Case study

Improving Efficiency in a Customer Support Operations Tool

This project focused on improving the efficiency of an internal customer support operations tool used by employees to resolve user issues and manage payment-related incidents.

The goal was to understand how the tool was being used and identify opportunities to streamline workflows, reduce friction, and improve overall usability.

My Role

User Experience Research
UI Design and interaction improvements
Collaboration with product and engineering

Team

UX Designer, Product Manager, Engineering team

01 — The Challenge

Understanding real user behavior and identifying how to make their workflows faster and more efficient

The Admin UI tool was originally developed in 2018 to support customer service and engineering teams. However, since its launch, no data had been collected on its usage or effectiveness.

By 2024, key questions emerged:

Is the tool still useful?

Are users relying on it daily?

Where are the inefficiencies?

Should it be improved or deprecated?

02 — Framing the Opportunity

Improve speed, clarity, and accessibility without disrupting existing workflows

We identified three key opportunity areas:

The tool is critical for daily operations

Users rely heavily on it to resolve customer issues

However, key workflows are slow and inefficient

Key insights:

Users take too long to locate specific payments

Important data is not easily visible at a glance

Navigation and data structures create friction

03 — Approach

Users had adapted to the tool—but not because it was efficient, rather because they had no alternative.

📊 Surveys

To validate whether users actively used the tool

To identify strengths and weaknesses

To understand perceived value

🎤 User Interviews

To deep dive into workflows

To identify pain points and inefficiencies

To understand how users navigate the platform

02 — Users

🧑‍💻

Customer Support Team

Daily users of the Admin UI
Handle customer queries and onboarding issues
Frequently search for payments and investigate errors

Needs:

Fast access to payment data
Clear visibility of relevant information
Efficient navigation

👩‍🔧

Engineers

Use the tool when incidents occur
Focus on identifying errors and error codes
Resolve issues outside the tool

Needs:

Quick access to technical details
Minimal navigation friction
Clear error visibility

05 — The Problem

Key Problems Identified

Slow Payment Search Finding a payment takes too long

Low Data Visibility Important fields are hard to identify

Inefficient Tables Poor structure and readability

Limited Context Hard to narrow down results quickly

Navigation Friction Users lose context when exploring data

06 — THE SOLUTION

We redesigned key workflows focusing on speed, clarity, and flexibility, while keeping the experience familiar to users.

Advanced Search & Filtering

Search was consistently identified as the biggest pain point across all interviews Users often searched with incomplete information, making the process inefficient.

Introduced a flexible search that doesn’t require exact field matching events.

* Standardized filters across the platform

* Aligned terminology with backend/API language

* Linked relevant API documentation directly in the UI

👉 Result: Better focus on critical information

Advanced Search & Filtering

To support high-pressure workflows, we redesigned the layout to prioritize critical information and reduce visual noise.

Cleaned up table design

Ability to add, remove, and reorder columns

"How will this affect my portfolio balance?"
"What should I consider before making this trade?"

Optimized data table layout with customizable columns and improved visual hierarchy for payment records

Flexible Data Views

Enabled users to customize tables by adding, removing, and reordering columns

Simplified table structure to improve readability

Impact:Users can tailor the interface to their workflow, improving efficiency and reducing cognitive load.

Flexible data view with customizable table structure showing payment details and status indicators

Prioritizing Critical Information

Key data points were previously hard to identify, slowing down decision-making.

* Highlighted payment status (e.g., failed, successful)

* Introduced color coding for faster scanning

Added inline filters to quickly refine results

Impact: Reduced time to identify issues and minimized errors during investigations.

Prioritized information display with color-coded payment statuses and highlighted key fields for quick scanning

Maintaining Context During Navigation

Users frequently needed to review multiple payments before identifying the correct one.

* Enabled opening payment details without losing the list view

Impact: Improved workflow continuity and reduced repetitive navigation.

Side panel showing payment details while maintaining the list view, enabling users to navigate without losing context

07 — MVP Definition & Roadmap

To ensure we delivered value quickly while minimizing disruption to existing workflows, we structured the project into three phases, progressively moving from validation to execution.

PHASE — 1

Validation & Discovery

We first needed to understand whether the tool was still relevant and worth investing in.

* Is the platform actively used?

* Who are the primary users?

* What are the most common workflows?

* Where are the biggest inefficiencies?

Outcome: The tool was critical to daily operations, but significant usability issues were slowing users down. This validated the need for improvement rather than deprecation.

PHASE — 2

Problem Framing & Prioritization

With clear evidence of value, we focused on identifying where improvements would have the highest impact.

* What tasks are most critical for users?

* Where do users spend the most time?

* What creates the most friction?

We prioritized core workflows:

Searching for payments

Reviewing payment details

Navigating between results

Outcome: We defined a focused scope centered on speed, visibility, and navigation efficiency—targeting the highest-impact pain points first.

PHASE — 3

Solution Design & Iteration

We translated insights into solutions, prioritizing based on impact vs. effort.

Quick wins (e.g., improved table readability, better hierarchy)

Mid-level improvements (filters, layout restructuring).

Larger changes (flexible UI, navigation patterns)

Outcome: A phased rollout strategy that delivered immediate usability improvements while setting the foundation for more advanced features.

05 — Outcomes

Improved Speed, Visibility, and Workflow Efficiency

Faster search and retrieval of payment information
Improved data visibility reducing support resolution time
Streamlined navigation reducing user friction
Greater team confidence in using the tool daily

06 — Key Takeaways

Research uncovers hidden value

Without data on usage, tools become stagnant. Research revealed the tool's importance and guided focused improvements.

Users adapt, but that's not enough

Workarounds are not solutions. Designing for efficiency means reducing effort, not just enabling tasks.

Internal tools deserve design attention

Improving internal tools directly impacts team performance, morale, and the quality of service delivered to customers.

07 — What I'd Improve Next

Always room to grow

east Introduce proactive alerts for failed or delayed payments

east Continue optimizing workflow speed through usability testing

east Explore role-based views to reduce information overload

east Evaluate extending the platform to provide customer-facing visibility into payment status

Closing Thought

Designing internal tools is about empowering teams to perform at their best.

By improving clarity, speed, and usability, we transformed a tool users had adapted to into one that truly supports their work.