Overview
Role: UX/UI Designer
Industry: Enterprise Payroll
Timeline: 3 Months
Responsibilities:
User Research
UX/UI Design
Information Architecture
Wireframing
Prototyping
Challenge
XR Pay is a payroll platform used by film and television productions to onboard workers, manage payroll, and process timecards.
Years of product growth had introduced friction into several key workflows, making them more difficult for users to navigate.
My role was to identify usability issues through user research and redesign key workflows to improve clarity and usability.
Research
With my team, I planned and conducted eight user interviews with payroll professionals and production workers.
After each interview, I documented recurring issues and grouped observations into common themes to identify areas with the greatest impact.
From Insight to Solution
Simplifying Onboarding
Insight
Users were often unsure what information was required during onboarding and where they were in the process.
Solution
I broke the flow into smaller steps, simplified the instructional copy, and improved the visual hierarchy to make the process easier to navigate.
Clarifying Identity Verification
Insight
Users didn't understand why identity verification was required or what would happen after completing it.
Solution
I redesigned the screen to better explain the process, simplified the content, and introduced contextual guidance to increase user confidence.
Building Trust in Direct Deposit
Insight
Many users were unfamiliar with Plaid and hesitant to connect their bank account.
Solution
I rewrote the screen content to explain the purpose of Plaid, emphasized security, and clarified the benefits of setting up direct deposit.
Simplifying Navigation
Insight
Users had difficulty locating common actions and wanted better visibility into the status of their timecards.
Solution
I reorganized the interface around users' primary tasks and simplified navigation to improve efficiency.
Outcome
The research identified usability issues across several high-impact workflows and informed a series of design recommendations. The redesigned concepts provided the product team with research-backed direction for future product improvements.
Reflection
Conducting user interviews before designing solutions changed the way I approached product design. The interviews revealed problems that weren't obvious from reviewing the interface alone and reinforced the importance of validating assumptions before proposing solutions.
