Overview
Turning operational uncertainty into user confidence
These statements underpin the UK’s Net Zero 2050 mission. The legacy workflow caused delays and mistrust in financial accuracy, and no one felt safe clicking “Approve.”
Design lens: Our early discovery mirrored the Discover → Define stages of the Double Diamond model, exposing hidden service gaps that shaped later design priorities.
Challenges
The workflow
behind energy funding.
As the sole designer across three Agile teams, I led UX for Scheme Operations workflows, partnering daily with our Product Owner and Lead Developer as a triad.
My goal was to translate complex financial logic into clarity and confidence for operators under pressure.
To achieve this I needed to understand the users for this problem I was designing for and re-immerse myself in their context.
Approach
My Role & Approach
Introducing Personas from our UX‑baselining project guided decisions throughout. They helped the team see operators not as job titles but as people balancing accuracy and accountability. Each persona anchored design discussions and directly informed what we visualised in the interface.
Persona
Product Triad
Statistics
Project by
the numbers.
What once required five
systems now happens in one flow.
0
%
Faster
Review cycles
Observed improvement in
internal validation tests.
0
Unified workflow
Replaced five legacy systems
with a single end-to-end flow.
0
%
Data mismatches
Verified accuracy across billing
statements after redesign.
0
M
In monthly settlements
Processed confidently
through redesigned interface.
Framing the Problem
Process & Key Decisions.
Early workshops felt like archaeology as we uncovered Slack threads and Excel trackers that kept the old process alive. Four “How Might We” questions became our compass, prevent context-switching, surface actions early, clarify statuses and make feedback visible and trustworthy.
That quote defined our north star: immediate clarity on what needs attention.
“At page load I expect to know
if something needs action.”
Participant 1
Framework note:
This aligns with the first stage of service blueprinting — revealing front-stage and back-stage gaps that drive user pain.
Design
Exploration
We moved from sketches to a prototype that unified expandable rows, inline evidence and a two-stage approval flow for audit compliance. Language became the infrastructure of trust. “Ready for Billing” became “Awaiting Review,” and “Approve Statements” became “Mark as Reviewed.”
To anchor users within a single view, we added a context pane that surfaced key data based on the user’s current job. Contract metadata, adjustments and policy hints appeared in one place so operators could drill deeper only when needed.
The experience evolved in line with the user’s context. As tasks changed, the interface adjusted what it showed and how it spoke to users. Messages reassured when risk was high and clarified intent when decisions mattered. This reflects Don Norman’s seven stages of action — particularly the execution-evaluation loop, where feedback and language close the gap between intention and outcome.
“I used to do one, check it, go back, do another.
Now I can see everything at once.”
Participant 1
Scheme Ops
Testing
& Iteration
Testing focused on validating the concept and language changes. Feedback highlighted the importance of clear affordances and safe confirmation steps.
We responded using Jakob Nielsen’s heuristics for user interface design — especially Error Prevention and Visibility of System Status. Within a week we iterated the Reject option with reason field, confirmation pop-ups and status chips that visibly tracked progress.
“Approve feels final.
I would not press it unless I knew what it was going to do.”
Participant 3
Scheme Ops
“I like that I can see what changed before sending now. I do not need to chase anyone.”
Participant 5
Scheme Ops
Early workshops felt like archaeology as we uncovered Slack threads and Excel trackers that kept the old process alive. Four “How Might We” questions became our compass, prevent context-switching, surface actions early, clarify statuses and make feedback visible and trustworthy.
That quote defined our north star: immediate clarity on what needs attention.
Reflection & Learning
This project reaffirmed that language is infrastructure — a real-world expression of emotional design (Don Norman). Changing two words achieved what no database migration could: it removed fear.
It also proved that context is reassurance. When information appears where it is needed and feedback closes the loop, users trust their own actions again. Trust here follows the logic of the Fogg Behavior Model: reducing friction in motivation and ability to produce reliable action.
“Once you have done it once, it clicks.
The order makes sense now.”
Participant 2
Scheme Ops