Industry overview
What is shaping information services
Data, ratings and information providers need to understand what users actually need, keep their data fresh and size new opportunities accurately.
- Users want timely, verified data in their workflow
- Data collection at scale needs strong quality control
- New products need validation before launch
Client background
A legal research database, working in India. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A legal research database
- Sector
- Information services
- Team engaged
- IT & Development
- Services
- UI/UX design, Qualitative research, Web application development
Client challenge
Lawyers found search results hard to filter, slowing research. Junior lawyers in particular spent long hours searching, and some firms were considering competing products. Lawyers complained that finding relevant judgments took too long, and some firms were considering competing platforms.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: improving search for a legal information platform.
- Define requirements and success criteria the solution would be tested against.
- Deliver a reliable, secure solution the team can run and extend.
Target audience
Scope: 25 sessions.
Audiences we typically reach in information services
Data users and analystsSubscribers and enterprise buyersData contributorsProspectsPartners
Geographic coverage
Coverage: India. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
An iterative delivery approach: discovery, design, build and test in short cycles, with the client reviewing each step.
- 1Brief
- 2Lawyer interviews
- 3Search usability testing
- 4Insight
We observed lawyers searching for cases and statutes, then redesigned filters and results. Sessions were held with lawyers at large firms, small practices and in-house legal teams, each completing real research tasks. We redesigned search filters, result previews and citation links, then tested the new design with the same users. Prototype changes were tested with the same lawyers before development.
UI/UX designQualitative researchWeb application development
Sampling strategy
- Users and stakeholders from every affected team took part in discovery workshops and acceptance testing.
Data collection
- sessions
- 25
- Requirements were gathered through workshops, process walk-throughs and a review of existing systems and data.
Data quality & validation
- Peer code review on every change
- Automated and manual testing
- User-acceptance testing with the client
- Release checklist and rollback plan
Data analysis
- Usage and performance monitoring after launch
- Defect and support-ticket trends
- Process time before and after
Key findings
- Research tasks became faster in testing, and subscribers responded positively.
Observing real tasks guided practical improvements.
Recommendations
- The platform also added saved searches and alerts requested during sessions.
- Track adoption and support tickets, and plan the next release from real usage.
What we recommended, and the client put into practice
Business impact
- Renewals improved among firms that had considered switching, and the publisher used the redesign in its marketing.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Interview summaries and key verbatims
- Deployed solution with documentation and handover
- Support and maintenance plan
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: how accurate and fresh is the data?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.