Reducing cognitive load and helping users act faster through consolidation and clarity
Impact at a Glance
• Reduced navigation time from 15–20 minutes to 3–5 minutes
• ~90% efficiency improvement for both frequent and infrequent users
• Consolidated information previously spread across five pages into one view
Context
SHIELD serves a wide range of users from daily power users to infrequent stakeholders who only log in at key moments.
Before this project, users had to navigate across multiple pages to understand what they owned, what had changed, and what required attention.
Problem
Users spent significant time switching between five different pages just to gather basic information.
This created high cognitive load, frustration, and inefficiency—especially for infrequent users who had to re-learn the system each time they returned.
Goals
The goal was to reduce effort and improve clarity at the point of entry.
From a business perspective, this meant improving adoption and trust in SHIELD as a source of truth.
From a UX perspective, success meant answering one question quickly: “What do I need to do right now?”
Role
I inherited the project mid-stream and took ownership of clarifying scope, prioritizing requirements, and designing a scalable dashboard solution.
I partnered with product and engineering to balance Q1 delivery constraints with long-term usability and extensibility.
Key Insight
Users didn’t want more data they wanted relevance.
The biggest time sink wasn’t lack of information, but the effort required to find and reconcile it across multiple places.
Strategy
The homepage was designed as a decision hub, not a summary page.
The strategy focused on:
• Consolidating critical information into a single view
• Surfacing status and actions, not raw data
• Reducing memory burden for infrequent users
Solution
The redesigned homepage consolidated key information from across SHIELD into one place, including:
• The user’s portfolio
• Subscribed or assigned records
• Relevant reports
• A “What needs my attention” section
This eliminated unnecessary navigation and helped users act with confidence immediately.
Validation
I conducted two rounds of user feedback sessions with 7+ users.
Insights directly informed iteration, prioritization, and phased delivery ensuring the most impactful elements shipped first.
Outcomes
The new homepage reduced navigation time to 3–5 minutes, representing a ~90% improvement in efficiency.
Stakeholders approved the design for phased Q1 implementation after seeing how it reduced cognitive load and eliminated unnecessary page switching.
Reflection
Small surface-area changes can unlock outsized efficiency gains.
Designing for infrequent users proved to be a powerful way to improve the experience for everyone.
