help users visually assess the progress and a document's execution.

In parallel, a core function was developed by the operations and compliance teams. They had put months of work into reviewing all document templates to streamline variables and standardize contract details, ensuring that in-app document generation could be automated based on user input.

Later iterations were planned to introduce built-in e-signing, notifications and reminders (both in-app and via email), role-based access permissions to protect sensitive contracts, and template version history.