INTUIT

Universal Search
Experience

London uk award winning designer

webflow specialist interactive storyteller

dIGITAL UI/UX BRAND PRINT

Designing an interactive, multi-platform online community for Quick Books and
Turbo Tax Live CPA professionals

* This is a high-level overview of my design process. Can show in depth design visuals in person upon request.

Project

Expert Community Homepage

Role

UX Design Intern

Team

Expert Community Engagement Team

Overview

How can we increase community and engagement amongst remote workers?
‍

Intuit's Expert Community platform is currently the social space for Turbo Tax Live experts and Quickbook Live experts to connect with each other, obtain company announcements, and obtain role specific information. Intuit wanted to strengthen the relationship between experts by providing a more social experience within the community platform.

Since Turbo Tax live and Quickbooks Live experts are completely remote, it is important to build a sense of community between all experts so they know that their presence and hard work doesn't go unseen.

Background

I started by analyzing the current expert community space (or lack there of).
‍

I chose to start the project by analyzing their current expert community platform experience but quickly learned that it was almost none existent! The current experience acts as a portal for Turbotax Live and Quickbooks Live experts to sign into their respective communities.
But there are no existing points to merge the communities.

I compared search patterns from platforms across different sectors like retail, sports, and news to highlight varying brand styles and how content is displayed according to those brands and their target audiences.

Current Experience

This is the existing homepage view for tax experts once they sign into the community platform

After logging in, multi-domain tax experts can switch
between domains via the tab in the top right corner of the screen

In the current experience, there are no opportunities for tax experts to merge and form community with one another outside of their respective areas

User Interviews

Next, I interviewed forty tax experts remotely to get a sense for what they want in a community platform.
‍

I started by conducting research with Turbotax Live experts and Quickbooks experts to understand what they value when interacting with the current community platform. We conducted Expert Roundtable sessions virtually in collaboration with the research and communications team, as well as released a survey to collect data from each expert type.

I compared search patterns from platforms across different sectors like retail, sports, and news to highlight varying brand styles and how content is displayed according to those brands and their target audiences.

Findings & Analysis

37% of 40 experts surveyed, wanted career development to be the
main focus of Community with expert specific benefits at 29.6%

We also collected data on what they'd like the new community to feel like and how
they felt about their current community.

"I think it should feel like a conference where you mix and mingle have break out sessions and live speakers. Career development is good, professional development is better "

"it gives a quick and informal setting oto get to know one another but it should still be efficient and provide helpful information"

"Found it not useful but visited a few times to see if there was anything out there, but no. [It would be nice] to find out more about our peers"

Findings & Analysis

37% of 40 experts surveyed, wanted career development to be the main focus of Community with expert specific benefits at 29.6%

Before moving on to designing and ideation, I conducted a quick competitive analysis of other third- party platforms, such as Facebook Groups and Slack, that allow experts to connect with each other. I was able to gather data on what elements of each platform were working for Experts, and what elements were not working for each type of domain expert.

We began by experimenting with relocating the navigation to the bottom.

The hypothesis was that positioning the navigation closer to the user's thumb would not only facilitate easier interaction and engagement but also create additional space at the top of the screen later on. However, relocating the navigation to the bottom presents some design challenges concerning the Gamepad buttons. To implement this change, I had to first make some visual adjustments to the Gamepad.

info

Positioning the navigation at the bottom without making any visual adjustments was problematic because it made the screen feel very bottom heavy with far too many tappable elements right next to each other.

To help with the visual clutter problem we experimented with a vertical Gamepad design where we removed the Like & Nope buttons. We found that solely relying on users to swipe for Like & Nope significantly reduced swipes per session metrics.

info

Disney.com

I noticed that there is a very simple categorization system for content within the search recommendation drop down that excluded much of the types of content found on Disney.com. Once on the results page, there is also a simple filtering system that reveals how, depending on the content, the layout switches from list to grid view.
‍

I noticed that there was a very simple categorization system for content within the search recommendation drop down that excluded much of the types of content found on Disney.com. Once on the results page, there was inconsistencies between how content was displayed based on the filter type.

Learn
More

We still had one minor problem...

While these changes have helped in reducing the visual clutter in the current state of the app, the question remains: How well would it withstand future feature additions by Tinder?

ESPN

The search recommendation drop down returns a very in depth list of recommendations based on the user's search query. There are more varieties in categories that align with the filters shown on the results page, and the content regardless of the type, is visually consistent.
‍

In spite of certain UI enhancements, the introduction of additional visual elements leads to an imbalance on the screen, with numerous elements competing for attention within the same area.

Learn More

ABCN

When searching for content on ABCNews I noticed that there was a lack of suggestions presented to the user when typing in a search query. Suggestions would minimize the need for users to go to the results page to find the specific content they are searching for, as well as provide corrections if their query is misspelled. The results page displays a consistent, inline view of the content, with a more advanced filtering and sorting option.
‍

In spite of certain UI enhancements, the introduction of additional visual elements leads to an imbalance on the screen, with numerous elements competing for attention within the same area.

Learn More

After doing an internal audit of search experiences, I took this opportunity to create a universal design solution that would make finding content and tailoring results more efficient and configurable for the user while also tailoring to each brands unique needs.
‍

Explore the Solutions

Now it's time to craft the solution

Working with the Expert Engagement team: I worked cross-functionally alongside my assigned design mentor for this project, Alexis Cotton and product manager, Stefanie Frederick. I pulled the team together to solidify the following expert problem statement:

How Might We's

Turning the experts' "wants" into possible features
‍

I set up an extensive 2 hour brainstorming session via Mira with the team to break down some “How Might We” statements, and construct an affinity diagram of our findings to support next steps in the design process

With our How Might We's being:
‍
-How might we display TTL & QBK information on one activity feed?
-How might we highlight recognition earned by experts?
-How might we make community feel more like a public coffee shop?
-How might we leverage the experts' hobbies to connect with other experts?

Affinity Map

After HMW's it was time to group and extract categories
‍

I was able to identify 5 categories within the findings generated from the HMW statements with different feature ideas under each category
‍
• Expert Benefits
• Communication
• Help
• Expert Activity Feed
• Fun

Feasibility Matrix

Measuring ideas based on feasibility and impact
‍

Due to time constraints for this project, I created a feasibility matrix to quickly determine features with the highest feasibility and impact in order to prioritize where to put my area of focus.

Stress Testing

The new framework goes through stress testing with brand libraries
‍

With the universal framework in place, I then began applying various brand libraries for different brands to the search experience, accounting for specific feature requirements obtained from product partners.
‍
This exercise included testing type, color, iconography, content card treatment, and content placeholder for brands like:

Final Ideas

Taking the feature ideas with the highest impact and highest feasibility, I was able to identify the following themes that were later incorporated into the main sections of the homepage:

‍

Connect
Expert meet up calendar
Leaderboard widget

Communicate
Color coded posts to decipher domains

Notify
See who is online ( an expert outside or inside of their team)

Personalize
Achievement badges/ icons

User Testing 2

Finally, I wrapped up by partnering with user research to conduct a second round of user testing, using a branded version of the search experience to explore user's expectations and mental models in relation to branded site search.

Refining the Experience

While the entire universal search experience has not shipped, some elements have
‍

After analyzing the research findings and exploring solutions, I ultimately focused on designing 4 main pages of the Expert Community Platform considering the need for community extended beyond just the homepage.

I had to take into consideration the varying types of information needed for each domain expert to know as well as the information that would be applicable to both domains.
Backed by the support of the team, I focused my design efforts to the following pages:

Product Launch

With the bottom of the screen now serving as our primary navigation, we have the opportunity to employ the top section of the screen for secondary navigation. This creates ample space, allowing us to incorporate additional features in the future.

info

After doing an internal audit of search experiences, I took this opportunity to create a universal design solution that would make finding content and tailoring results more efficient and configurable for the user while also tailoring to each brands unique needs.
‍

Conclusion

Repositioning specific items from the bottom to the top not only facilitates the incorporation of new features while upholding visual balance on the screen but also ensures that modifications made to the Gamepad successfully preserved our key metrics.

Reflection

This project was full of firsts, and I learned so much.
‍

The most challenging part about this project was leading the entire design process on a non-design team. I was in charge of multiple design projects, so I had to work on my time management and communication skills to best utilize my resources in order to tackle the problem within the short deadline. If I had more time I would conduct another round of user testing to influence second round of iterations/high fidelity mock ups and to see how experts interact with the new homepage design.
‍
Overall, I learned so much during my time as an intern at Intuit and was able to have both an in-office experience and remote intern experience during my time there. Being the sole product design intern on my team allowed me to take more responsibilities and exercise more leadership over my projects! Thank you so much for taking the time to read through my Intuit project. To see the rest of my design process, feel free to reach out ! :)

2012 - 2022

Featured Work

EMPHASIZING USER-CENTRICITY, INSPIRING SOLUTIONS, & fostering TIGHT-KNIT TEAM COLLABORATION

UX Designer

The Walt Disney Company

Leading user experience for a universal templated search and browse framework

UX Design intern

NVIDIA

Producing UX designs for an Android based security mobile application

UX Designer
_{(COMING SOON)}

The Walt Disney Company

UX Framework for an Engaging Interactive Feature

UX Design intern

Intuit

Expert Community Platform for Remote Tax Professionals

Disney User experience Designer

Leading UX design for a Universal Search Experience

providing Disney users with an enhanced and seamless search experience across all platforms.

NVIDIA User experience intern

Android Mobile App with NVIDIA's Deep Learning and IVA Technology

Partner with engineering team to design a
white-label security mobile application - intern under the SHIELD engineering team

NVIDIA User experience intern

Enhancing Small Business Operations with NVIDIA's Deep Learning and IVA Technology

Partner with engineering team to design a
white-label security mobile application - intern under the SHIELD engineering team

Featured Play

placing people at the heart, crafting experiences that spark positivity, & nurturing collaborative partnerships

Go to Playground

Featured Play

placing people at the heart, crafting experiences that spark positivity, & nurturing collaborative partnerships

Cayskin

Image tracker experience that showcases the ingredients within Cayskin's Deepwater lip mask

SiS

Designed a randomizer that displays positive affirmations for women in sales that reinforces the theme of "We Are Here" forr an AR mirror experience

Snap AR

The Hall of Firsts, displaying the first Black woman to be awarded an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony, and EGOT for Black History Month 2023

Go to Playground

About Me

Im currently a UX Designer at the Walt Disney Company.
I grew up in little ol' Mebane, North Carolina, a small country town where everyone knows everyone.
Because of my small town upbringing, I gained a unique perspective on the intricate relationships people form with the world around them. From an early age, I was fascinated by the influence that art, design, and technology wield in shaping individuals' interactions with everyday objects. This fascination eventually lead me to pivot from Industrial Design to User Experience Design, where I have found immense fulfillment in channeling my passion for crafting resonant experiences that not only engage users but also drive meaningful social impact.
‍
I create 24/7. When im not storytelling from the lens of user experience design, I find joy in leveraging Social AR platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok to curate immersive experiences. The realm of AR allows me to push the boundaries of my imagination and connect with users in different capacities , opening new avenues for engagement.

Let's Chat My Resume

Publications

No items found.

Role Models: An Interview with UX Designer Deia Green ↗

May 12, 2023 · 7 min read

Careers in UX Design Roundtable: 5 Designers Share How They Navigate the Industry ↗

January 31, 2023 · 5 min read

UX Designer Bio Examples and How to Write One Yourself ↗

April 24th, 2023 · 7 min read

View all writing

“I worked directly with Deia in her time at Disney on design concepts that impacted the search experience across a number of products, including ABC News, Star Wars, ESPN, and Disney.com.

In my work with Deia, she demonstrated strong design and research skills, high adaptability and flexibility, and a contagious enthusiasm for learning.”

Lily Lin

UX Researcher

“Deia was very insightful when providing use cases to help build the components for the search experience.With her help and guidance the component building process was faster and easier! Now our design system is able to provide the right search components essential for all of of our digital brands”

Kevin Alumno

Product Designer-Prism-Core /
X-Brand

“Deia is a great partner in the design process. She is receptive to product feedback, making thoughtful iterations and approaches based on questions, concerns, and suggestions.”

Charity Tran

Sr. Product Manager -
Fan & Branded

Next Case Study

Universal Search Experience

Now it's time to craft the solution

Turning the experts' "wants" into possible features‍

After HMW's it was time to group and extract categories‍

Measuring ideas based on feasibility and impact‍

The new framework goes through stress testing with brand libraries‍

SEARCH

Universal Search
Experience

Turning the experts' "wants" into possible features
‍

After HMW's it was time to group and extract categories
‍

Measuring ideas based on feasibility and impact
‍

The new framework goes through stress testing with brand libraries
‍