ContractWorks Premium Dashboard

Designing a solution for seamless integration between ContractWorks and Axdraft

My Role

Product Designer

Tools

Figma, Aha, Jira

Timeline

2023

Overview

Legal professionals rely on multiple tools to manage cases, draft documents, and ensure compliance. However, using separate applications for related tasks often leads to inefficiencies, fragmented workflows, and data silos. Our team was tasked with integrating ContractWorks and Axdraft, two standalone legal software applications, into a single, cohesive platform - creating a full contract lifecycle management tool. The goal was to enhance usability, streamline workflows, and create a seamless experience without disrupting existing user habits.

The Problem


The Goal

To provide a seamless and integrated solution for users with both pre-signature and post-signature document needs. This phase will focus on creating a new landing page that is a combined dashboard surfacing key information of both applications, with built-in navigation to easily access the drafting application or the repository application.


Design Process


Research

Through customer feedback, we learned that users were frequently switching between browser tabs to access the two systems. This behavior caused confusion and frustration, as users had to remember which system handled each part of the workflow. The mental effort required to track system responsibilities highlighted a lack of cohesion in the overall experience. Based on these insights, we identified several key challenges to address in this phase of the integration project:

  • User Workflow Disruptions: Users were accustomed to using ContractWorks and Axdraft separately. The new design had to minimize friction while improving efficiency.

  • Information Architecture & Navigation: Merging two applications meant restructuring the UI to accommodate different workflows while maintaining clarity.

  • Consistency in Design Language: Both had distinct UIs. Unifying them into a single design system was critical for usability and brand consistency.

    • Ideation

    I partnered with another designer to lead the design efforts for this project. After conducting extensive research into competitor products and dashboard landing pages across other applications, we gathered inspiration and best practices that could inform our approach. We went through multiple rounds of brainstorming and rapid iteration, exploring different layout structures, content hierarchies, and interaction patterns. Our goal was to create a dashboard that felt unified, intuitive, and scalable—despite the complexity of integrating two systems.


    Design

    This series of design iterations highlights our collaborative process in merging data from two distinct applications into a single, cohesive experience. We worked closely with product managers to identify the most critical information users would need in a dashboard. Our goal was to surface relevant insights and actionable items at a glance, enabling users to quickly understand and resolve tasks with minimal friction.


    After several rounds of iteration, we landed on a solution that provides users with a high-level overview of their document status, recently viewed documents, eSignature statuses, key dates for any contracts they are tracking, items that require approval and review, and a summary of the number of documents that are tagged or actively being tracked. As part of this process, we ensured that each of these dashboard elements was supported by reliable data and linked to a corresponding landing page, allowing users to dive deeper into each category when needed.


    Final Dashboard Design

    Final dashboard design showcasing the integrated data and quick-access actions.

    Outcomes & Learnings

    I collaborated closely with two separate development teams to deliver multiple iterations of the dashboard, refining the experience through continuous feedback and usability validation. Our efforts supported the successful launch of a new premium product line, rolled out to 100% of the user base. Since launch, the dashboard has seen consistent engagement, averaging 12,000 monthly page visits. Within the first year, it contributed to the addition of 170 premium accounts—including upgrades, renewals, and new logo acquisitions—highlighting both business impact and user adoption. Working closely with cross-functional partners taught me how to align across teams while maintaining design consistency and quality. It also reinforced the importance of collaborative, data-informed, and iterative design.