1
Award for Product Innovation
Year:
2020
Team:
Engineers, Legal SMEs, PM
Focus:
Analytics, Design Systems
What’s Been Done
I created a foundational visual style and design system for Knowable, a legal contract management company. I leveraged these to design an analytics platform that would allow companies to better understand trends in how they tend to negotiate their contracts. I was the primary design representative on this project but did check in regularly with the other members of our three person design team for feedback.
150 Million
Contracts Analyzed With Software I Designed
A New Look and Feel
Knowable was a new enough business when I joined that it didn’t have things like colors nailed down yet. To solve this I took inspiration from their logo colors and expanded into a full palette. In the end I had a set of colors that looked great and met accessibility standards in how they were used.
I built out Knowable’s component library at the same time, creating designs for everything from buttons to toggles to spinners. In doing this I was able to see how the colors I was deciding on would show up. I iterated on the colors and components to ensure designs would have good visibility and contrast under the rules of my new system. All the while, I validated my colors, designs, and ideas with engineering, design, and senior leadership to ensure the direction I was taking us met their needs.
Colors and components I created for Knowable’s new design system.
The chart designs I created to serve as the backbone for Knowable’s analytics platform.
Chart Design and Analytics
My design system work extended into analytics as well. I worked with engineering to find a chart library that worked for us and adapted the charts offered by that library into our look and feel. I determined a set of data colors to use that matched well with the colors I had chosen for the wider design system. I then mocked up a sample of what various analytics charts would look like in the Knowable style. I aimed for an informative yet minimalist approach, leaving room for long legal fields without adding unnecessary UI that would clutter the screen.
A Compelling Dashboard MVP
I planned and coordinated a one week design sprint with internal SMEs, my PM, and the head of design in order to get key stakeholders in a room to brainstorm and agree on the overall direction of the analytics system. I was able to come out of the sprint with alignment behind a dashboard style approach to the MVP. Though this would have the tradeoff of filling the screen with charts, it could be implemented in a very small amount of time and improved upon very easily. I can’t share mock-ups of the analytics system beyond this MVP, but following its implementation I led efforts to support view customization and better think through how a user could land into the system and drill down into the data they’re interested in.
A v1 mock-up of the analytics system I helped design. Each tab contains a dashboard of charts relevant to that tab.
Legalweek Product Innovation Award
I designed Knowable’s analytics system over two months. A live build was created just in time for Legalweek, where it won both of the convention’s product innovation awards. It was a huge honor for my work to be recognized in this way.
After improving its analytics system, I worked on a number of other services to improve Knowable’s product offerings and internal systems. While much of that work is under NDA, I feel that the work I was able to share here is reflective of how I helped bring a strong design vision to Knowable’s product suite.