Product Designer
UX Redesign
2025
Configuration of critical risk matrix made easier
Users relied on a configurable risk matrix to assess and manage critical operational risk. While powerful, the existing configuration experience proved to be increasingly difficult to navigate as business requirements evolved.
After doing secondary research and cognitive walkthroughs, I redesigned the end to end flow that resulted in a more intuitive and interactive risk matrix configuration application.
Challenge
The challenge was to rethink the workflow entirely. I had to reduce unnecessary interactions, improve visual feedback, and create a more intuitive way to configure complex risk models.
Goal
Reimagine risk matrix configuration as an interactive workspace rather than a form-driven setup process. The goal was to reduce cognitive effort, provide immediate visual feedback, and enable users to configure complex risk models through intuitive, direct manipulation of the matrix itself.
Outcome
Delivered an efficient and visually intuitive configuration experience that significantly reduced interaction effort. The number of clicks reduced drastically. Users could now configure matrix values and risk thresholds through direct, interactive actions, making complex risk setups easier to understand, maintain, and validate.
Research
Heuristic Evaluation
I initially navigated through the application to note down my observations from the 10 principles of heuristics.
Some key observations:
Aesthetic and Minimalist Design: I found that the screens lacked visual hierarchy confusing the users with multiple actions.
Match Between the System and the Real World: The system did not follow real-world conventions, making information appear scattered.
Error Prevention: The system provided users with unclear errors that required users to go back to debug what was missed.
Flexibility and Efficiency of Use: Users had to go through 2-3 clicks to view and edit configured values.
Cognitive Walkthrough
I conducted 2 rounds of cognitive walkthroughs with the Subject Matter Experts to understand and record the key pain points they faced. This gave me a clearer idea of the existing gap between what lacked at the application level and user understanding.
As the users performed tasks of configuring the matrix a common frustration was observed with the placement of risk threshold lines where adding values became increasingly difficult.
A common note by these users was that there were too many clicks involved.
Market Research
Key Pain Points
At First glance
1. Configuring the matrix felt more like data entry than visual mapping
When the user defines a matrix the essential actions such as configuring the X and Y axes required users to discover and navigate through collapsed sections before making progress. Then on clicking the "Add" button a dialog box opens up hiding the matrix behind it.
One major interaction pain point is the "Descending" option. If users have already entered axis values and later choose to invert them by selecting "Descending," all previously entered values are erased. This forces users to start over and makes what should be a simple adjustment feel unnecessarily frustrating.
2. High interaction cost for large-scale updates
Imagine you have created a 20x20 matrix. Now imagine you have to click on every single box to apply the semantic colours. A true nightmare.
3. Users pointed out that it was frustrating to draw Risk threshold lines
Firstly, the matrix is hidden behind the dialog box. Secondly, the terminology used in the input fields can be confusing, as users may need to go back and reference the matrix to understand where the risk lines are positioned.
If any mistakes occur during configuration, users have to close the dialog, reopen it, and reconfigure the values, making the process unnecessarily a hassle.
4. No real-time visual feedback
If you have to add or change a value, for example in the risk threshold lines, you have to
Click on risk threshold line -> opens up a dialog -> enter values -> save and close dialog -> check reflected values.
The users had to repeatedly save and verify their changes because of the dialog restricting the matrix view.
Final Redesign Decisions
Introducing an artboard-style approach
After multiple brainstorming sessions with the product/business team, I proposed the Idea of introducing an artboard-style approach that mimicked a real-time editing experience, allowing users to see updates applied to the matrix instantly as they configured it. This concept was well received and I was encouraged to move forward with an iterative design approach. Here are the key decisions that shaped this redesign.
1. Introduced a structured configuration flow
Introducing the artboard style approach allowed intuitive placement of buttons to configure the X & Y Axis while viewing the real-time changes.
Introduced easy hover & click interactions while setting the rows * columns.
2. Enabled interactive matrix editing
Allowed users to instantly preview assignments and threshold changes without navigating away from the configuration view.
Introducing the artboard approach gave users the flexibility to move around the matrix and zoom in/out efficiently as opposed to the previously used scrollbar view. Keyboard interactions allowed better accessibility. Adding multiple axis became easier.
3. Introduced interactive colour configuration
Colouring a 20×20 matrix went from 400 individual clicks to a single click-and-drag. Users don't have to click on every box to colour the matrix cells, click-and-drag interactive cursor allows users to make quick changes like a classic painting tool.
4. Draw risk threshold lines via cursor
I replaced the form-filling approach with a hover-based cursor interaction, letting users set risk lines by clicking the pen icon and drawing them directly on the matrix. On hovering over the cells, users can see the corresponding X and Y axis values, allowing them to make more informed decisions.
Impact & Reflection
