Intuit (2022)

OVERVIEW

Throughout the course of my internship, I collaborated with two full-time designers and two project managers on Intuit's ProConnect Tax Online, a cloud based platform that helps professionals and businesses manage their tax returns.

ROLE

Product Design Intern

for ProConnect Tax Online

24 May – 12 August 2022

Background

Challenge

Problem

Our short term intent is to present relevant content in a smart and organized way to educate customers and give them the confidence that they will be able to perform their tasks effectively through ProConnect Tax Online, and hopefully transforming that level of confidence into conversions.

Context

The original state of the welcome page was designed to encourage users to get familiar with the software before diving into it, with actionable items such as “create a return” hidden on the bottom right of the screen. The issues with this screen are that every item holds the same weight, with nowhere to focus on. Also, all the content are distributed in a way that there is no prioritization of importance.

01

Users found that the emphasis on key features seemed like a marketing gimmick and didn’t like the idea of being sold something inside of the product.

02

Users preferred having actionable items they have direct access to, so they can go ahead and get started on their tax returns immediately.

03

Users would like to see relevant help that does not distract or disrupt their tax return journey.

Understanding the Problem

After conducting interviews with multiple users to discover how they navigated throughout the welcome page, I found that:

Prioritization & hierarchy

Users have the ability to access what they need without thinking too much

Contextual & personalized content

Let users find what’s relevant to them to learn about the product

Highlight product promotions

Make promotions loud and clear on the page, because many customers’ purchase decisions are influenced by the discounts we are currently offering.

Smart help

Provide help in a way that doesn’t interfere with users' tax return journeys, but are there when they need them.

Design Principles

From these findings, we identified key design principles that we should adhere to when designing our final product:

Version 1

Version 2

ITERATIVE DESIGNS

Original Welcome Page

Redesigned Welcome Page

Takeaways

What I learned

I learned to oversee a project from start to finish. I was also very lucky to have worked with the development team closely and discussed potential constraints for our design. For the first time, I was given the chance to lead my own user sessions and learned to consolidate feedback in an effective way.

If I had more time

I would have loved to continue exploring the potential room for personalization that could help enhance user's experiences and interaction with our product.

What could be improved

Without the constraints of what to focus on during the process, I would have liked the opportunity to really explore the problem space before diving right into the solution space.