Redesigning a tool its experts know by heart
An internal tool designed in the late 2000s, used every day by trained staff.
Confidential project. No screens or product details.
AxelThis case study covers the decisions, not the product.The problem
Users who open the same screen every morning and know exactly where to click. No newcomers to win over: every change costs them something.
My decisions
Don't simplify on reflex
On an expert tool, removing things is costly: what looks like noise to a fresh eye is often the first piece of information people look for. I understood why each element was there before removing a single one.
Keep the mental map
These users have habits built over fifteen years. I changed the form without moving the landmarks: same positions, same vocabulary, same reading order.
Design for the hundredth time
A screen opened forty times a day is judged on the hundredth opening, not the first. What matters is the number of clicks in a repeated task.
States before screens
Loading, empty results, incomplete input, recoverable errors: in a business tool, these are everyday situations. I designed them with the same care as the happy-path screens.
What changed
Making sure the experts lose nothing.
Success was measured by an absence: no stretch of time where people are less efficient than before.
What I'd do differently
I would have brought in two or three expert users as regular reviewers, not just during the observation sessions.
