The Problem To Be Solved

The web content from the three courts was outdated, incomplete, and filled with legal jargon, causing a slew of problems such as surge in call center volume, litigants-in-person (LIPs) making multiple trips to the court for clarification and turning to other (unofficial) sources for information.

Shifting from a court-first approach to a user-first approach was crucial in the redesign process.

Approach

Together with the client team from the Supreme Court’s Office of Transformation, I co-led a team of developers, content and UX designers to unify and design a brand new public website for the Singapore Courts.

Our goal was to enable more litigants-in-person to self serve by making the law accessible and understandable.

We employed the double-diamond design framework to guide our work:

1. Discover phase: We gained insights to the problem through

   1. User research with internal and external stakeholders to gain context and understand their pain points

   2. Desk research to understand subject matter and best practices
      

2. Define phase: We scoped down the focus by

   1. Identifying the problem statement 

   2. Defining design principles, scope of work and content strategy
      

3. Develop phase: We developed solutions through 

   1. Designing new user journeys, information architecture, content voice and tone, user interfaces/interactions, design system
      

4. Deliver phase: We built and launched the new website iteratively, in 3 key phases

Discover Phase

My team and I spoke to the key groups of stakeholders:

• Internal

  • Judiciary team (judges / magistrates): to understand their interactions with litigants-in-person (LIPs) 

  • Front-line staff: to understand operational pain points and feedback/issues that LIPs frequently face

  • Website team: to understand issues they face when managing content and the website
    

• External

  • Primary users – (Past/Present) LIPs: to understand their pain points when interacting with the courts

  • Secondary users – Law firms and legal reporters: to understand their pain points when using the courts website

Additionally, to deepen our knowledge on the subject matter, we attended crash courses on the various types of law, conducted by the panel of judges and magistrates.

Key Findings

Our research validated users' experiences entailing frustration, anxiety, and confusion. The web pages were not only densely packed with legalese but also provided unhelpful "textbook" responses. 

Consequently, litigants-in-person (LIPs) often resorted to seeking answers elsewhere, whether via contacting the courts’ hotlines or exploring alternative (unofficial) websites. 

This poor user experience was primarily a result of an organization-centric information structure, requiring users to comprehend the entire inner workings of the entities to access the relevant legal information.

Define Phase

In light of our findings, I defined the problem statement as:

I led the teams in a series of virtual (due to COVID-19) ideation and prioritisation workshops. The ideas were grouped and distilled into core design principles that guide our work. 

The design principles include:

• Be user first, not court first

• Give one experience, not three

• Give answers, not just information

As it is a content heavy project, along with 2 content designers, we formulated a robust content strategy to improve the outcome:

• Conducted an audit of the existing content across the three websites

• Identified reusable content patterns and content types (e.g. use of active voice, instead of passive voice)

• Proposed an information architecture centered around user tasks

• Created user-first content (e.g. content that is simple, clear and actionable)

• Held regular content critiques with subject matter experts to ensure content was complete, neutral, and legally accurate

Design Phase

Guided by the design principles, we mapped out future state user journeys and new interactions and patterns.

Key highlights include:

1. Streamlined and transparent court process: Users had felt stressed when they could not understand long and complex legal processes. The website now has detailed process maps to guide users in achieving their goals with ease and speed.
   

2. Legal aid signposts: Previously, information on accessing legal aid was buried deep within the websites. The revamped design now includes clear signposts and an intuitive user interface, ensuring that users can easily find these resources regardless of their location within the website.
   

3. Eligibility checkers: Eligibility criteria were not available before. Now, the user sees the criteria even before starting a process. Clear visual cues distinguish between the different sets of criteria (“you can file if …” vs “you cannot file if…”).
   

4. Easily understandable content: We have restructured content to ensure it meets the Flesch Reading Ease score of at least 60, making the content easily understandable for the average adult reader. 

Deliver Phase

Output

The mammoth task of combining three websites into one to deliver a unified user experience took nearly a year, albeit over three beta launches. The feedback collected from both internal staff and public users for each beta launch validated what worked and highlighted areas for improvement.

On top of launching the website, we set up the following artefacts to help the client organisation scale the website and their digital efforts:

• A design system that can be used across all digital products and services 

• Digital governance plan

  • A governance team structure (including roles that need to be hired)

  • Training sessions (e.g. on how to write content, map user journeys, use Google Analytics and Hotjar to measure user behaviour, etc)

• A digitisation strategy (i.e. how to digitise their services beyond the website)

Outcome

We were encouraged by feedback such as:

From the get-go, I aimed to move beyond just creating a static website and instead, to foster a product mindset over a project mindset with the client team. This approach emphasises continual improvement rather than resorting to a redesign every few years. By co-teaming with the client's team in the website's design and development, we established a sense of shared understanding and ownership. 

My team's efforts included conducting training workshops on various skills like insights analysis and usability testing, thus equipping the client team with the knowledge to sustain and evolve the website effectively over time.

Lessons Learnt

At the heart of this endeavour of unifying three court websites was a profound need for organisational transformation, as suggested by the extent of organisational gaps that came to light. 

The core challenge lay not in the website design and build but in altering the deeply ingrained silo mentality of the leadership teams, specifically persuading leaders who were accustomed to operating independently to embrace a new way of working.

My role had to evolve into that of a change facilitator, where I was not only leading the website redesign but also facilitating stakeholder engagements and advocating for a shared vision that transcended individual court boundaries.