Simplifying a complex tax workflow for businesses
Managing tax obligations involves dense regulations, multiple data sources, and little room for error. I helped redesign a complex enterprise workflow that made tax calculations easier to understand, easier to review, and more approachable for everyday users.
Overview
Role
Product Designer (partnered with one additional Product Designer)
Duration
Multiple product sprints
Team
Product Manager, Product Designer, Engineering Team
My Responsibilities
UX strategy, workflow design, UX/UI design, prototyping, design system contributions, developer collaboration
Outcome
Redesigned a complex tax workflow that helped users navigate complicated information with greater clarity and confidence.
The Problem
Tax software is only valuable if people trust it.
Tax professionals and business users worked with large amounts of financial information where even small mistakes could have significant consequences. The existing experience exposed users to dense tables, unfamiliar terminology, and complex workflows that increased cognitive load and made it difficult to confidently complete tasks. The challenge wasn't teaching users tax law. It was helping them complete complicated work with clarity and confidence.
Understanding the Challenge
As we explored the product, one insight became clear. The complexity wasn't caused by the calculations themselves. It was caused by how information was organized. Users spent valuable time trying to understand what they were looking at before they could make informed decisions. That shifted our focus from simplifying tax rules to simplifying how users interacted with them.
My Role
I partnered with another Product Designer to redesign key workflows across the platform. Working closely with Product and Engineering, we evaluated existing experiences, identified opportunities to reduce complexity, and designed interactions that helped users navigate large amounts of financial information more efficiently.
Key Decision #1
Organize information around user goals
Rather than presenting every available piece of data equally, we prioritized the information users needed most for each task. Grouping related content and improving hierarchy helped users focus on decision-making instead of searching for information.
Key Decision #2
Reduce cognitive load through progressive disclosure
Many workflows required users to review detailed financial information. Instead of exposing every option at once, we progressively revealed supporting details as users needed them. This created a cleaner interface while preserving access to advanced functionality.
Key Decision #3
Improve confidence through consistency
In enterprise software, users often complete the same workflows repeatedly. We introduced more consistent interaction patterns across screens so users could rely on familiar behaviors rather than relearning the interface as they moved through the product. The result was a more predictable and approachable experience.
Final Solution
An enterprise experience designed around clarity
The redesigned workflows helped users move through complex tax processes with greater confidence by improving information hierarchy, reducing unnecessary complexity, and creating more consistent interactions throughout the product. Rather than simplifying the underlying regulations, the design simplified how people worked with them.
Workflow Dashboard
Clear organization helps users quickly understand the status of their work and prioritize next steps.
Detailed Review
Complex financial information is presented with improved hierarchy, making important details easier to identify.
Guided Workflow
Information is progressively revealed to reduce cognitive load without limiting access to advanced functionality.
Consistent Components
Shared interaction patterns improve learnability across the product while supporting efficient, repeatable workflows.
Impact
This project demonstrated how thoughtful interaction design can make highly specialized software more approachable without sacrificing the depth that expert users require. By focusing on clarity instead of reducing functionality, we created an experience that supported confidence in high-stakes work.
Reflection
One of the biggest lessons from this project was that complexity isn't always something you can remove. Sometimes the complexity is inherent to the domain.
The designer's role is to organize that complexity in a way that helps users understand what matters, make informed decisions, and complete their work with confidence.
