From PoC to Pilot: UX on a Budget
Transforming a confusing form into a pilot-ready experience
Client: Canada-based professional certifying body
Role: Product Designer
Context
A professional certifying body asked us to create a digital form tool to help applicants document their practical experience. The initial proof of concept (PoC) met technical needs but was built without design input, leaving major usability issues. I was brought in to turn it into something clear, intuitive, and pilot-ready.
Challenge: The original design was a long, confusing single-form interface. Users didn’t know where to start, what was required, or how to move forward. On top of that, we had a tight timeline, a limited budget, and were working within the constraints of Power Pages with no access to end users.
Constraints: We were limited by a tight shared pool of hours and the restricted functionality available in Power Pages.
Approach
Research & Discovery
To better understand the user needs, I conducted detailed interviews with stakeholders and conducted secondary research on the certification process to better understand user needs. I then conducted a heuristics audit of the webpage to identify areas for usability improvements
Main pain points identified:
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Long and overwhelming form: All form sections, including access to 20 subsections, were all on one page. Stakeholders expressed that it woasn't clear which subforms corresponded to certain categories, and that it was "just too much at once".
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Lack of clarity on mandatory sections: The user needed to complete 2 mandatory sections in order, and at least one of the optional subsections, but this wasn't clear from the interface.
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Unclear order of steps: Stakholders expressed that there was no clear chronological order for the form sections, even though they should be completed in a particular order for successful use of the tool.
Design
Understanding what was possible in Microsoft Power Pages was a key part of this design process, and I worked very closely with the developer when creating my wireframes and mockups. We had to come up with some creative workaround for things like a tabbed structure. Between the limitations of Power Pages, low development budget, and a lot of copy from the client to incoporate, we had to make some compromises along the way.
Key design decision
I decided to convert the lengthy form into a multi-step, wizard-like experience. In this way information was presented to the user in smaller chunks, and tasks built upon each other in a logical order. This helped reduce cognitive load and made the experience feel more manageable and intuitive.
With no access to users for feedback and testing, I leaned on developer collaboration, peer design reviews and client feedback to validate and refine the design.
Where we had to compromise in development
With the rigid functionality of Power Pages and extremely lmited budget to spend on more custom workarounds, we had to let go of some of the finer points of the UI. For example, there were no native tab components so we used buttons as a workaround. Our budget also required us to eliminate features such as the at-a-glance dial view of how many competency sections the user had completed.
Outcome
The redesigned tool was well-received, even impressing a stakeholder known for being hard to please. The client used the new design as-is for the pilot and later engaged us for further enhancements. While I couldn't review the user feedback, i heard from the client that the tool performed very well in the pilot and they were pleased with the results.
Even more rewarding: the developer shared that my design input cut his dev time in half. By iterating on mockups rather than live builds, we saved time, avoided frustration, and stayed on budget.
What I learned
This project was a lesson in working fast and lean. With such a limited budget and timeline, I had to quickly learn to prioritize ruthlessly and advocate for the improvements that mattered most to the user experience. I had to learn when to stand firm on a core part of the design—and when to step back and recognize that, even if something felt essential at first, other priorities had to come first.
What I’m most proud of
Honestly, I’m most proud of how I collaborated with the developer and the great working relationship we built. Our partnership helped us work around tech limitations and avoid wasted effort. We made a great team and have partnered on several more successful low-code projects together since.