Internal Revenue Service
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Electronic Case Management System
This project centered on the design of the IRS’s electronic case management system, an internal platform used to track, process, and resolve a wide range of tax-related cases.
I worked alongside BAs, developers, and IRS technical staff across multiple teams. My responsibilities included creating mockups and prototypes, as well as ensuring design consistency across the platform.
Role
As a Product Designer, I translated business requirements into visuals, improved UI consistency, and ensured accessibility standards.
Industry
Governement
Tools
Justinmind, Pega
The visuals presented are conceptual mockups created to represent the type of work I contributed to on the project. They do not reflect actual screens or confidential information from the project.
Business Objectives
Our team was responsible for improving existing screens and designing new workflows from the ground up. Some interfaces had been built directly from business requirements, resulting in layouts that were functional but lacked clarity, consistency, and usability. Other areas had no existing UI at all, requiring us to define structure and flow from scratch.
These gaps created friction for users, tasks were harder to complete. For the IRS, this impacted efficiency and increased the need for support and training. Our goal was to deliver thoughtful, user-centered designs that streamlined workflows and supported long-term scalability.
Process
Understand the Domain
Reviewed platform constraints, IRS terminology, and complex workflows with BAs to align on user needs and backend logic.
Translate Requirements
Used provided specs to create mockups that improved layout, hierarchy, and accessibility while aligning with modular components.
Collaborate & Refine
Worked in Agile sprints alongside developers to clarify intent, catch issues early, and adapt designs based on technical input.
Extend the System
Designed net-new screens and proposed design extensions that aligned with existing patterns while solving workflow gaps.
Research
Formal user research and usability testing were outside the scope of this project. However, I gained insights through ongoing collaboration with client stakeholders and subject matter experts. We reviewed our progress and captured feedback that often revealed user pain points, such as unclear labels, misaligned groupings, or overwhelming screen layouts.
This frequent feedback loop served as a stand-in for traditional research methods and played a vital role in shaping design decisions sprint by sprint.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
This project required ongoing coordination with developers, business analysts, and subject matter experts with in-depth knowledge of IRS workflows. I participated in daily Agile stand-ups and sprint ceremonies, where we aligned on priorities, discussed implementation constraints, and reviewed work in progress.
In DCO (Direct Capture of Objectives) sessions, I collaborated with engineers and IRS technical staff to capture evolving requirements and validate screen behavior. These sessions were key to ensuring the user experience aligned with real-world tasks, especially when building new workflows from scratch.
This regular feedback loop helped reduce miscommunication, prevent rework, and ensured that UX improvements remained grounded in both technical feasibility and business context.
Design
When assigned new screens, I was typically provided with a functional spec and/or a baseline wireframe from the BA. From there, I would assess the intent behind each layout and redesign the structure to improve flow, clarity, and hierarchy. My designs served as detailed references for developers and helped bridge the gap between functional requirements and user-centered solutions.
Key decisions involved structuring grouped fields logically, applying clear labeling, improving spacing for scanability, and reusing visual patterns to support consistency. While we worked within a component-based framework, I frequently adapted layouts and styling decisions to support new workflow needs and improve legibility.
I collaborated daily with developers and participated in Agile ceremonies, including sprint planning, standups, and retros. This iterative process was critical for surfacing edge cases early and minimizing rework during implementation.
Business Analyst's layout: Functional structure outlining key requirements.
My contribution: A refined mockup translating requirements into an intuitive, developer-friendly UI.
Features & Flows
During my time on the project, I contributed to the design for several core workflows.
One focus area was the taxpayer audit process, where I helped shape screens used by agents to review and track compliance issues. These interfaces supported step-by-step data entry, case notes, and status updates to ensure consistency and auditability across complex reviews.
I also worked extensively on the grant application lifecycle, including:
A workflow to assess application strength and weaknesses, helping determine eligibility, scoring, and funding.
A Quick Close path to streamline the closing of ineligible, incomplete, or duplicate applications.
A Case Reopen flow that included conditional routing for manager review and approval, enabling oversight without slowing down high-priority work.
Across these efforts, I translated business requirements into clean, accessible layouts, adapting and extending the design system as needed to support new screen types and user needs.
Results
The designs I contributed helped reduce confusion and improved consistency across an increasingly complex platform. My work led to smoother development cycles and clearer user flows. Mockups and prototypes provided developers with actionable, visual context, which improved build accuracy and reduced the need for clarifications or design rework post-sprint.
Stakeholder feedback was consistently positive. For me, this project reinforced the value of collaboration in Agile environments and the importance of clear, accessible design even within the constraints of enterprise platforms like Pega.
The visuals presented are conceptual mockups created to represent the type of work I contributed to on the project. They do not reflect actual screens or confidential information from the project.