Workflow Automation (WIP)

Improving an internal design briefing workflow by transforming complex stakeholder requirements into a clear, user-centred experience.

Role

UX Lead (Initiative-led project alongside my Graphic Designer role)

Industry

Internal team - Public Sector

Duration

March 2026 - Present

Sharepoint Workflow hero image

As part of Christchurch City Council's organisation-wide Modernisation Programme, our Design Team's briefing system was migrated from old platform to SharePoint using Nintex Forms.

The migration introduced significant usability issues. Internal staff experienced a more complicated submission process, while our Design Team struggled to communicate on time or efficiently with clients without the automated emails we had.

I recognised this as a user experience problem rather than simply a technical issue. I proactively proposed leading the discovery and workflow design to help align stakeholders and improve the future experience.

Research & Discovery

I started with understanding the entire workflow, and documented three separate journeys:

01 Existing workflow

How the original briefing process worked before the system migration.

02 Current workflow

How the new SharePoint/Nintex process behaved after migration.

This helped identify:

  • duplicated actions

  • unnecessary complexity

  • broken interactions

  • inconsistent system behaviour

03 Future Workflow

A simplified end-to-end experience representing how the process should ideally work for both requesters and the Design Team.


Journey Mapping and Hi-fi Design

I translated a complex workflow into a clear visual representation showing:

  • user actions

  • system responses

  • decision points

  • pain points

  • opportunities

I also created a high-fidelity design of the future briefing form in Figma. It served as a communication tool that allowed developers and stakeholders to visualise exactly how the future workflow should function.


Prioritising by user impact

Rather than requesting every improvement simultaneously, features were grouped according to urgency and business impact.

Priority 1

Critical system failures

  • Email notifications not being sent after form submission

Priority 2

Workflow improvements

  • Simplifying the form

  • Removing duplicated fields

  • Improving information hierarchy

Priority 3

Future enhancements

Additional usability improvements identified during journey mapping.

Early Impact

While the redesigned workflow has not yet been released, several positive outcomes have already been observed.

✔ Improved stakeholder alignment

✔ Faster understanding of project requirements

✔ Reduced reliance on lengthy meetings

✔ Clearer feature prioritisation

✔ Stronger collaboration between Design, Digital Channels and Development teams

Most importantly, the project transformed a complex collection of verbal requests into a shared visual roadmap that everyone could understand.

Current Status

Work in Progress.

The development team is currently implementing the highest-priority issues, beginning with restoring critical email notifications before moving on to improvements.

Reflection

This project reinforced an important lesson for me: good UX is not only about designing interfaces - it is about creating clarity.

By visualising workflows, user journeys and future-state concepts, I was able to transform a complex collection of verbal requirements into a shared understanding across multiple teams.

Although implementation is still in progress, this experience demonstrated how UX methods can create value long before a product is built.

Other projects

Copyright 2026 by Melody Dai

Copyright 2026 by Melody Dai

Copyright 2026 by Melody Dai