Team
3 supervisors
2 operations specialists
1 team lead
My Role
Operations specialist
Qualitative research
Design
Duration
4 months
Background and Problem
Imagine navigating constant procedural changes that impact over 10 data entry tasks for a team of 40 people—how can we ensure that accuracy doesn’t get lost along the way?
The Challenge: Frequent Errors, No Clear Resource
As a data entry clerk, I often found myself—and many of my teammates—struggling to keep up with frequent procedural changes. During our weekly team meetings, reminders about tasking errors were a regular occurrence, typically flagged by the registry we supported.
While we had a shared OneNote with a tasking chart and that outlined all of our procedures; a lot of the content was outdated and it was not easy to quickly scan or navigate. This made myself and the team very reliant on the operations specialist to answer all our questions especially when any procedural changes were implemented.
When I was given the opportunity to act as an operations specialist for the team I was super excited to use my UX skills to improve the usability of the OneNote.
Legend:
BOC: Basis of Claim Form
CCI: Counsel Contact Information
CMO: Case Management Officer
CPU: Central Processing Unit
EOT: Extension of Time
DOH: Date of Hearing
NCCI: Notification of Client Contact Information
RO: Registry Officer
RAD: Refugee Appeal Division
RPD: Refugee Protection Division
*Specific tasking groups/assigned users have been replaced with generic titles
Tasking Chart Before
Understanding the Team's Workflow and Responsibilities
As a data entry clerk on the team, the expectation is to create approximately 70 entries a day, with each entry tasked to the corresponding registry team and case officer for action.
Our team is responsible for entering documents for 20 teams throughout the organization spanning across 3 divisions, each with their own specific procedures for tasking and handling of documents.
Where to Begin?
Having been a long time user of the OneNote and member of the team, I knew exactly what the user’s-in this case the team’s needs were. I knew to increase efficiency within the team and reduce data entry/tasking errors I would have to significantly improve the scanability of the OneNote.
I began my research by asking ChatGPT how to increase the scanability of a document:
The suggestions that stood out to me were:
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Use headings and subheadings
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White space
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Readable fonts
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Consistent formatting
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Using bolded fonts
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Visual elements
Enhancing Scanability Through Typography and Visual Hierarchy
I started by changing the font from the default Calibri to Arial as I found that Arial is the best font for reading and quickly scanning content.
I added visual hierarchy by using bold headings and subheadings to make the content easier to scan.
I started by making these changes to the tasking chart which is the most commonly used section then made sure the formatting was consistent across the entire OneNote.
Legend:
BOC: Basis of Claim Form
CMO: Case Management Officer
CPU: Central Processing Unit
EOT: Extension of Time
DOH: Date of Hearing
RO: Registry Officer
RPD: Refugee Protection Division
*Specific tasking groups/assigned users have been replaced with generic titles
Tasking Chart After a UX Makeover
Conducting a Content Audit and Visual Refresh
After applying these changes, I conducted an audit of the OneNote and noted each section that needed to be updated. I rewrote the procedures that were outdated and updated all of the visuals in the OneNote including screenshots.
I created charts to add visual elements such as a chart including examples of all the documents that we receive from IRCC and CBSA.
Chart Including Examples of Documents we Receive from IRCC/CBSA
Impact and Results: Significant Reduction in Tasking Errors
After implementing the changes in OneNote, tasking errors reported by the registry dropped from 5–10 per day to less than 5 per week.
I asked one of the supervisors on our team what the difference was in tasking errors and she estimated there was a 50% reduction in tasking errors and inquiries from the team. She noted that team members have been able to pick up on newly trained tasks faster as well.
When I asked the operations specialist on the registry side for an estimation of the impact my changes made she estimated a 70% reduction in tasking errors.
I also received a lot of positive feedback from the team who said my changes made it significantly easier for them to navigate the OneNote.
