To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have changed some of the quantitative data and omitted some information in this case study.
Impact Measures
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Task Completion Rate Increased by 40%
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Successfully reduced error rates and minimized support ticket volume
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Reduced completion time by 30%
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Increased portal retention rate among clients
My Role
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Heuristic Analysis
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User Research
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Wire-Framing
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Hi-Fidelity Wireframes
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User Testing
My Team
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Myself - Sole UI & UX Designer
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2 Product Managers
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4 Engineers - Front End & Back End
Research
About OnGrid
OnGrid is a ISO-certified background verification platform empowers HR with user-friendly tools to verify candidates across 25+ industries, from criminal checks and education verification to employment and credit history. Streamline compliance, build trust, and make smarter hiring decisions - all with OnGrid's secure, user-friendly platform. OnGrid collaborates with over 3000 clients to enhance workplace safety and reliability.
What OnGrid portal is
OnGrid is a cutting-edge B2B SaaS platform simplifies background checks for HR professionals in enterprise environments.. It manages onboarding for all positions (white-collar & blue-collar) through features.
Primary Features Include
Candidate Management
Bulk Upload of Candidates
Candidate Profile Pages
Customizable Verification Checks
Dynamic KPI Dashboards measuring
Community & User management
Advanced Filters
Detailed Report Generation
And much more...
Problem & Opportunity (Why the Redesign)
The existing OnGrid verification portal suffered from an outdated design aesthetic and a lack of user-centric features. This resulted in several issues:
Outdated Design & Interactions
The outdated design language and clunky interactions made the portal feel cumbersome and unintuitive. This created a barrier for new users and frustrated existing users
Limited Scalability
The existing architecture couldn't accommodate planned feature expansions efficiently. This restricted the potential of the portal.
Lack of Personalization
Users had no options to customize the portal for their individual needs or workflow preferences, leading to a generic experience.
Inconsistent UI & Heuristic Violations
Inconsistencies in screen layout and interaction patterns led to confusion and wasted user time. The design lacked adherence to established UX principles, leading to frustration and inefficiency.
Excessive Task Steps
Completing routine tasks required unnecessary steps, significantly slowing down users and impacting their productivity.
Previous Design
The Opportunity, metrics for Success
By redesigning the OnGrid portal, we aimed to achieve the following
Increased User Satisfaction
Measured through post-redesign surveys or user interviews, gauging user perception of the platform's ease of use and intuitiveness.
Improved Task Completion Time
Track the time users take to complete specific tasks before and after the redesign. This can be measured through user testing or analytics tools.
Reduced Support Tickets
A decrease in user support tickets related to portal navigation and functionality can indicate a more intuitive and user-friendly experience.
Increased Feature Adoption
Monitor the usage of new features after the redesign.
Decoding the Current Flow: Lessons Learned
Before diving into design solutions, it was essential to gain a deep understanding of the existing user journey and identify areas of friction. To achieve this, I collaborated extensively with multiple operations team members, analyzing their workflows from initiation to completion. By engaging with them at every stage of their processes, I was able to document and evaluate the current flows in detail.
Key Pain Points Identified Through User Research
Scattered Data and Workflow Disruptions: Users had to manage data from multiple sources, frequently switching windows to input candidate information. This led to errors and increased task completion time.
Redundant Document Management: Adding documents was redundant and disjointed, requiring users to revisit profiles or re-enter inputs already present in the initiation flow. This redundancy added unnecessary steps to the process, leading to frustration and inefficiency.
Filtering Issues: The filtering option was a pop-up with poor visibility, making it difficult for users to apply or modify filters seamlessly.
Inconsistent Design System: The design lacked uniformity in components and hierarchy, leading to a disorganized and overwhelming user experience.
Non-Linear Flows: The navigation lacked logical flow, forcing users to jump between sections to complete tasks, causing confusion and inefficiency.
Visualizing Task Flows with Users
Scattered Data
Non-Linear Flows:
Understanding OnGrid portal current workflow
Primary usage - adding client community and their respective users, Uploading/ adding candidates via invite or bulk upload or adding candidates individually, selecting verification checks to be done, adding respective IDs, documents and data based on check type, candidates verification status management page where user can view live verification status of each check, download its report, manage candidates. A KPI dashboard on overall status and other insights.
Primary Initiation flow types
Turning Complex Data into Intuitive Interfaces
I focused on effective data visualization, clear visual hierarchy, and interaction design rooted in user behavior and needs. Each design decision aimed to surface meaningful insights while avoiding information overload. The result is a scalable, user-friendly interface that simplifies decision-making.
Design
Tackling the Heart of OnGrid - Redesigning the Candidate Hub
Recognizing the "Candidate Hub" as the critical hub for managing candidates and verification progress within the OnGrid portal, we initiated the redesign process there. This page presented a unique challenge: it juggled a complex information architecture (IA) with multiple user workflows (UWs). Our goal was to create a user-friendly interface that facilitated efficient navigation and interaction with this sophisticated data structure.
Revamping the Candidate Hub Enhancing Candidate Overview
Identified key pain points through user centred research and heuristic evaluations to uncover usability pain points and challenges to enhance the overall user experience
Before
From Data to Design: Smarter Feature Enhancements
The redesigned Candidate Hub wasn't simply an aesthetic overhaul; it was driven by a deep understanding of user needs. Through qualitative analysis of user behavior on the existing portal, we identified key areas for improvement and used these insights to inform the development of new features and usability enhancements
After
Here's how user research guided our feature additions
Right-Side Filter Bar
Implemented a filter drawer on the left, this identified through user This enhanced filter accessibility and allowed users to refine candidate lists based on various criteria observed.
Personalized Data Views
challenges with information overload. To address this, we implemented the customizable data table. This feature empowers users to personalize their view.
Streamlined Verification Selection
Qualitative analysis led to the development of verification packages. These pre-defined packages cater to various job roles and industry requirements. The requirement to individually choose each check added unnecessary steps and increased the risk of missing crucial verification
Data-Driven Insights
Qualitative analysis revealed a need for real-time information about background check progress. The new metrics include turnaround time (TAT), Status legend, KPIs and the verification status for each candidate.
Feature set and quick access functions
Here are the quick access and primary features designed to enhance user management of the page
How I Revamped the ‘Add New’ Flow: Faster, Seamless, and More Automated
The redesign of the 'Add New Candidate' flow began with usability testing involving real users and operations team members. This helped identify pain points, inefficiencies, and opportunities for feature enhancements to improve the overall experience
Other identified key challenges
Limited ‘Add Candidate’ Flow
The existing workflow supports only a single path for requesting verification and adding candidates, limiting flexibility based on user needs.
Identified Use Cases & Challenges
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Document First Approach – HR professionals often have candidate documents before all necessary details. However, the current flow lacks an option to add candidates via document upload seamlessly.
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Document Tagging Issues – Tagging uploaded documents to the requested verifications is not intuitive, leading to confusion and inefficiencies.
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Complex Navigation & Excessive Steps – The current flow involves too many clicks, back-and-forth interactions, and lacks a linear progression, making user navigation cumbersome.
Previous Design
Before
Solution Ideation & Enhancements
To improve the candidate onboarding experience, I focused on key enhancements that streamlined workflows, reduced effort, and improved usability.
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Custom Verification Packages – Introduced reusable, customizable verification sets to eliminate repetitive selection and speed up the process.
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Document-First Upload – Designed a document-driven flow, allowing HR professionals to upload candidate documents upfront, with auto-extraction for pre-filling details.
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Dynamic Multi-Step Form – Created an adaptive form that adjusts based on selected verifications, guiding users seamlessly through the process.
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Reduced Steps & Screens – Optimized the flow to remove unnecessary clicks and back-and-forth interactions, ensuring a more linear and efficient experience.
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Fresh UI & Enhanced Selection – Revamped the interface with an intuitive design, supporting both predefined packages and individual verification selection for greater flexibility.
These improvements not only simplified candidate onboarding but also enhanced usability, making the process faster and more user-friendly.
After
Identifying User Pain Points on Invite Candidates Page
Conducted usability testing and behavioral analysis to identify key pain points within the invite candidate page and workflow. Leveraged these insights to inform design enhancements focused on improving task efficiency.
Before
Improved Invite Candidates Page and Workflow
By implementing a redesigned interface with optimized task flow, we achieved a 40% increase in task completion rate, reduced error frequency, and accelerated task turnaround time. Key enhancements included streamlined feature sets, intuitive interaction guidelines, and clear visual hierarchy.
After
Bringing Consistency and Clarity to OnGrid’s Design
The redesigned OnGrid People Page wasn't just about adding features; it also involved a thoughtful refinement of the existing design system. This ensured a seamless user experience by prioritizing clarity and intuitive navigation.
Design Changes That Drove Real Impact
The redesigned OnGrid People Page wasn't just about adding features, it also involved a thoughtful refinement of the existing design system. This ensured a seamless user experience by prioritizing clarity and intuitive navigation. The OnGrid portal redesign focused on easy and quick initiation of background checks, alongside effortless candidate management. This was achieved through a fresh, minimalist design system that fostered consistent navigation and automated workflows via APIs, significantly reducing errors and accelerating task completion, particularly in form filling. The improved user experience led to fewer support tickets, driven by clearer guidance and instructions, and a high adoption rate for new features like customizable views, advanced filters, and reusable verification packages, all contributing to increased overall efficiency.
What's Next: Expanding and Refining the OnGrid Experience
The OnGrid portal redesign is an ongoing journey focused on continuous improvement and expanding its value to our users. Our immediate next steps will concentrate on several key areas:
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Insufficiency Resolution: Designing a faster, more intuitive flow for resolving check insufficiencies.
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Client Adoption: Empowering more client users to efficiently manage candidate verifications for smoother hiring.
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Introducing Instant Verification: Developing a feature for near real-time results on eligible checks.
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Enhanced Dashboard Management: Providing more customizable and insightful data overviews.
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Developing a Mobile View: Enabling on the go access and management.
These developments aim to make OnGrid more efficient, user-friendly, and accessible, directly supporting our clients' hiring needs.
