Reimagining the Reporting Experience

Project Type

UX Research & Platform Redesign

Company

Allied Solutions × Purdue Experience Studio

Duration

August – December 2025

Role

UX Designer, Researcher & Storytelling Lead

Lending Insights was a semester-long redesign project completed in Purdue's Experience Studio. Working with Allied Solutions, our team reimagined a legacy reporting platform used by financial institutions, focusing on helping users create and customize reports more independently. The project challenged us to balance complex business requirements with an experience that felt approachable, efficient, and easy to understand.

What did I do?

I contributed throughout the entire design process, including research synthesis, UX recommendations, presentation strategy, and stakeholder communication. As the project progressed, I naturally stepped into a leadership role, helping guide decisions, facilitate discussions, and ensure our design recommendations remained grounded in user needs. For our final presentation, I created the primary user persona, developed the user scenario, and led the storytelling that brought our research findings and solutions to life.

imagine you need a custom report, but creating one feels harder than finding the insights within it.

What is this Lending Insights?

Lending Insights is Allied Solutions' business intelligence platform that helps financial institutions analyze lending data, generate reports, and uncover trends. The platform serves as a critical tool for understanding lending operations, making accurate reporting both essential and frequently used.

Who did I work with?

I worked alongside a multidisciplinary team of designers and researchers while collaborating directly with Allied Solutions stakeholders. Throughout the project, we continuously gathered feedback to ensure our solutions aligned with both business needs and real user frustrations.

the process

Helping users build and customize reports without relying on internal support teams.

Many users struggled to create reports independently due to confusing terminology, inconsistent organization, overwhelming interfaces, and limited customization capabilities. Tasks that should have been straightforward often required additional support, creating frustration and reducing efficiency.

how might we create a reporting experience that empowers users to customize, understand, and manage reports independently?

Key Focus

Our team focused on improving user confidence throughout the reporting process. Research revealed that users often felt uncertain about the impact of their actions, whether filters had been applied correctly, and how to modify existing reports. We wanted to remove that uncertainty by creating a clearer workflow, improving visibility into system behavior, and providing users with greater flexibility over how they viewed and managed their data. Ultimately, our goal was to make reporting feel like a self-service experience rather than one that required assistance.

Our team focused on improving user confidence throughout the reporting process. Research revealed that users often felt uncertain about the impact of their actions, whether filters had been applied correctly, and how to modify existing reports. We wanted to remove that uncertainty by creating a clearer workflow, improving visibility into system behavior, and providing users with greater flexibility over how they viewed and managed their data. Ultimately, our goal was to make reporting feel like a self-service experience rather than one that required assistance.

How did I solve the problem?

How did I solve the problem?

My contributions centered around understanding user pain points, helping synthesize research findings, and translating insights into actionable design recommendations. I also worked closely with the team to frame our solution in a way that clearly connected user challenges to our design decisions. Beyond contributing to the redesign itself, I focused heavily on communicating the value of our work through storytelling, helping ensure our recommendations were easy for stakeholders to understand, evaluate, and support.

My contributions centered around understanding user pain points, helping synthesize research findings, and translating insights into actionable design recommendations. I also worked closely with the team to frame our solution in a way that clearly connected user challenges to our design decisions. Beyond contributing to the redesign itself, I focused heavily on communicating the value of our work through storytelling, helping ensure our recommendations were easy for stakeholders to understand, evaluate, and support.

What stands out about my design process here?

What stands out about my design process here?

One of the most interesting aspects of this project was exploring how AI could support the reporting process without taking control away from users. Rather than treating AI as a replacement for reporting workflows, we envisioned it as a tool that could simplify customization, reduce complexity, and help users achieve their goals more efficiently. This allowed us to think beyond solving today's problems and begin designing for how reporting experiences may evolve in the future.

One of the most interesting aspects of this project was exploring how AI could support the reporting process without taking control away from users. Rather than treating AI as a replacement for reporting workflows, we envisioned it as a tool that could simplify customization, reduce complexity, and help users achieve their goals more efficiently. This allowed us to think beyond solving today's problems and begin designing for how reporting experiences may evolve in the future.

but, why?

Reporting tools exist to help users make decisions with confidence. When the process of building a report becomes confusing, users spend more time navigating the tool than analyzing the information it provides. This project reinforced the importance of designing systems that make complexity feel manageable, allowing users to focus on their goals rather than the software itself.

throughout the design process, being able to answer the "why" is very important.

What did I learn?

Leadership Looks Different Than I Expected

Coming into the project, I expected leadership to involve directing decisions and assigning work. Instead, I learned that effective leadership often means facilitating conversations, creating alignment, and helping others succeed. Taking on a larger leadership role pushed me outside of my comfort zone and strengthened my confidence in guiding a team through ambiguity.

Storytelling Is Just as Important as the Design

One of my biggest takeaways was realizing how much a strong narrative can impact the success of a project. After receiving feedback that our story and user context needed improvement, I focused on creating a more human-centered presentation that connected our research, design decisions, and outcomes. This experience taught me that even the best design work needs a compelling story behind it to create understanding and buy-in.

For more context

Please feel free to reference the project documentation and final presentation for additional details. If you would like to learn more about my specific contributions or discuss the project further, feel free to reach out to me!

Project Documentation

Project Documentation

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