TechShare Court
Modernizing government with an end-to-end solution for managing every aspect of the court system
Role
UX Lead
Industry
Govtech
Duration
14 months
Scope
Contextual interviews, stakeholder interviews, information architecture, wireframing, UI kit + style guide, high-fidelity design, prototyping, development
The Challenge
Courts rely on diverse teams of professionals including clerks, coordinators, auditors, and accountants to manage complex operations that keep the justic system moving. These teams handle everything from payment processing and docket scheduling to warrant issuance.
In Tarrant County, Texas, outdated software and paper-based processes were creating significant friction. Staff were losing valuable time navigating legacy tools, while manual processes introduced risk of errors when handling sensitive legal information.
Outdated legacy software was difficult to learn and ripe for errors
Streamlining complexity
The existing systems forced users to jump between multiple tools and navigate convoluted nested menus to complete basic tasks. We streamlined the information architecture to create clearer pathways and reduce cognitive load.
We conducted a comprehensive functionality audit, created an optimized sitemap through iterative collaboration with subject matter experts, and ideated around multiple navigation patterns. We ultimately implemented a global top navigation and contextual side navigation for subsections.
We knew from user research that keyboard navigation was critical to many users' workflows, so we integrated keyboard shortcuts throughout the interface to support these power users.
Creating a framework
We created wireframes for critical pages and user flows to establish the structural foundation. Working within TechShare's Agile approach and tight timelines, we prioritized creating a development-ready framework that could evolve as we refined visual design and expanded functionality.
Through collaborative working sessions and design reviews with stakeholders and subject matter experts, we iteratively refined the wireframes to ensure they met both user needs and technical constraints.
Standardizing styles + components
Once we had established the new information architecture and site framwork, we developed a comprehensive design system centered on clarity and clean styles. All components met AAA accessibility guidelines to ensure the system was usable by all court personnel.
The system included a library of reusable components that accelerated both design and development workflows, as well as global guidelines for typography, color, and interaction patterns. It also served as a scalable foundation that enabled TechShare to maintain consistency across future feature releases and extend the system to additional tools in their suite of solutions.
Key workflow improvements
Surfacing + connecting critical information
Court clerks need to manage case-specific warrants while maintaining visibility into a defendant's complete warrant history. Previously, this information was scattered across disconnected systems, creating opportunities for missed information and conflicting or duplicative warrants.
We solved this by implementing contextual alerts that appear in case views when defendants have other active warrants. These alerts link directly to comprehensive warrant histories within defendant profiles, giving users immediate access to complete information and reducing the risk of errors.
Within case details, an alert indicates the defendant has other active warrants
From case details, user can go directly to defendant's full warrant history
Digitizing physical workflows
Evidence and exhibit management is critical to criminal court cases, but their process was highly manual and involved hand-labeling items, storing them in warehouse containers, and maintaining handwritten records in case files. This created significant risk for errors and lost documentation.
We designed an exhibit management system that mirrors the physical warehouse organization and allows users to associate exhibits with multiple cases, track destruction dates, and manage storage locations with comprehensive metadata for each item.
A drag-and-drop interface enables users to group items into containers and move them between locations, directly reflecting the physical storage process while providing the accuracy and traceability that paper systems couldn't offer.
Exhibit management mirrors how exhibits are handled in the real world
Impact + outcomes
The TechShare Court system launched successfully in Tarrant County, receiving positive feedback from clerks, coordinators, and court staff. The solution significantly reduced error rates and accelerated case processing timelines, directly addressing the operational challenges we identified in our research. Based on these results, TechShare is working to expand the system to additional Texas counties.
The scalable design system we developed has also been extended to support a public-facing citizen portal and internal analytics tools, speeding up their development cycle and allowing them to create usable, modern interfaces across their suite of tools.